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Brent Sopel
Brent Sopel
Position Defence
Shoots Right
Nickname(s) Sopes
Height
Weight
6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
205 lb (93 kg)
KHL Team
F. Teams
Metallurg Novokuznetsk
Vancouver Canucks
New York Islanders
Los Angeles Kings
Chicago Blackhawks
Atlanta Thrashers
Montreal Canadiens
Born (1977-01-07)January 7, 1977,
Calgary, AB, CAN
NHL Draft 144th overall, 1995
Vancouver Canucks
Pro Career 1997 – present

Brent Sopel (born January 7, 1977) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman currently playing for Metallurg Novokuznetsk in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

Playing career[]

Vancouver Canucks[]

MattCooke

Sopel (right) and Matt Cooke during warm-ups with the Vancouver Canucks in 2007.

On April 3, 1996, just under a year after being drafted, Sopel signed his first professional contract with his draft team, the Vancouver Canucks.[1] Sopel scored his first NHL goal on April 10, 1999 against the Edmonton Oilers' Tommy Salo.[2]

Sopel was traded back to the Canucks during their 2006–07 season, on February 1, 2007, the NHL trade deadline. He missed the first game of the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Dallas Stars after he injured his back picking a cracker up off the floor.[3] The Canucks beat the Stars in quadruple overtime, in the sixth longest game in NHL history.[4]

New York Islanders[]

On August 3, 2005, the Canucks traded Sopel to the New York Islanders for a conditional draft pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.[5] On August 16, just under a week after being traded, Sopel signed a two-year, $4.8-million dollar with the Islanders.[6]

Chicago Blackhawks[]

Heading into the 2007–08 season with no contract, Sopel was invited to the Detroit Red Wings' training camp.[7] However, on September 28, 2007, Sopel left Red Wings camp, signing a one-year, $1.5-million contract with the Chicago Blackhawks after the Red Wings had only offered a one-year, $500,000 contract.[8] On January 10, 2008, Sopel signed a 3-year, $7-million contract extension with the Blackhawks, keeping him in Chicago through to the 2010-11 NHL season. On June 9, 2010, Brent Sopel won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks.

In June 2010, Sopel brought the team's recently won Stanley Cup to the 2010 Chicago Gay Pride Parade. Sopel brought the Cup to the parade in honor of the late Brendan Burke, son of his former boss in Vancouver, Brian, to display it in the Chicago Gay Pride Parade,[9] stating to the press that honoring Burke's legacy and his father's example of familial support and tolerance was one of his reasons for marching in the parade. Although he was the team's representative, contrary to popular belief, Sopel did not use his personal day with it in the parade.

Atlanta Thrashers[]

On June 23, 2010, Sopel was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers along with Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, and Akim Aliu, for the 24th (Kevin Hayes) and 54th overall picks (Justin Holl) in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, Marty Reasoner, Joey Crabb, and Jeremy Morin.[10]

Montreal Canadiens[]

After playing 59 games for Atlanta, registering 2 goals and 7 points, he was traded to the Montreal Canadiens along with Nigel Dawes for Ben Maxwell and a 4th-round draft pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft on February 24, 2011.[11]

Kontinental Hockey League[]

On July 29, 2011, Sopel announced that he had signed a 2 year contract with Metallurg Novokuznetsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).[12]

Personal life[]

Although born in Calgary, Sopel grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in the city's Silverwood Heights neighborhood, where he attended Sister O'Brien School and Marion M. Graham Collegiate. Brent is married to Kelly since 2001. They have 2 sons; Paul & Jacob and 2 daughters; Lyla & Jayla.[13] Lyla has been diagnosed with dyslexia and dysgraphia, like Brent.[14] Paul was adopted in 2007, when he was 17 years old. His parents, who were family friends of the Sopels, both died in a short period of time. Brent and Kelly thought it would be best if they took care of him. Sopel and his family currently reside in Chicago.[15]

Awards[]

  • 2002NHL Player of the Week (January 21 – 27)
  • 2010 – Won Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks

Transactions[]

References[]

  1. Jamieson, Jim. "Sports", The Province, 1996-04-04. Retrieved on 2007-10-22. 
  2. Jamieson, Jim. "Canucks wear ugly tie", The Province, 1999-04-11. Retrieved on 2007-10-22. 
  3. Ziemer, Brad. "Sopel's heard enough cracker jokes", The Vancouver Sun, 2007-04-13. Retrieved on 2007-09-29. 
  4. Heika, Mike. "Stars lose to Canucks in fourth OT", The Dallas Morning News, 2007-04-12. Retrieved on 2007-09-29. 
  5. Pap, Elliott. "Brent Sopel moves on to New York Islanders", The Vancouver Sun, 2005-08-04. Retrieved on 2007-10-22. 
  6. "Sopel signs on", The Province, 2005-08-17. Retrieved on 2007-10-22. 
  7. Hunter, Paul. "A Leaf training camp hopeful", Toronto Star, 2007-09-16. Retrieved on 2007-09-29. 
  8. Sassone, Tim. "Sopel's poise big part of Hawks' early success", Daily Herald, 2007-10-17. Retrieved on 2007-10-22. 
  9. "Sports' most macho trophy shows new kind of pride", ChicagoTribune.com, June 25, 2010. Retrieved on 27 June 2010. Archived from the original on 29 June 2010. 
  10. Blackhawks send Byfuglien to Thrashers. NHL.com. Retrieved on 2010-06-27.
  11. Habs Acquire Sopel, Dawes from Thrashers for Maxwell, Pick. TSN (2011-02-24). Retrieved on 2011-02-24.
  12. Kovalev, Sopel to play in KHL: report. CBC Sports (2011-07-29). Retrieved on 2011-07-29.
  13. http://thrashers.nhl.com/club/player.htm?id=8462176&view=bio
  14. http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=542743
  15. http://thrashers.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=539694

External links[]

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Brent Sopel. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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