Michal Pivoà Âka (born 28 January 1966) is a Czech former professional ice hockey player. He played his entire National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Washington Capitals. Selected by the Capitals in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft, Pivoà Âka defected to the United States during the summer of 1986. Over his 13 seasons with the Capitals, Pivoà Âka tallied 181 goals and 418 assists for a total of 599 points. At his retirement, he held the title for most assists in franchise history. , he ranks fourth behind John Carlson, Nicklas Backstrom, and Alexander Ovechkin.
Pivoà Âka was born on 28 January 1966, in Kladno, Czechoslovakia, to Magdalena and Lubomir Pivoà Âka. He came from a middle-class family in Czechoslovakia as his father was a track and field coach and his mother was a secretary.
As a teenager, Pivoà Âka played hockey full-time in Prague while officially being employed by a local steel company. His salary of 45,600 koruna a year officially came from his employment with the steel company. However, his salary significantly decreased when he was conscripted into the Czechoslovak Army. Due to the mandatory conscription rules, Pivoà Âka spent two seasons with the Army team Dukla-Jihlava. Despite remaining in Czechoslovakia, Pivoà Âka gained the attention of teams from the National Hockey League and was heavily pursued by the Washington Capitals.
After finding out from a Czech coach that he had been drafted in the 1984 NHL entry draft by the Capitals, Pivoà Âka became determined to defect to the United States and play in the NHL. Pivoà Âka first met with Capitals scout Jack Button in August 1984 at a hunting lodge in northern Sweden. His numerous meetings with Button happened in secret due to Czechoslovakia's tendency to reject young players' permission to play in North America. If he had been caught defecting, or seeking to defect, he would have been sent to prison. In his final meeting with Capitals executives, Button handed Pivoà Âka a split-up $5 bill and told him not to talk with anyone claiming to be associated with the club unless they had the other half.
Despite being drafted in 1984, Pivoà Âka remained in Czechoslovakia for another two years to finish his army term and leave with his fiance Renata. Due to the dangers of being caught, Pivoà Âka was unable to inform his family of his decision before leaving. On 7 July 1986, Pivoà Âka and Renata left Prague, telling their families they were going on vacation in Yugoslavia, where they secretly met with a contact who helped them cross the border to rural Italy. After meeting with Washington Capitals executives, Pivoà Âka and Renata then visited the Embassy of the United States in Rome and were granted tentative refugee status in the United States almost immediately. As he would not receive his first paycheque until 15 October 1986, Pivoà Âka and Renata rented a two-bedroom apartment and bought a car using money from his signing bonuses. In the end, the main repercussion Pivoà Âka's family suffered as a result of his defection was that his father was demoted from head coach to assistant coach of track and field.
Pivoà Âka immediately made an impact upon joining the Capitals for the 1986âÂÂ87 season by scoring four goals and five assists through his first nine games. His first NHL goal came on 14 October 1986 in a 7âÂÂ6 win over the New York Rangers. As a result of his overall play, Pivoà Âka was the runner up for the NHL's Rookie of the Month of October. By the start of November 1986, Pivoà Âka led the Capitals in scoring with 14 points through 14 games and ranked second among all rookies. However, as the NHL season was longer than the Czechoslovakia one, his production soon began to dip. After adding only three goals and four assists to his points total by the end of November, head coach Bryan Murray said Pivoà Âka was playing "like the rookie I thought he would start out as." In an effort to improve his play, the Capitals coaching staff moved Pivoà Âka from center to left wing in January 1987. Shortly after scoring his 17th goal of the season, Pivoà Âka suffered an ankle injury in a game against the Boston Bruins on 7 March and missed a few games to recover. Despite this, Pivoà Âka finished his rookie regular-season with 18 goals and 25 assists to rank eighth among rookies in scoring. As the Capitals qualified for the 1987 Stanley Cup playoffs, Pivoà Âka participated in the Game 7 Patrick Division semifinals game against the New York Islanders. Nicknamed the Easter Epic, it was the longest Game 7 in Stanley Cup playoff history and required four overtimes to decide the winner. Pivoà Âka finished the playoffs with one goal and one assist over seven games.
However, Pivoà Âka struggled to match his rookie total in his sophomore season and finished the 1987âÂÂ88 season with 11 goals and 23 assists. After he similarly struggled through the first 14 games of the 1988âÂÂ89 season, Pivoà Âka was re-assigned to the Capitals American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Baltimore Skipjacks, in early November. He made an immediate impact with the Skipjacks by recording two points, including the game-winning goal, in his first game with the team.
The arrival of Peter Bondra to the Capitals in the 1990âÂÂ91 season resulted in back-to-back career highs for Pivoà Âka. While playing alongside Bondra and Dmitri Khristich, Pivoà Âka finished the regular-season with a career-high 70 points and tied Kevin Hatcher for the team lead in assists. Despite his career-high in points, Pivoà Âka experienced a lengthy scoring drought during the season that resulted in 14 games without a goal. This streak was broken on 11 January 1991 with two goals and an assist against the Calgary Flames. Pivoà Âka's efforts helped the Capitals qualify for the 1991 Stanley Cup playoffs, where they faced the New York Rangers in the first round. Despite suffering what team dentist Howard Salob described as "the worst injury I've seen" in Game 3, Pivoà Âka finished the series with four points over six games.
While Pivoà Âka started the 1991âÂÂ92 season separated from Bondra, the two were reunited on a line with Khristich by the end of October 1991. Before their reunification, Pivoà Âka had tallied five goals and 10 assists for 15 points. As the trio remained the Capitals' top offensive line through November, Pivoà Âka quickly added three goals and eight assists to his points total. Their efforts helped the Capitals maintain a winning record and lead the league. Pivoà Âka recorded his first NHL hat-trick in an 8âÂÂ6 loss to the New York Rangers on 26 December 1991. Pivoà Âka remained Bondra's linemate for the entirety of the season, which helped him lead the team in scoring with 23 goals and 57 assists. He continued his scoring prowess through the Capitals' first round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1992 Stanley Cup playoffs. After tallying one goal and three assists in Game 2, he finished the series with six points through seven games. Following the playoffs, Pivoà Âka and the Capitals settled their contract dispute that had arisen in March. Pivoà Âka and Bondra had accused the Capitals of misleading them when they signed their initial contract with the team and their new agent wanted their contracts voided. In the end, the Capitals signed Pivoà Âka to a $700,000 contract in the summer of 1992.
Pivoà Âka struggled to match his 80-point total in the 1992âÂÂ93 NHL season due to an early season injury that resulted in 15 missed games. After missing three games in early October with an injury, Pivoà Âka returned to the Capitals lineup on 21 October against the New York Rangers. However, he reaggravated his injury in the first period and missed the remainder of October and November. Once he recovered, Pivoà Âka was reunited on the "Euroline" with Bondra and Khristich and quickly amassed 40 points over 30 games. Pivoà Âka tallied three goals and three assists on a four-game road trip in February 1993 to help the Capitals set a new franchise record for consecutive road wins.
Under new head coach Jim Schoenfeld, the Capitals finished the 1993âÂÂ94 season in third place and faced off against the Penguins in the 1994 Stanley Cup playoffs. Pivoà Âka scored an empty-net goal in Game 6 to send the Capitals to the second round against the New York Rangers. However, Pivoà Âka and Bondra were both sidelined with injuries during the second round series and the Capitals fell to the Rangers in five games.
During Game 7 of the 1995 Eastern Conference quarterfinals, Pivoà Âka was suspended for the first three games of the 1995âÂÂ96 season and fined $1,000 for high-sticking defenseman Kjell Samuelsson. However, Pivoà Âka and Bondra missed the first few games of the 1995âÂÂ96 season anyways due to contract disputes with the Capitals. As a result, they both played with the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League (IHL) until their disputes were resolved. It was reported that Pivoà Âka was seeking a five-year, $7.5 million contract with the Capitals. Pivoà Âka scored one goal and nine assists with the Vipers before signing a multi-year contract with the Capitals on 20 October. Although he signed with the Capitals, Pivoà Âka was forced to miss the next three games due to his suspension the previous season. Upon returning to the Capitals lineup, Pivoà Âka and Bondra were reunited on a line and immediately overtook the team lead in scoring. By December, Pivoà Âka had amassed 22 points through 20 games and earned continuous praise from teammates and coaching staff. On 22 December 1995, Pivoà Âka recorded his 500th NHL point with an assist on Steve Konowalchuk's power-play goal. As the duo continued to garner attention around the league for their play, sportswriter Jim Kelley referred to the pairing as "magic" and compared them to the French Connection. While playing alongside Bondra, Pivoà Âka finished the 1995âÂÂ96 season leading the team with 65 assists and 81 points.
Pivoà Âka and Bondra were joined by Jason Allison on the Capitals first line to start the 1996âÂÂ97 season. Before suffering a knee injury at the end of October, Pivoà Âka had tallied two goals and three assists. While the injury was originally not considered to be serious, it was later revealed that Pivoà Âka would miss four to six weeks to recover. He struggled in his return to the Capitals lineup and scored one goal in his first 11 games back. His slow scoring began to raise concerns with vice president and general manager David Poile, who said: "We're not going anywhere unless Michal Pivonka gets better." In part due to his struggles, Pivoà Âka was moved off of a line with Bondra and began playing with Dale Hunter and Kelly Miller in January 1997. On 13 January 1997, Pivoà Âka tallied his 400th career NHL assist to help lift the Capitals to a win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. In another effort to improve his production, Pivoà Âka was shifted from centre to a winger position alongside Steve Konowalchuk and Joé Juneau. He quickly found success as a winger and tallied one goal and nine assists over 12 games. He finished the season with seven goals and 16 assists for a career-low 23 points.
Pivoà Âka suffered another injury near the start of the 1997âÂÂ98 season which resulted in numerous missed games. While the Capitals chose to protect Pivoà Âka from the 1998 NHL expansion draft, he would play only 36 more games with them before retiring.
As the Capitals struggled to trade Pivoà Âka due to his expensive contract, they assigned him to the Kansas City Blades of the IHL for the 1999âÂÂ2000 season. As he retired following the 1999âÂÂ2000 season, Pivoà Âka finished his NHL career with 181 goals and 418 assists through 825 games. At his retirement, he held the title for most assists in franchise history. , he ranks fourth behind John Carlson, Nicklas Backstrom, and Alexander Ovechkin.
Pivoà Âka and his wife Renata have three children together. Their son Jacob also plays ice hockey and was drafted by the New York Islanders in the 2018 NHL entry draft.