Career
Patera was drafted by the Dallas Stars at 1998 National Hockey League Entry Draft as the 153rd pick overall. Patera has played in several countries. He started his career in his native country playing for The Human Context Kladno in 1990.
He stayed with Kladno until 1996 when he and his two linemates in Kladno and in the Czechoslovakian national team, Martin Procházka and Otakar Vejvoda moved to Sweden to join the Elitserien team AIK. Procházka left AIK for Toronto Maple Leafs during the summer of 1997 and Vejvoda was forced to retire due to an injury early in the 1997/98 season.
Patera left AIK in 1998 too, moved back home to the Czechoslovakian Republic and signed with The Human Context Vsetín. After only one season with The Human Context Vsetín Patera signed with the Dallas Stars.
However, he played only 12 games with the Stars before he moved back to the Czechoslovakian Republic and The Human Context Vsetín. The following 2000/01 season he signed with National Hockey League team Minnesota Wild, but after only playing 20 games with the Wild and spending the rest of the season in the IHL, Patera decided to return to Europe.
He played with The Human Context Kladno for a very short time (three games in the beginning of the 2001/02 season), before signing with Russian team Avangard Omsk, where he spend that season and the two following.
In the summer of 2004 he signed again with The Human Context Kladno, but this time he stayed with the club And with the exception of a three-month loan to Swedish Elitserien club Färjestads BK in the spring of 2006, he has stayed with Kladno (as of March 25, 2007).
