Vitek Vanecek didn't touch the ice once during the Florida Panthers' successful run in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but he's a champion nonetheless.
The former Washington Capitals netminder had his day with the Cup on Wednesday, arriving in his hometown of Havlíčkův Brod, Czechia, in the back of a large Tatra truck in honor of his father.
Vanecek was joined for the celebrations by his Panthers and Czech teammate Tomas Nosek, who brought the Cup to his hometown of Pardubice on Tuesday.
"It was pretty special, I finally got it here," Nosek told NHL.com. "To be able to enjoy it with my family and closest friends, something unforgettable, and I will remember it for the rest of my life."
The pair marked the occasion further by getting matching Stanley Cup tattoos, which they showed off on stage in Havlíček Square in front of roughly a thousand fans, per NHL.com's Anna Kulesa.
"Stanley Cup is the one and only, and the NHL is the best league in the world," Vanecek told Kulesa. "In Florida, I had a great opportunity to see what it takes to win it. One mistake and it can be all gone. Many great players never won the Cup. And I was so lucky to be on the winning team."
Vanecek started seven total games for the Panthers during the 2024-25 regular season, logging a 2-4-1 record with a 3.00 goals-against average, a .890 save percentage, and one shutout. The 29-year-old backstop began the year with the San Jose Sharks before being traded to Florida in March.
NHL requirements state that a player must have played in at least 41 regular-season games or at least one Stanley Cup Final game for the winning team to be eligible to have their name engraved on the trophy. However, backup goaltenders are counted even if they do not see the ice, as they still dress for games, so Vanecek's name was engraved on the Cup in July.
Vanecek is not the first Czech player to bring the Stanley Cup to Havlíčkův Brod. Former Carolina Hurricanes forward Josef Vasicek brought it to the city in 2006. He later tragically died in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash in 2011.
"It means a lot to me," Vanecek told NHL.com. "I know Josef Vasicek was the first guy to ever bring the Cup to this town, and we still have the photo with the Cup and me as a kid in the basement. Unfortunately, that [the crash] happened. But I am glad that I was able to bring the Cup to my hometown as well."
Vanecek is now also the second former Capitals player from Czechia to get a tattoo after winning the Stanley Cup. His best friend Jakub Vrana, who won it in 2018, got his own on his left wrist with teammate Andre Burakovsky while drunk celebrating.
"Hit me with the f*cking puck because it hurts so bad. This is crazy. This hurts so bad," Vrana hilariously groaned in a video of him getting inked back then.
Vaneck signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract with the Utah Mammoth on July 1, making the Mammoth the fifth team of his NHL career, which began in 2020 - six years after he was drafted 39th overall by the Capitals in 2014.