Pēteris Skudra

Pēteris Skudra
Date of birth	April 24, 1973
place of birth	Riga , Latvian SSR
size	185 cm
Weight	83 kg
position	goalkeeper
Catch hand	Left
Career stations
1992-1994	Pardaugava Riga
1993-1994	Hokeja Centers
1994-1995	Greensboro Monarchs
1995	Erie Panthers
1995-1996	Johnstown Chiefs
1996-1997	Hamilton Bulldogs
1997-2000	Pittsburgh Penguins
2000	Buffalo Sabers
2000-2001	Boston Bruins
2001-2003	Vancouver Canucks
2003-2005	Chimik Voskressensk
2004	Ak Bars Kazan
2005-2007	HK CSKA Moscow
2007	Metallurg Novokuznetsk

Pēteris "Peter" Skudra (born April 24, 1973 in Riga , Latvian SSR ) is a former Latvian ice hockey goalkeeper and current coach , who worked for the Pittsburgh Penguins , Buffalo Sabers , Boston Bruins and Vancouver from 1990 to 2007 Canucks has played in the National Hockey League . Since 2007 he has been working as a coach in the Superliga and the Continental Hockey League (KHL).

Career

Pēteris Skudra began his career as a hockey player in his hometown at Pardaugava Riga , for whose professional team he was active in the Interstate Hockey League from 1992 to 1994 . In the same period he played parallel in the Latvian ice hockey league , first for Pardaugava Riga and in the 1993/94 season for its farm team Hokeja Centrs , with whom he won the Latvian championship title. In summer 1994, the goalie went to North America, where he first three years at unterklassigen teams such as the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American Hockey League , the Erie Panthers and Johnstown Chiefs of the East Coast Hockey League and the Memphis River Kings of the Central Hockey League between the post stood. He also played 18 games for the Oklahoma Coyotes in the professional inline hockey league Roller Hockey International during the 1996 summer break .

On September 25, 1997 Skudra signed a contract as a free agent with the Pittsburgh Penguins from the National Hockey League . In the 1997/98 season , the Latvian played his first 17 games in the NHL for Pittsburgh. In parallel he ran for their farm teams , the Houston Eros from the International Hockey League and the Kansas City Blades from the International Hockey League. From 1998 to 2000 he was finally a regular part of the NHL Penguins team. On October 3, 2000, he moved to Pittsburgh's league rivals Boston Bruins as a free agent , but was signed by the Buffalo Sabers after just three days . In November 2000, the Bruins again acquired the rights to the former Latvian international and he came to the end of the season on 26 NHL appearances for the Boston Bruins.

From 2001 to 2003 Skudra played for the Vancouver Canucks in the NHL, as well as sporadically for their AHL farm teams Hartford Wolf Pack and Manitoba Moose . He was then committed by Chimik Voskressensk from the Russian Super League, for which he played for two years, where he ended the 2003/04 season at his league rivals Ak Bars Kazan . After further positions with the Superliga participants HK CSKA Moscow and Metallurg Novokuznetsk , the former NHL player ended his career at the age of 34 after the 2006/07 season.

After the end of his career, Skudra initially worked as a goalkeeping coach at Metallurg Novokuznetsk. From 2009 he worked as an expert in KHL broadcasts on the satellite sports channel Viasat Sport Baltic . In the 2011/12 season Skudra was employed as a goalkeeping coach at Severstal Tscherepowez . In 2012 he was hired by HK Sibir Novosibirsk as an assistant coach.

Between 2013 and 2018 he was head coach at Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod and reached the playoff quarter-finals with Torpedo during this time. For the 2019/20 season, Skudra was dismissed as head coach at HK Traktor Chelyabinsk and in November 2019 after a series of defeats. He has been the head coach at Dinamo Riga since July 2020 .

International

For the Soviet Union , Skudra took part in the U18 Junior European Championship in 1991. For Latvia he was in the squad at the C World Cup in 1993 , the B World Cup in 1994 and the A World Cup in 1997 .

Achievements and Awards

• 1991 silver medal at the U18 European Junior Championship
• 1993 Promotion to the B World Championship at the C World Championship
• 1994 Latvian Master with Hokeja Centrs
• 1994 Lowest conceded goals in the Latvian ice hockey league

NHL statistics

	Seasons	Games	Victories	Defeats	draw	Shutouts	ATM
Regular season	6th	146	51	47	20th	6th	2.73
Playoffs	2	3	0	1	-	0	3.10

Web links

• Pēteris Skudra at legendsofhockey.net (English)
• Pēteris Skudra at eliteprospects.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ По требованию Текслера. Главный тренер "Трактора" Петерис Скудра отправлен в отставку. In: nakanune.ru. November 5, 2019, Retrieved November 6, 2019 (Russian). 
2. ↑ 2020-07-20 13:25: Oficiāli: Pēteris Skudra - Rīgas "Dinamo" galvenais treneris. In: sportacentrs.com. July 21, 2020, accessed on July 21, 2020 (Latvian).