Former Montreal Canadiens center Tomas Plekanec will play his 24th season of professional hockey in 2023-2024.
On Monday, Kladno Knights, the Czech team he has been with since 2021-2022, announced they have awarded a new contract to the veteran, who turns 41 next October.
Plekanec was the Knights’ top scorer last season, recording 16 goals and 33 assists for 49 points in 52 games.
“Negotiations took a little longer but we are happy to have finally reached an agreement and Pleky will play another season with our jersey on their backs. We all know how important Pleky is to us,” Kladno club general manager Jiri Burger said in a statement.
Plekanec has been playing in the highest professional ice hockey league in his native Czech Republic since the 2018-2019 season. After 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), he made the leap to Kometa Brno.
The forward was a third-round pick (71st overall) by the Canadiens in the 2001 draft. He played 984 of his 1,001 NHL games for the Habs. Plekanec also briefly played for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2017-18. Overall, he had 233 goals and 375 assists for 608 points in the Bettman tournament.
At Kladno, Plekanec is not the oldest player at the club. Jaromir Jagr, who owns the team, is still in the squad at 51.