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Ulf Samuelsson
Ulf Samuelsson
Position Defenceman
Shot Left
Nickname(s) Tuffe Uffe
Robocop
Height
Weight
6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
203 lb (92 kg)
Teams Hartford Whalers (19841991)
Pittsburgh Penguins (19911995)
New York Rangers (19951999)
Detroit Red Wings (1999)
Philadelphia Flyers (1999–2000)
Nationality Sweden
Born (1964-03-26)March 26, 1964,
Fagersta, SWE
NHL Draft 67th overall, 1982
Hartford Whalers
Pro Career 1981 – 2000


Ulf Samuelsson (born March 26, 1964, Fagersta, Västmanlands län, Sweden) is a retired Swedish professional ice hockey player and currently an assistant coach with the Phoenix Coyotes. He played for the Hartford Whalers, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers. He is the only European player to receive more than 200 penalty minutes in a season, a feat he "accomplished" three times.

Biography[]

He specialized in heavy body checks and agitating opponents. His playing style also prompted his English nickname Robocop for the suit of armor like padding he wore and Tuffe Uffe ("Tough Ulf" in Swedish) in Sweden.

Labels of "dirty player" and "cheap-shot artist" stuck with Samuelsson throughout his NHL career. Later in the 1991 playoffs, in the Eastern Conference Finals, against the Boston Bruins, he delivered a knee on knee hit to Cam Neely. In addition, he ended the career of forward Pierre Mondou with a high stick to the eye while playing for Hartford in a game versus Montreal on March 9, 1985. His knee on knee hits and aggressive play earned him the reputation of a "dirty" player. He was later sucker punched by fellow NHL player Tie Domi shortly after Domi was called for a penalty and had his stick grabbed behind the goal by Samuelsson.


Playing career[]

Samuelsson was selected 67th overall by the Hartford Whalers in the 1982 NHL Entry Draft. He was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 with Ron Francis in a deal that helped them win Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992. He scored the 1991 Stanley Cup-winning goal in Game 6 of the Finals against the Minnesota North Stars, at 2:00 of the first period in what became an 8–0 blowout victory for Pittsburgh.

Samuelsson played 1,080 career NHL games, scoring 57 goals and 275 assists for 332 points. He accumulated 2,453 penalty minutes over the course of his career.

During the Nagano Olympics, he was ejected from the Swedish team when it was discovered that he had requested and received a US citizenship. His Swedish citizenship was revoked and he wasn't allowed to play. In 2003, when Sweden permitted double citizenships, Ulf got his Swedish passport back. The entire ordeal was listed as the seventy-second most important international story by the IIHF in their centennial celebrations in 2008.

Transactions[]

  • March 23, 1999- Traded by the New York Rangers to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for Detroit's 1999 2nd round draft choice and the Ranger's 1999 3rd round draft choice.

Coaching career[]

Awards[]

Records[]

Career statistics[]

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1981–82 Leksands IF SEL 31 3 1 4 40 -- -- -- -- --
1982–83 Leksands IF SEL 33 9 6 15 72 -- -- -- -- --
1983–84 Leksands IF SEL 36 5 11 16 53 -- -- -- -- --
1984–85 Hartford Whalers NHL 41 2 6 8 83 -- -- -- -- --
1984–85 Binghamton Whalers AHL 36 5 11 16 92 -- -- -- -- --
1985–86 Hartford Whalers NHL 80 5 19 24 174 10 1 2 3 38
1986–87 Hartford Whalers NHL 78 2 31 33 162 5 0 1 1 41
1987–88 Hartford Whalers NHL 76 8 33 41 159 5 0 0 0 8
1988–89 Hartford Whalers NHL 71 9 26 35 181 4 0 2 2 4
1989–90 Hartford Whalers NHL 55 2 11 13 177 7 1 0 1 2
1990–91 Hartford Whalers NHL 62 3 18 21 174 -- -- -- -- --
1990–91 Pittsburgh Penguins NHL 14 1 4 5 37 20 3 2 5 34
1991–92 Pittsburgh Penguins NHL 62 1 14 15 206 21 0 2 2 39
1992–93 Pittsburgh Penguins NHL 77 3 26 29 249 12 1 5 6 24
1993–94 Pittsburgh Penguins NHL 80 5 24 29 199 6 0 1 1 18
1994–95 Leksands IF Stars SEL 2 0 0 0 8 -- -- -- -- --
1994–95 Pittsburgh Penguins NHL 44 1 15 16 113 7 0 2 2 8
1995–96 New York Rangers NHL 74 1 18 19 122 11 1 5 6 16
1996–97 New York Rangers NHL 73 6 11 17 136 15 0 2 2 30
1997–98 New York Rangers NHL 73 3 9 12 122 -- -- -- -- --
1998–99 New York Rangers NHL 67 3 9 12 93 -- -- -- -- --
1998–99 Detroit Red Wings NHL 4 0 0 0 6 9 0 3 3 10
1999–00 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 49 1 2 3 58 -- -- -- -- --
Elitserien totals 102 17 18 35 173 -- -- -- -- --
AHL totals 36 5 11 16 92 -- -- -- -- --
NHL totals 1080 57 275 332 2453 132 7 27 34 272

International play[]

  • Played for Team Sweden in the World Junior Championships 1982, -83 and -84.
  • Played for Team Sweden in the European Junior Championships 1982.
  • Played for Team Sweden in the World Championships 1985 and -90.
  • Played for Team Sweden in the Canada Cup 1992.
  • Played for Team Sweden in the Olympics 1998 (first part only).

International statistics

Year Team Event GP G A Pts PIM
1982 Sweden WJC 7 1 3 3 18
1982 Sweden EJC 5 2 1 3 10
1983 Sweden WJC 1 0 1 1 0
1984 Sweden WJC 7 1 4 5 18
1985 Sweden WC 9 1 2 3 22
1990 Sweden WC 7 2 0 2 18
1992 Sweden Canada Cup 3 0 0 0 4
1998 Sweden Olympics 3 0 1 1 4


External links[]


This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Ulf Samuelsson. 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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