Alek Stojanov

Alek Stojanov
Date of birth	April 25, 1973
place of birth	Windsor , Ontario , Canada
size	193 cm
Weight	104 kg
position	Right wing
Shot hand	Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	1991 , 1st round, 7th position Vancouver Canucks
Career stations
1989-1991	Dukes of Hamilton
1991-1993	Guelph Storm
1993	Newmarket Royals
1993-1994	Hamilton Canucks
1994-1995	Syracuse crunch
1995-1996	Vancouver Canucks
1996-1997	Pittsburgh Penguins
1997-1998	Syracuse crunch
1998-1999	Hamilton Bulldogs Milwaukee Admirals
1999-2000	Detroit Vipers
2000-2002	New Mexico Scorpions

Alek Stojanov (born April 25, 1973 in Windsor , Ontario ) is a retired Canadian ice hockey player . During his career he played for the Vancouver Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins in the National Hockey League . He gained much more fame through one of the most one-sided transfer deals in NHL history, which made him move from Vancouver to Pittsburgh in exchange for Markus Näslund .

Career

Stojanov began his junior career in the Canadian lower junior leagues. For the 1989/90 season he moved as a 16-year-old to the Ontario Hockey League to the Dukes of Hamilton , for which he completed 37 games in his rookie season and scored eight points scorer. In the following year Stojanov posted 45 points in 62 games. Since he was also very physically present and was compared with Bob Probert , one of the best enforcers in the National Hockey League at the time, he was one of the top candidates in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft . Finally, he was selected seventh by Vancouver Canucks in the first round , just behind the eventual stars Eric Lindros , Scott Niedermayer and Peter Forsberg . With the beginning of the 1991/92 season, Stojanov's OHL club moved from Hamilton to Guelph and from then on played under the name Guelph Storm . Guelph won only four of 66 games in the first season and ended the season knocked out in last place in the league, with Stojanov - plagued by injuries - could only play half of the games. Although the team was able to improve significantly in the 1992/93 game year, the Canadian was given up to the league competitor Newmarket Royals in the middle of the season in exchange for two players and a right to vote in the draft .

At the end of the 1992/93 OHL season, the 20-year-old finally switched to the professional camp after he had been able to come to an agreement with the Vancouver Canucks. This first sent him to the Hamilton Canucks , their cooperation partner at the time in the American Hockey League , where he was able to convince with four goals in the four remaining games of the season. In the summer break that followed, the right winger had to endure an operation on his shoulder, which forced him to suspend almost the entire 1993/94 season. He only played four AHL appearances this season, but did not score a goal. It was not until the 1994/95 game year that Stojanov almost found his form again. Thanks to his 18 goals for the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL, he received his first appointment to the NHL during the season, when he completed four games for the Vancouver Canucks in the regular season and five more in the playoffs. In preparation for the 1995/96 season , the beefy striker finally made the final leap into the NHL squad. Stojanov played 58 games, but with only one assist fell short of the club's expectations.

As a result, on the day of the so-called trade deadline , March 20, 1996, the Vancouver Canucks gave it to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Markus Näslund . The transfer business developed in the following years as one of the most one-sided in all of NHL history. While Näslund matured into a leading player in the Canucks franchise, who over the years took over the captaincy and leadership in the team's eternal scorer list, Stojanov only played 45 other games in the NHL, ten of them in the 1995/96 season and 35 more in the following, in which he scored six points scorer. These 35 games were also his last in the NHL, as he lost his place in the Pittsburgh squad before the 1997/98 season. He found himself again in the American Hockey League at the Syracuse Crunch, for which he only got nine scorer points. After he was released in the summer of 1998 by the organization of the Penguins, he played for a few years in various minor leagues before ending his career after the 2001/02 season.

NHL statistics

	Seasons	Games	Gates	Assists	Points	Penalty minutes
Regular season	3	107	2	5	7th	222
Playoffs	2	14th	0	0	0	21st

Web links

• Alek Stojanov at hockeydb.com (English)
• Alek Stojanov at legendsofhockey.net (English)