NHL Wives and Girlfriends (WAGS)
GD Star Rating
loading...
Photos
The Story
- While the Phoenix Coyotes continued their improbable playoff run, they have the requisite veteran leader to look to in Ray Whitney.
Whitney has bounced around the NHL, despite being a solid contributing player. Despite multiple teams, there's always been one person consistently been interested in Ray Whitney: his wife Brijet Whitney. When Ray made the All-Star team in 2000, he revealed that his vacation plans would need to be cancelled but that it wouldn’t be a problem wife Brijet. “You kidding? She's a Canadian girl ... A Fort Saskatchewan girl. She chased me in high school."
The childhood sweethearts married later that year in the 2000 offseason and now have 3 children (Hanna, Harper and Hudson). For as much as Brijet has been there for her husband, he really had to step up his game in 2002. Brijet was pregnant with their first child when she required an emergency c-section and almost died during the birth. This really impacted Ray, and through his own words to the Sun Sentinel, “I've changed how I look at life in general."
Brijet herself is a very talented dancer and choreographer and has choreographed dances in both Canada and the United States. She also has a charitable side, including helping to create the Love for Lokomotiv initiative last year following the plane crash that killed an entire Russian hockey team. No stranger to tragedy herself, she was not surprisingly quick to offer her assistance.
GD Star Rating
loading...
Photos
The Story
- 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.
GD Star Rating
loading...
Photos
The Story
- Spearheading Phoenix’s surprising run to the Western Conference finals is goalie Mike Smith. Seriously, the guy is stopping everything in site, posting three shutouts so far.
Smith is clearly a very talented goalie, and his wife is no slouch in the athletic department either. He is married to former Canadian Olympic skier Brigitte Acton. What’s that, you’ve never heard of her before? That is likely because her highest finish was 6th. Still, just making the Olympics is a huge accomplishment, and for that we give her props.
Smith and Acton met back in 2006 at a golf tournament hosted by Marty Turco, who Smith backing up at the time. In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Smith talked about their first meeting:"She was playing in the group in front of me. I saw the blond hair and kind of gave her a hard time all day. She liked it. I don't know why. … She's a pretty good golfer. If I had her tee game, I'd be unbelievable. She can get off the tee, but her irons aren't very good. I can't get off the tee, but I can play with my irons”
Feel free to insert your own adult-themed joke here.
Smith, who is also Canadian, and Acton married on September 03, 2010 in Aspen, Colorado. The couple had their first child (son Aksel) in July 2011.
GD Star Rating
loading...
Photos
The Story
- 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.
