Sports
 

Pavol Demitra

An Ice Hockey Wiki article.

Position Centre
Shoots Left
Height
Weight 		6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
200 lb (91 kg)
NHL Team
F. Teams 		Vancouver Canucks
Minnesota Wild
Los Angeles Kings
St. Louis Blues
Ottawa Senators
Nationality Slovakia
Born November 29 1974 (1974-11-29) (age 35),
Dubnica nad Váhom, Czechoslovakia
NHL Draft 227th overall, 1993
Ottawa Senators
Pro Career 1993 – present


Pavol Demitra (born November 29, 1974) is a Slovak professional ice hockey centre currently playing for the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Since joining the league in 1993, he has also played with the Ottawa Senators, with whom he was originally drafted, St. Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings and Minnesota Wild. Before he joined the NHL, Demitra played in his native Slovakia, as well as the American Hockey League (AHL) and International Hockey League (IHL), minor professional leagues in North America. In Demitra's NHL career spanning 16 years, he has achieved the 300-goal mark and won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship in 2000.

Contents

[edit] Playing career

After playing in the Czechoslovak Extraliga with Dubnica and HC Dukla Trenčín for two years, Pavol Demitra was drafted in the ninth round, 227th overall, by the Ottawa Senators in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. Demitra would play the majority of the next three seasons for Ottawa's American Hockey League affiliate, the Prince Edward Island Senators, making brief appearances in the NHL. In 1995–96, Demitra scored 81 points in the AHL in 48 games.

To start the 1996–97 season Demitra was a contract hold-out with Ottawa, instead playing with the Las Vegas Thunder. The hold-out led to a trade in November 1996 to the St. Louis Blues for Christer Olsson. Demitra would continue to play in the minor leagues with St. Louis' IHL affiliates, the Grand Rapids Griffins before beginning to play full-time with the Blues in 1997–98. The following season, in 1998–99, he emerged as an NHL star, appearing in his first NHL All-Star Game as part of a 37-goal, 89-point campaign. He made two more All-Star Game appearances with the Blues in 2000 and 2002 as well. Demitra won the Lady Byng Trophy in 2000 after recording eight penalty minutes. In 2002–03, he recorded career highs in goals (36), assists (57), and points (93), while finishing sixth in league scoring.

Pavol Demitra with the Los Angeles Kings.

As NHL play was halted in 2004–05 due to the lockout, he returned to Trenčín (now of the Slovak Extraliga), signing with the team on September 17, 2004. Demitra scored 82 points in 54 games. When NHL play was set to resume the next season, he joined the Los Angeles Kings as an unrestricted free agent on August 2, 2005, signing a three-year, $13.5 million contract. Demitra left the Blues fifth in franchise all-time scoring with 493 points in 494 games. In his only season with the Kings, Demitra scored 62 points while limited to just 58 games due to health problems that included an eye injury.

Following the 2005–06 season, he was traded to the Minnesota Wild on draft day in exchange for Patrick O'Sullivan and Edmonton's first round draft choice in 2006 (Trevor Lewis) on June 24, 2006. Playing with the Wild, he teamed up with fellow Slovak Marian Gaborik and recorded 64 points in 2006–07 and 54 points in 2007–08. As part of the Wild's rotating captaincy, he was named the team captain for the month of October 2007.

When Demitra became an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2007–08 season, he became known publicly that his first choice was the Vancouver Canucks. On July 10, 2008, he signed a two-year, $8 million contract with Vancouver. He scored his first goal as a Canuck on October 11, a game-winning overtime goal against the Calgary Flames. Several games later, on October 19, in a game against the Chicago Blackhawks, Demitra suffered a rib cartilage fracture. He returned on November 15 versus the Toronto Maple Leafs, picking up three assists in his first game back. Demitra suffered another injury on January 18, 2009, in a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, with a groin pull. After a short absence, he returned to the lineup to score his 300th career NHL goal a couple of months later on March 31, 2009 – an intended pass that deflected off Wild defenceman Kim Johnsson in front of the net – in a 2–1 win. He completed his first Canucks season with 20 goals and 53 points, playing mostly on the second line with Ryan Kesler and Mats Sundin. Demitra went on to record 3 points in 6 playoff games, missing the Canucks' final 4 games of the second round against the Chicago Blackhawks due to a shoulder injury after an attempted hit on defenceman Brian Campbell. He then underwent shoulder surgery in the off-season for a torn labrum.

[edit] Awards and achievements

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] Regular season and playoffs

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1991–92 ZTS Dubnica CSFR-2 28 13 10 23 12 — — — — —
1992–93 ZTS Dubnica CSFR-2 4 3 0 3 2 — — — — —
1992–93 HC Dukla Trenčín Czech 46 10 18 28 — — — — — —
1993–94 Ottawa Senators NHL 12 1 1 2 4 — — — — —
1993–94 PEI Senators AHL 41 18 23 41 8 — — — — —
1994–95 Ottawa Senators NHL 16 4 3 7 0 — — — — —
1994–95 PEI Senators AHL 61 26 48 74 23 5 0 7 7 0
1995–96 Ottawa Senators NHL 31 7 10 17 6 — — — — —
1995–96 PEI Senators AHL 48 28 53 81 44 — — — — —
1996–97 HC Dukla Trenčín Slovak 1 1 1 2 — — — — — —
1996–97 Las Vegas Thunder IHL 22 8 13 21 10 — — — — —
1996–97 Grand Rapids Griffins IHL 42 20 30 50 24 — — — — —
1996–97 St. Louis Blues NHL 8 3 0 3 2 6 1 3 4 6
1997–98 St. Louis Blues NHL 61 22 30 52 22 10 3 3 6 2
1998–99 St. Louis Blues NHL 82 37 52 89 16 13 5 4 9 4
1999–00 St. Louis Blues NHL 71 28 47 75 8 — — — — —
2000–01 St. Louis Blues NHL 44 20 25 45 16 15 2 4 6 2
2001–02 St. Louis Blues NHL 82 35 43 78 46 10 4 7 11 6
2002–03 St. Louis Blues NHL 78 36 57 93 32 7 2 4 6 2
2003–04 St. Louis Blues NHL 68 23 35 58 18 5 1 0 1 4
2004–05 HC Dukla Trenčín Slovak 54 28 54 82 39 12 4 13 17 14
2005–06 Los Angeles Kings NHL 58 25 37 62 42 — — — — —
2006–07 Minnesota Wild NHL 71 25 39 64 28 5 1 3 4 0
2007–08 Minnesota Wild NHL 68 15 39 54 24 6 1 2 3 2
2008–09 Vancouver Canucks NHL 69 20 33 53 20 6 1 2 3 2
NHL totals 819 301 451 752 284 83 21 32 53 30

[edit] All Star Games


Year Location   G A P
1999 Tampa 1 0 1
2000 Toronto 2 0 2
2002 Los Angeles 0 0 0
All-Star totals 3 0 3

[edit] International Play

Demitra has played for Czechosolovakia in the following competitions:

Demitra has played for Czech Republic in the following competitions:

Demitra has played for Slovakia in the following competitions:

[edit] Transactions

Source: NHL.com - Players: Pavol Demitra, Canucks. NHL.com. Retrieved on 2009-02-11.


[edit] External links

Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Wayne Gretzky 		Winner of the Lady Byng Trophy
2000 		Succeeded by
Joe Sakic
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Mark Parrish 		Minnesota Wild captains
October 2007 		Succeeded by
Brian Rolston


This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Pavol Demitra. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


Retrieved from "http://icehockey.wikia.com/wiki/Pavol_Demitra"