One Game Wonders: Robert Dome

In the history of the Flames franchise, 606 players have tugged a red sweater over their heads and suited up for a regular season game. Of those, 22 played just a single game for either the Calgary or Atlanta Flames. We call them One Game Wonders.

Let’s talk about another One Game Wonder, Robert Dome.

Dome’s story is very uniquely ’90s hockey. A product of Slovakia, he came to North America in 1995 at the ripe old age of 16 to play pro hockey in the old International Hockey League – Patrik Stefan did something similar. Dome played for Utah, Long Beach and Las Vegas before being drafted. He was selected in the first round, 17th overall, by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1997 NHL Draft.

From there, Dome’s path got a bit wonky. He made the Penguins out of camp in 1997-98 (as a 19-year-old) and bounced between there and the minors all season – he had seven points in 30 games. He spent the next season in the AHL, then spent more time in the NHL in 1999-2000 (as a 21-year-old) and had seven points in 22 games. The following season he was loaned to the Czech league to get his swagger back and when he returned, he was basically the same guy in the AHL as he was before.

So Dome went to free agency and signed a two year pact with the Flames. He was a point-per-game player with the Saint John Flames in 2002-03 and seemed to have turned a corner. With Mattias Johansson banged up midway though the season, he was called up to Calgary. On Jan. 13, 2003, he played against Montreal… for 8:23. He had a shot on goal and was even in a Flames loss. The next night in Toronto Johansson returned and Dome was scratched and returned to the minors.

Dome began the next season with the Flames’ shared AHL affiliate in Lowell but even after starting the season at a point-per-game pace he probably didn’t see a path to the bigs. (Aside: the Flames players generally got less ice time than Carolina’s prospects on that team.) So Dome got out of his contract and headed to Sweden. He spent the rest of the decade bouncing around between Sweden, Germany and Slovakia before retiring in 2010. He won championships in the SHL and Slovakian Extraliga as a player, and then tried something new.

Since retiring, he’s been quietly developing a pretty nice coaching resume in Sweden, most recently signing to coach AIK’s U16 team for the upcoming season. He was a good minor league and European pro player, but just couldn’t break through into the NHL ranks full-time. Maybe he can do it as a coach.