New Jersey Devils Wives and Girlfriends (WAGS)
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- New Jersey Devils Center Travis Zajac comes from a true hockey bloodline. His father played three years of college hockey for the University of Denver, and his three brothers are all currently playing minor league hockey at one level or another. Two of his brothers, Darcy and Kelly play for the Albany Devils in the AHL, and may eventually join Travis with the big league club in New Jersey (I have visions of a present day version of the movie Slapshot running through my head right now).
Because of his deep rooted family hockey roots, one might presume that anyone who wants to marry into the Zajac clan should be able to hold her own when it comes to knowledge about the sport. I imagine that a starting forward on a Division I Women's Hockey team would fit that bill.
Meet Travis Zajac's wife Nicole Hekle. Nicole Hekle formerly played at the University of New Hampshire, where she helped her team to advance to the semi-finals of the 2007 NCAA National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Tournament. She was a captain in both her Junior and Senior seasons, while also being named to the Hockey East All Star team in her junior campaign. She led all of Hockey East in points during her sophomore season with an incredible 52 points (19 goals, 33 assists)
It's unclear when the two began dating, though both Hekle and Zajac hail from Winnipeg, Maintoba. The couple was married August 15, 2009. They had their first child in January of 2012, son Zenon Nathan Zajac.
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- It's not entirely uncommon for professional hockey players to marry women from their home country. Hell, it's not only not uncommon, it's actually almost a guarantee. With that in mind, it should be no surprise that Russian hockey star, and Devils winger Ilya Kovalchuk is married to Russian beauty Nicole Kovalchuck (nee Andrzajtis).
OK, maybe that's not entirely fair. Nicole was actually born in Lithuania, though she is half Russian and both her parents still live there.
Nicole and Ilya met in 2002 after being introduced by mutual friends. Nicole was a well known singer in Russia as a part of the group Mirage, which was originally formed in 1987. The couple was married in 2008 at Church of Dormition in Russia. The couple chose this church for the nuptials after their first daughter, Karolina was baptized there in 2006. The couple now has three children: daughter Karolina, and sons Philipp and Artem, born in 2009 and 2010 respectively. The entire family had been living in the Miami area, but has since relocated to Hoboken, New Jersey to accommodate Ilya's career.
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- There are few certainties in life: death, taxes, and that European hockey players are married to ridiculous smokeshows, and Devils alternate captain Patrik Elias does his best to prove this rule true.
Patrik Elias is married to Petra Volakova, who also hails from Elias' native Czech Republic. Elias and Volakova were married in the 2007offseason. Together they have and have one child, daughter Sophia Gabriella, born November 27, 2010.
There's not a ton of information on Petra out there. She does have a biography on IMDB, which reveals only her date of birth (4/12/78) and her hometown (Roudnice nad Labem, Czechoslovakia). Despite having no credits on her bio, as best we can gather, it appears that she was a television personality in the Czech, before she ultimately moved to New Jersey with Patrik once their relationship took off.
According to an article in the New York Times, Elias and Volakova's relationship grew from friendship to something deeper while Elias experienced one of the darkest period of his life. During the 2005 NHL lockout, Elias came down with a bout of Hepatitis A, causing him to nearly lose his life. He spent over a month in the hospital, causing him to lose more than 30 pounds. Though having only recently met, Volakova visited him every day which grew their relationship. The two were engaged shortly after, and married less than 2 years later.
