Former Penguin Martin Straka joined the coaching staff of the Czech Republic's men's national team on Tuesday.
Straka was named an assistant coach along with Jaroslav Spacek, to work under new head coach Filip Pesan. The staff signed two-year contracts, which will cover the 2021 World Championship in Minsk and Riga, the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and the 2022 World Championship in Finland.
The trio will work under former Penguin Petr Nedved, who has been general manager of the Czech national team since 2018.
Straka has been the general manager and owner of Czech club HC Plzen since 2009, and coached the team from 2016-18. Spacek, the other assistant coach hired by the national team, has been Plzen's assistant coach since 2012.
"A new experience I'm looking forward to," Straka told Plzen's website of joining the national team staff. "Our task will be to provide (Pesan) with support and help to make it work. I look forward to working with him. He is a successful coach and we hope to be successful in the national team."
Both Czech players in the Penguins organization -- Dominik Simon and Radim Zohorna -- have represented the Czech Republic in international tournaments. Zohorna has so far only played for the national team in smaller tournaments like the Swedish Games, and Simon has played in the 2015 and 2019 World Championship tournaments, and centered the Czech's top line in the last tournament.
If Simon plays for the national team in the next two years, he'll be pretty familiar with the two new assistant coaches behind the bench. Simon signed with Plzen for his final season in the Czech Republic, in 2014-15, when Straka was general manager and Spacek was an assistant coach.
