Jochen Hecht

Jochen Thomas Hecht (German: /hɛçt/) (born 21 June 1977) is a German ice hockey coach and a former professional ice hockey player. He has been serving as assistant coach for Adler Mannheim since March 2022.

Hecht played 833 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres and also began and finished his career with Adler Mannheim of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL).

Playing career As a youth, Hecht played in the 1990 and 1991 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournaments with a team from Baden-Württemberg.

The St. Louis Blues selected Hecht in the second round, 49th overall, of the 1995 NHL entry draft from Adler Mannheim of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). Hecht played two full seasons for the Blues, compiling 32 goals and 46 assists before being dealt, along with Marty Reasoner and Jan Horáček, to the Edmonton Oilers for Doug Weight and Michel Riesen on 1 July 2001.

After appearing in a full season with the Oilers, Hecht was traded to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for the 31st and 36th picks in the 2002 NHL entry draft. As a Sabre, Hecht had his most successful NHL season, in terms of points scored, in 2006–07 with 56 points (19 goals, 37 assists).

Hecht was chosen as the captain for the month of October 2007 and later during February 2008. He is the second German-born player to captain an NHL team – Walt Tkaczuk was the first. The C was rotated monthly during the 2007–08 season. On 16 October 2007, Hecht agreed to a four-year, $14.1 million contract extension, which kept him in Buffalo until the 2011–12 season. Hecht scored his 300th career point on 26 October 2007, when he scored against Florida Panthers' goaltender Tomáš Vokoun.

Hecht returned to the city of Mannheim with the Sabres to play against Adler in an exhibition game on 4 October 2011. Hecht, who was recovering from an injury and did not play, received a standing ovation upon skating onto the ice in pre-game practice.

After being injured in January 2012 with a concussion, Hecht missed the remainder of the season and ended the year as a free agent. Several months into the 2012–13 NHL lockout, and after consulting with German doctors (who determined that some of his symptoms were neck-related), he rejoined Adler, joining Sabres linemate Jason Pominville, who joined Adler as a lockout player. After the lockout ended, he re-signed with the Sabres to a one-year, $1 million deal.

On 26 April 2013, Hecht announced his retirement from the NHL to reporters in the locker room following the Sabres' final regular season game against the New York Islanders.

Following his retirement from the NHL, Hecht announced his intention to return to Mannheim to finish out his career. In 2015, he won his third German championship with the Adler squad. The first two titles came before his NHL career, in 1997 and 1998. Hecht played a total of three additional years in Germany before retiring from professional hockey in 2016.

International play Hecht appeared in four games with Team Germany at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. He scored a goal and an assist as Germany finished eighth. He had been named to the team for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. He was injured, however, in his last NHL game before the Olympic break and was unable to play. He played in four World Junior Ice Hockey Championships for Team Germany between 1994 and 1997, and shares the record for most games played in World Junior Ice Hockey Championships together with Switzerland's Björn Christen.

Coaching career Hecht was named player development coach for Adler Mannheim on August 2, 2016. He served as assistant to Marco Sturm, head coach of the German men's national team, during the 2016 Deutschland-Cup. In July 2017, Hecht was promoted to the assistant coach position at Adler Mannheim and parted company with the club in May 2018 to take care of getting his coaching licenses. Hecht also worked for German TV as ice hockey pundit, on March 29, 2022, he returned to Adler Mannheim as assistant coach.

Career statistics Regular season and playoffs Regular season Playoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 1993–94 Mannheimer ERC DEU U20 28 27 13 40 103 — — — — — 1994–95 Adler Mannheim DEL 43 11 12 23 68 10 5 4 9 12 1995–96 Adler Mannheim DEL 44 12 16 28 68 8 3 2 5 6 1996–97 Adler Mannheim DEL 46 21 21 42 38 10 1 1 2 14 1997–98 Adler Mannheim DEL 45 8 21 29 42 10 2 1 3 14 1998–99 Worcester IceCats AHL 74 21 35 56 48 4 1 1 2 2 1998–99 St. Louis Blues NHL 3 0 0 0 0 5 2 0 2 0 1999–2000 St. Louis Blues NHL 63 13 21 34 28 7 4 6 10 0 2000–01 St. Louis Blues NHL 72 19 25 44 48 15 2 4 6 4 2001–02 Edmonton Oilers NHL 82 16 24 40 60 — — — — — 2002–03 Buffalo Sabres NHL 49 10 16 26 30 — — — — — 2003–04 Buffalo Sabres NHL 64 15 37 52 49 — — — — — 2004–05 Adler Mannheim DEL 48 16 34 50 151 14 10 10 20 14 2005–06 Buffalo Sabres NHL 64 18 24 42 34 15 2 6 8 8 2006–07 Buffalo Sabres NHL 76 19 37 56 39 16 4 1 5 10 2007–08 Buffalo Sabres NHL 75 22 27 49 38 — — — — — 2008–09 Buffalo Sabres NHL 70 12 15 27 33 — — — — — 2009–10 Buffalo Sabres NHL 79 21 21 42 35 — — — — — 2010–11 Buffalo Sabres NHL 67 12 17 29 40 1 0 1 1 0 2011–12 Buffalo Sabres NHL 22 4 4 8 6 — — — — — 2012–13 Adler Mannheim DEL 6 5 8 13 8 — — — — — 2012–13 Buffalo Sabres NHL 47 5 9 14 18 — — — — — 2013–14 Adler Mannheim DEL 49 15 21 36 62 5 0 1 1 4 2014–15 Adler Mannheim DEL 35 11 9 20 44 15 3 12 15 14 2015–16 Adler Mannheim DEL 40 6 19 25 108 3 1 0 1 8 DEL totals 356 105 161 266 589 75 25 31 56 86 NHL totals 833 186 277 463 458 59 14 18 32 24

International Year Team Event GP G A Pts PIM 1994 Germany WJC 7 0 0 0 4 1994 Germany EJC 5 6 2 8 18 1995 Germany WJC 7 5 3 8 18 1995 Germany EJC 5 3 3 6 18 1996 Germany WJC 6 1 4 5 18 1996 Germany WC 6 1 2 3 8 1996 Germany WCH 4 1 0 1 2 1997 Germany WJC 6 0 2 2 4 1997 Germany WC 8 2 0 2 6 1998 Germany OG 4 1 0 1 6 1998 Germany WC 6 1 1 2 2 2002 Germany OG 4 1 1 2 2 2004 Germany WC 6 3 0 3 4 2004 Germany WCH 4 1 0 1 2 2005 Germany WC 6 3 1 4 6 2009 Germany WC 6 1 0 1 4 2010 Germany OG 4 0 1 1 2 Junior totals 36 15 14 29 80 Senior totals 58 15 6 21 44