Peter Bondra

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Drafted by the Capitals at the age of 22 in 1990, Bondra made the team in his rookie season with no time needed in the minor leagues. He recorded 12 goals in his rookie season before quickly becoming a productive scorer for the Capitals for the next decade, which saw him record thirteen consecutive 20-goal seasons with the team. He is one of the few players who scored five or more goals in one NHL game, having done so on 5 February 1994. He became the first Capitals player to lead the NHL in goals scored for a season, doing so in and . Bondra helped lead the Capitals to their first ever Stanley Cup Final appearance in 1998. In the 2002 IIHF World Championship, representing the Slovakia national team, he scored the game-winning goal to win the world championship for the first time ever. By the time he was traded by Washington in the middle of the season, he was the all-time team leader in goals (472) and points (825) in franchise history. After spending the latter half of the 2004 season with the Ottawa Senators and the ensuing NHL lockout, Bondra returned to the NHL for the season with the Atlanta Thrashers, where he had his fourteenth straight 20-goal season. He joined the Chicago Blackhawks in free agency for the season. On 22 December 2006, Bondra became the 37th player in National Hockey League (NHL) history to score 500 NHL goals. He retired after the season ended to become the general manager of the Slovakia national team, where he served until 2011. Currently, he works for the Capitals in as their Director of Alumni Affairs & Business Development. A scorer of 503 goals in 1,081 games, Bondra is one of four eligible 500-goal players not currently in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He has the fewest points among all players who reached that milestone, with 892, making him one of only two (with Maurice Richard) 500-goal scorers not on the list of NHL players with 1,000 points. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2016.

In Their Own Story

The tension peaked in Game 3 of the 1998 Conference Finals against the Buffalo Sabres when Bondra scored the overtime winner to keep Washington's hopes alive. He later added a tying goal in Game 6, sending the Capitals to their first-ever Stanley Cup Final for the first time in franchise history. Although he was limited by a sprained ankle in the opening round and only managed one goal and five assists in the Final sweep by Detroit Red Wings, his seven goals in 17 playoff games stood as career postseason highs. The emotional toll of the franchise's shifts was visible when Bondra broke into tears at the press conference announcing his trade to the Ottawa Senators for Brooks Laich and a second-round pick during the 2003–04 season. Even after moving to Atlanta, he achieved his fourteenth straight 20-goal season in 2005–06 before joining Chicago, where on December 22, 2006, he became the 37th player in NHL history to reach 500 goals.

Reader's Guide

Bondra was born on 7 February 1968 in , Lutsk Raion, Ukraine, which was then a part of the Soviet Union. Bondra's father (a Slovak) had moved to Lutsk from Jakubany, Czechoslovakia, when he was 16, and where he met his wife (a Pole). The parents moved with Peter and his two older brothers, Juraj and Vladimír, to Poprad, Czechoslovakia when Peter was three years old. His father died in 1982. Bondra was a Soviet citizen when he arrived in the United States, later obtaining a Slovak passport and citizenship in 1993 before the start of the 1994 Winter Olympics qualifying tournament. He played one season for HK Poprad in the lower ranks of Czechoslovak league competition and transferred to VSŽ Košice in the First Division at the age of 18 in 1986. His older brother Juraj also played there on defense, having already won one championship title with the team the year before. As early as his second season with Košice, Peter was considered one of the top shooters in the Czechoslovak league, and won the league championship together with his brother in 1988. It was longtime Washington Capitals scout Jack Button who spotted Bondra (then in his fourth season in 1989) while scouting the team that got him to convince team GM David Poile to draft Bondra and approach him about playing for them. Bondra was drafted by the Washington Capitals in the 1990 NHL entry draft as the 156th overall pick, and he made the team out of training camp with no time spent in the minor leagues. Due to the language barrier, he became good friends with Ukrainian-born Capitals player Dmitri Khristich, with whom he conversed in both Russian and Ukrainian. The right winger in Bondra was paired alongside fellow Slovak Michal Pivoňka at center that saw them team up for six full seasons and 723 combined points together from 1990 to 1996. Bondra scored his first NHL goal on 17 October 1990 when he scored on Chris Terreri of the New Jersey Devils. On 5 February 1994, Bondra scored five goals against the Tampa Bay Lightning at the USAir Arena, doing so in a span of 24 minutes (he holds the record for the fastest three, fastest four and fastest five goals in a game). He was the first Capital to have a five-goal game since Bengt-Åke Gustafsson; no Capitals player has had five goals in a game since Bondra. The season saw a lockout shorten the season to 48 games, but Bondra excelled with 34 goals (with 23 of t

Did You Know?

• Bondra scored five goals in one game on 5 February 1994 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
• He is one of four eligible 500-goal players not in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
• Bondra scored the game-winning goal in the 2002 IIHF World Championship semifinal, not the final, to help Slovakia win its first world championship.