Martin Latal: one text and retirement halted for a final hurrah at Fife Flyers

A fluke collision during warm-up before the opening challenge game against Dundee Stars left him on the sidelines rather than on the ice. It also left him minus a tooth.

“It was frustrating because you want to get into shape for the season and get your spot in the team,” he said. “I’ve missed that over the last two weeks.” Latal is someone used to moving at speed. A lightning fast skater - his two seasons with Sheffield Steelers had fans debating whether he was the fastest ever forward to don an orange top - he also needed just one chat with coach Tom Coolen before deciding to bring the curtain down on his career with Fife Flyers.

Latal returns to UK ice hockey after a season with Polish outfit Cracovia Krakow after which he’d packed his skates away.

“I was done with hockey,” he said. “Basically I retired after the end of last season. I was sitting home and started to miss the game and called my agent. The next day Tom (Coolen) sent a text saying he wanted to talk. One phone call and I was in.”

Latal is no stranger to Fife having played here with Steelers across two seasons - “it’s one of the toughest places to come play in, the travel is tough and the fans are pretty much sitting next to you on the bench. That gets you going!

“I like it! It feels great coming here. I look around at the young players - I call them kids because some of them are 15 years younger. They bring the energy, and they think differently which is good. I want to compete and do the best I can. Sometimes it can be harder against the top teams who have big budget rosters and buy who they want, but I am here to do a job and we will do our best.” And a good season in Fife would be the best way to sign off from a career which dates back to his under-18 days in 2002-03; a career spent mostly in his native Czechnia.

Sheffield then came calling and gave him two fabulous years - “it was special, wee had a blast as a family and they treated us very well.”

But retiral will beckon. This, he said, is the final stop.“One million percent definitely my last year,” he said. “I feel I still can compete, but hockey is changing and this is it for me, for sure.”