Every year, the Golden Hockey Stick is awarded to the best Czech hockey player in the world. This year, Ales Hemsky finished tenth in voting for the award, which broke down as follows:
- Patrik Elias (New Jersey): 428 points
- Jaromir Jagr (Avangard): 357 points
- Jan Marek (Magnitogorsk): 334 points
- David Krejci (Boston): 323 points
- Martin Straka (Plzen): 290 points
- Martin Havlat (Chicago): 281 points
- Jaroslav Bednar (Slavia Praha): 262 points
- Jiri Hudler (Detroit): 148 points
- Petr Cajanek (Moscow): 128 points
- Ales Hemsky (Edmonton): 110 points
The love for European-based players doesn't bother me, but any award where Jiri Hudler finishes ahead of Ales Hemsky has some issues.