Petr Kanko

Petr Kanko (born 7 February 1984) is a Czech former ice hockey right winger. He played 10 games in the National Hockey League with the Los Angeles Kings during the 2005–06 season. The rest of his career, which lasted from 2001 to 2022, was mainly spent in the Czech Extraliga and second-tier league.

Playing career
Petr Kanko came to North America in 2001 to play for the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL. He produced for the team right away, and was part of their Memorial Cup winning team of 2003. Five members of that team, including Kanko, have since gone on to play in the NHL. Also, he was drafted 66th overall by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.

Kanko graduated from the Kitchener Rangers in 2004 after scoring 68 points in 55 games for them. He moved on to the Manchester Monarchs of the AHL. It took him a while to get his bearings in the pros, in part to his small stature, but in the 2005–06 season he played well enough to get called up to the Kings. In his first game in the NHL on 16 December 2005 against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Kanko scored the game-tying goal in the third period that enabled the Kings to advance to the shootout, which they would win to take the game 4–3.