John Druce

John Druce
Date of birth	February 23, 1966
place of birth	Peterborough , Ontario , Canada
size	188 cm
Weight	88 kg
position	Right wing
Shot hand	Right
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	1985 , 2nd round, 40th position Washington Capitals
Career stations
1984-1986	Peterborough Petes
1986-1988	Binghamton Whalers
1988-1992	Washington Capitals
1992-1993	Winnipeg Jets
1993-1996	Los Angeles Kings
1996-1998	Philadelphia Flyers
1998-1999	Hanover Scorpions
1999-2000	Augsburg panther

John W. Druce (born February 23, 1966 in Peterborough , Ontario ) is a former Canadian ice hockey player who played 584 games for the Washington Capitals , Winnipeg Jets , Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers in the course of his active career between 1984 and 2000 of the National Hockey League (NHL) on the position of right winger . At the end of his career, Druce was active for the Hannover Scorpions and Augsburger Panther in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL).

Career

Druce spent his junior years from 1984 with the Peterborough Petes from his native Peterborough . With the team he went in the 1984/85 season in his first full season in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). The striker had already made his debut there in the preseason, having previously played in a lower class for the Peterborough Legionnaires . In his first year Druce reached 26 points scorer in 54 missions, which he increased to 46 points the following year. In the previous summer he was selected in the second round of the 1985 NHL Entry Draft in 40th place by the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL).

The Capitals finally brought the attacker into the professional field for the 1986/87 season . For the following two seasons, they used their talent on their farm team , the Binghamton Whalers , in the American Hockey League (AHL). From the 1988/89 season, the Canadian then commuted between Washington's NHL squad, in which he made his league debut in November 1988, and that of the new AHL cooperation partner Baltimore Skipjacks . Druce remained rather inconspicuous in the playing years 1988/89 and 1989/90 with a little more than 40 appearances in the NHL and a maximum of 15 scorer points, which changed suddenly in the 1990 Stanley Cup playoffs . In 15 playoff appearances, the attacker scored 14 goals, making him the second top scorer in the entire playoffs behind Craig Simpson and a playoff scoring record for the franchise from the US capital that was valid until the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs . The playoff performances gave him a regular place in the lineup of the Caps for the 1990/91 season , which he justified with 58 points in 80 missions. After another year with the Washington Capitals, Druce was finally transferred to the Winnipeg Jets in October 1992 - and thus shortly before the start of the 1992/93 game year  - together with a four-round vote in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft . Pat Elynuik then gave them to Washington.

In Winnipeg, the offensive player only spent one season after the move, as his contract was not extended after only 20 scorer points in 50 missions. He therefore joined the Los Angeles Kings as a free agent , where he spent almost three seasons and only reached more than 30 points once. In March 1996, there was another team change when he was given a seventh-round vote in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft to the Philadelphia Flyers . This gave it a four-round vote in the NHL Entry Draft 1996 to the Kings. At the Flyers, Druce did not get beyond the role of a supplementary player. Nevertheless, he reached the final series of the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1997 with Philadelphia , in which the team was subject to the Detroit Red Wings .

After spending most of the 1997/98 season - with the exception of the beginning and end of the regular season  - in the AHL with the Philadelphia Phantoms farm team , the 32-year-old decided to end his career in Europe from the summer of 1998. The Canadian moved to the German Ice Hockey League (DEL), where he spent the 1998/99 season with the Hanover Scorpions . In the following year he ran for the league rivals Augsburger Panther , before he declared his career as an active one for over.

Career statistics

				Regular season						Playoffs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM
1983/84	Peterborough Legionnaires	OMHA		40	15th	18th	33	69		-	-	-	-	-
1983/84	Peterborough Petes	OHL		1	0	0	0	0		-	-	-	-	-
1984/85	Peterborough Petes	OHL		54	12	14th	26th	90		17th	6th	2	8th	21st
1985/86	Peterborough Petes	OHL		49	22nd	24	46	84		16	0	5	5	34
1986/87	Binghamton Whalers	AHL		77	13	9	22nd	131		12	0	3	3	28
1987/88	Binghamton Whalers	AHL		68	32	29	61	82		1	0	0	0	0
1988/89	Washington Capitals	NHL		48	8th	7th	15th	62		1	0	0	0	0
1988/89	Baltimore Skipjacks	AHL		16	2	11	13	10		-	-	-	-	-
1989/90	Washington Capitals	NHL		45	8th	3	11	52		15th	14th	3	17th	23
1989/90	Baltimore Skipjacks	AHL		26th	15th	16	31	38		-	-	-	-	-
1990/91	Washington Capitals	NHL		80	22nd	36	58	46		11	1	1	2	7th
1991/92	Washington Capitals	NHL		67	19th	18th	37	39		7th	1	0	1	2
1992/93	Winnipeg Jets	NHL		50	6th	14th	20th	37		2	0	0	0	0
1993/94	Los Angeles Kings	NHL		55	14th	17th	31	50		-	-	-	-	-
1993/94	Phoenix Roadrunners	IHL		8th	5	6th	11	9		-	-	-	-	-
1994/95	Los Angeles Kings	NHL		43	15th	5	20th	20th		-	-	-	-	-
1995/96	Los Angeles Kings	NHL		64	9	12	21st	14th		-	-	-	-	-
1995/96	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		13	4th	4th	8th	13		2	0	2	2	2
1996/97	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		43	7th	8th	15th	12		13	1	0	1	2
1997/98	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		23	1	2	3	2		2	0	0	0	2
1997/98	Philadelphia Phantoms	AHL		39	21st	28	49	45		-	-	-	-	-
1998/99	Hanover Scorpions	DEL		36	15th	7th	22nd	34		-	-	-	-	-
1999/00	Augsburg panther	DEL		12	2	0	2	47		3	0	0	0	4th
OHL total				104	34	38	72	174		33	6th	7th	13	55
AHL total				226	83	93	176	306		13	0	3	3	28
NHL overall				531	113	126	239	347		53	17th	6th	23	38
DEL total				48	17th	7th	24	81		3	0	0	0	4th

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; ¹  play-downs / relegation )

Web links

• John Druce at legendsofhockey.net ( Memento from October 5, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
• John Druce at eliteprospects.com (English)