Stan Smrke was a Canadian ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 forward

Forward (ice hockey)

In ice hockey, a forward is a player position on the ice whose primary responsibility is to score goals. Generally, the forwards try to stay in three different lanes, also known as thirds, of the ice going from goal to goal. It is not mandatory however, to stay in a lane. Staying in a lane aids in...

. He was born in Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

, Yugoslavia

Kingdom of Yugoslavia

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...

.

Smrke started his National Hockey League

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 career with the Montreal Canadiens

Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...

 in 1956. He played his entire NHL career (9 games) with the Habs. In this season, he scored a total of four assists before being dropped by the Habs. His final season in the NHL was the 1957–58 season. He then was sent to the minor leagues, and became a noted member of the Rochester Americans

Rochester Americans

The Rochester Americans are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League, and a top affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres. The team plays its home games in Rochester, New York, at the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial...

. Stan is currently ranked 5th of All Time in the Rochester Americans hall of fame. He fathered another Slovenian-Canadian hockey player by the name of John Smrke.

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