The former Nhler Tomas Kloucek is passed due to a ski accident

On Monday it was reported that former NHL defender Tomas Kloucek died of the consequences of a ski accident. He was 45 years old.

According to a story of Hokej.cz, Kloucek's death was confirmed by his wife on her Instagram page.

According to reports, Kloucek rose to a power pole on the edge of the slope in Špindlerův Mlýn, a popular ski area in the northern part of the Czech Republic near the Polish border. He died on the spot of his injuries.

One of Kloucek's former teams, Oceláři Třinec of the Czech Extraliga, praised him on social media.

“We were met by sad news – Tomáš Klouček died after a tragic accident,” the team scored on X. “The hard defender played a total of 90 games for us. We wish his family and his relatives a lot of strength. Our sincere condolences.”

After Kloucek had played through the ranks in his home country after his homeland Slawia Praha, he was recorded in the fifth round of 131st by the New York Rangers in the 1998 in 1998. After a season with Cape Breton, Kloucek screamed his NHL debut with the blues shirts in the 2000-01 season.

Kloucek spent parts of three seasons with the Rangers before he was traded to Nashville Predators in the middle of the 2002/03 campaign. The following year he was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers and would end the North American part of his professional career in the minors in 2007.

From there, Kloucek returned to the Czech Republic for a season to play for HC Ziln before playing with Barys Astana from the Continental Hockey League from 2008 to 2011. In the next few years he hopped through Europe, including winning the Slovak Extraliga Championship in 2014. He ended his game days with the French Club Epinal in 2016-17.

In 141 NHL games, Kloucek scored two goals and eight templates for 10 points. He also played 258 games in the AHL and played for Hartford, the Milwaukee Admirals, Chicago Wolves and Syracuse Crunch and scored seven goals and 39 points, including six points in 33 calder Cup playoff.