Paul Stastny

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United StatesUnited States  Paul Stastny Ice hockey player
Paul Stastny
Date of birth December 27, 1985
place of birth Québec City , Québec , Canada
size 183 cm
Weight 93 kg
position center
number # 26
Shot hand Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft 2005 , 2nd round, 44th position
Colorado Avalanche
Career stations
2004-2006 University of Denver
2006-2014 Colorado Avalanche
2012 EHC Red Bull Munich
2014-2018 St. Louis Blues
2018 Winnipeg Jets
since 2018 Vegas Golden Knights

Paul Stastny (born December 27, 1985 in Québec City , Québec , Canada ) is an American ice hockey player of Slovak descent. Since July 2018 he has played for the Vegas Golden Knights in the National Hockey League on the position of the center . He comes from a very successful ice hockey family; his father Peter has been a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame since 1998 , his two uncles Anton and Marián were also successful in the NHL.

Career

Paul Stastny (2008)

Paul Stastny began his career in 2002 with the River City Lancers in the United States Hockey League , the highest junior hockey league in the United States . In his second and final year for the team, he scored 77 scorer points in 56 games . From 2004 he attended the University of Denver and played for their ice hockey team in the National Collegiate Athletic Association . In his freshman year he won the college championship with Denver and was named Best Rookie by the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and voted into the Final Four All-Tournament Team by the NCAA.

Due to his good performance, the striker was selected in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalanche in the second round in a total of 44th position. However, he played another year at the University of Denver, in which the center led the top scorer rating of his team together with Matt Carle . Before the 2006/07 NHL season , no one assumed that Stastny would make the direct jump to the NHL team, but would gain experience in one of the Avalanche's farm teams . Due to Steve Konowalchuk's heart problems and the resulting resignation from active sport, however, a place in the Avalanche team was vacated, which Stastny secured due to strong performance in training. He made his debut in professional ice hockey this season and quickly developed into an important pillar in the team. The center forward scored his first goal on October 21, 2006 in a game between the Avalanche and the Canadiens de Montréal .

With an assist in the game against the Minnesota Wild on March 11, 2007, he broke the 15-year-old record of the rookie with the longest series of points. This record was previously held by Teemu Selänne . Overall, he scored at least one point per game in 20 consecutive games from February 3rd to March 17th. During this period Stastny scored 29 points; Over the entire season he was able to achieve 28 goals and 50 assists and was the second best rookie scorer with 78 points behind Yevgeny Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins , who scored seven points more. Nevertheless, the Colorado Avalanche missed the play-offs . For his achievements Stastny was elected to the NHL All-Rookie Team , he was also nominated for the Calder Memorial Trophy for the best new professional, but the trophy went to Yevgeny Malkin.

Stastny alongside Joe Sakic (2008)

In the following season he was absent for 16 games due to an appendicitis and a groin injury, because of the appendicitis he also had to cancel his participation in the All-Star game . Nevertheless, he finished the regular season as Colorado's best scorer and scored 71 points in 66 games. This season he also took part for the first time with Colorado in the NHL play-offs , but there he could not keep his points quota. The striker scored twice in nine games and scored a total of three points before the Avalanche was eliminated in the Western Conference semifinals against eventual Stanley Cup winners Detroit Red Wings .

On November 17, 2008 Paul Stastny signed a five-year contract that became effective with the start of the 2009/10 season . Shortly after signing the contract, he broke his left arm in a game against the Phoenix Coyotes while blocking a shot from Olli Jokinen and missing for 26 games. After eleven more games, he broke a foot in the game against the Minnesota Wild , again after trying to block a shot, causing him to be out for the rest of the season. So he came in the season 2008/09 on only 45 of 82 possible missions, in which he scored 36 points.

The following season was quite successful for Stastny, with the exception of one game at the end of the season, in which he was spared, he was able to play a season again, winning a silver medal with the US national ice hockey team at the 2010 Winter Olympics and the Colorado Avalanche reached the play-offs again, which they missed the previous year. There the team was eliminated in the first round against the San Jose Sharks . The American with 79 points from 81 games in the regular season is again the best scorer in the Avalanche.

In the 2010/11 NHL season , the attacker took part in an NHL All-Star Game for the first time. Together with Carolinas Jeff Skinner, he replaced the injured Pittsburgh Penguins Sidney Crosby and Yevgeny Malkin . This season Colorado could not qualify for the play-offs, Stastny ended the season as the team's second-best scorer behind Matt Duchene . Also in the following season Paul Stastny was the second best point collector of the Avalanche, only center Ryan O'Reilly scored more points than him.

During the lockout before the start of the 2012/13 NHL season , he played 13 games for EHC Munich in the German Ice Hockey League . After the NHL resumed gaming operations in January 2013, the center was used in 40 games for Colorado; his 24 scorer points were the third most within the team behind PA Parenteau and Matt Duchene.

As a free agent , Stastny joined the St. Louis Blues in July 2014 , for which he was active for almost three and a half years. In February 2018, it was handed over to the Winnipeg Jets at the trade deadline , which in return sent Erik Foley , a first-round vote in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft and a conditional four-round vote in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft to St. Louis. Additionally, the Blues continued to take 50% of his salary. With the Jets he reached the conference finals in the subsequent playoffs , but lost to the Vegas Golden Knights there .

In July 2018, Stastny signed a three-year contract with the Vegas Golden Knights as a free agent, which should earn him an average annual salary of $ 6.5 million.

International

The center forward, who has both US and Canadian citizenship and was allowed to choose which of the two national teams he could play for, chose the United States team. On the one hand, to have the chance to play at an international tournament with his brother Yan , since he had already committed himself to the USA before Paul, and on the other hand, because he grew up in the United States and has been in the United States since childhood played the United States Hockey League. Paul Stastny represented the US national ice hockey team for the first time at the 2007 Men's Ice Hockey World Championship . However, the team missed a medal and was eliminated from the tournament in the quarter-finals against the Finnish national ice hockey team . At the 2010 Winter Olympics , he and his team won the silver medal after losing to the Canadians in the final . At the 2012 World Cup , Stastny was eliminated from the US selection in the quarter-finals.

At the 2013 World Cup in Stockholm and Helsinki he was the team captain of Team USA and won the bronze medal with it. Stastny was used in all ten games and was the second best scorer of the tournament with 15 points behind the Finn Petri Kontiola . He was also elected to the tournament's all-star team by media representatives .

Achievements and Awards

International

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2018/19 season

Regular season Playoffs
season team league Sp T V Pt +/- SM Sp T V Pt +/- SM
2002/03 River City Lancers USHL 57 10 20th 30th 39 8th 0 1 1 2
2003/04 River City Lancers USHL 56 30th 47 77 46 3 1 2 3 0
2004/05 University of Denver NCAA 40 15th 27 42 26th
2005/06 University of Denver NCAA 39 19th 34 53 79
2006/07 Colorado Avalanche NHL 82 28 50 78 +4 42 - - - - - -
2007/08 Colorado Avalanche NHL 66 24 47 71 +22 24 9 2 1 3 -1 6th
2008/09 Colorado Avalanche NHL 45 11 25th 36 –9 22nd - - - - - -
2009/10 Colorado Avalanche NHL 81 20th 59 79 +2 50 6th 1 4th 5 -2 4th
2010/11 Colorado Avalanche NHL 74 22nd 35 57 -8th 56 - - - - - -
2011/12 Colorado Avalanche NHL 79 21st 32 53 -8th 34 - - - - - -
2012/13 EHC Red Bull Munich DEL 13 7th 11 18th +1 20th - - - - - -
2012/13 Colorado Avalanche NHL 40 9 15th 24 –7 14th - - - - - -
2013/14 Colorado Avalanche NHL 71 25th 35 60 +9 22nd 7th 5 5 10 −1 4th
2014/15 St. Louis Blues NHL 74 16 30th 46 +5 40 6th 1 0 1 -3 4th
2015/16 St. Louis Blues NHL 64 10 39 49 +3 26th 20th 3 10 13 -4 16
2016/17 St. Louis Blues NHL 66 18th 22nd 40 +4 36 7th 2 1 3 +4 2
2017/18 St. Louis Blues NHL 63 12 28 40 -5 14th - - - - - -
2017/18 Winnipeg Jets NHL 19th 4th 9 13 +6 4th 17th 6th 9 15th +5 0
2018/19 Vegas Golden Knights NHL 50 13 29 42 +14 30th 7th 2 6th 8th +2 2
USHL total 113 40 67 107 85 11 1 3 4th 2
NCAA overall 79 34 61 95 105
NHL overall 874 233 455 688 +33 414 79 22nd 36 58 ± 0 38

International

Represented the USA at:

year team event result Sp T V Pt SM
2007 United States WM 5th place 7th 4th 4th 8th 2
2010 United States Olympia 2nd place, silver 6th 1 2 3 0
2012 United States WM 7th place 8th 3 6th 9 0
2013 United States WM 3rd place, bronze 10 7th 8th 15th 6th
2014 United States Olympia 4th Place 6th 2 0 2 0
Men overall 37 17th 20th 37 8th

( 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 )

family

His father Peter Šťastný was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1998

Paul Stastny comes from a Slovak family with extensive NHL experience. His father Peter Šťastný went to North America in 1980 and played there for the Québec Nordiques , the New Jersey Devils and the St. Louis Blues and has been a Canadian citizen since 1984. In 977 NHL games he scored 1,239 points and was one of the best strikers in the NHL in the 1980s. In 1998 he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame . In 2004 he was elected to the European Parliament for Slovakia .

Paul still has two uncles, Anton and Marián . Anton played 650 times in the NHL for Québec and came to 636 points, Marián played 322 games for Québec and the Toronto Maple Leafs , scoring 294 points. His older brother Yan is also a professional ice hockey player and was drafted by the Boston Bruins back in 2002 .

After Yan played for the USA team at the 2005 World Cup , the Šťastnýs are the only ice hockey family that has participated in international tournaments for four different countries. Father Peter first played for Czechoslovakia , took part in the Canada Cup with Canada in 1984 after receiving Canadian citizenship and in the 1990s played for Slovakia at the 1994 Winter Olympics, among others .

Jersey number

Paul Stastny started his career with the Colorado Avalanche with jersey number 62, but on October 20 he switched to number 26. John-Michael Liles , who started the season on 26, left it to Stastny and instead chose the number 4 of his idol Rob Blake . The reason for this was that Paul's father Peter Šťastný had worn the number 26 when he was working for the franchise , which was then still based in Québec and only moved to Colorado in 1995, and now Paul wears it as a tribute to his father. When the team was still called Québec Nordiques, the number 26 was banned in Peter Šťastný's honor and no longer given to a player, but after moving to Colorado the number was released again.

Style of play

Stastny is left-handed, plays in the center position and was one of the few players who still used a wooden stick until the 2010/11 NHL season , but at the beginning of that season he switched to a plastic stick. He describes himself as a playmaker, a characteristic that he says he inherited from his father Peter Šťastný . Long-time captain of the Avalanche, Joe Sakic , played with Hockey Hall of Fame member Peter at the Québec Nordiques and saw similarities between father and son, especially in their way of ice-skating and their ability to oversee the game to keep. Similar words came from Joel Quenneville , who defended against Peter during his playing days. Even if his game is not characterized by tricks or special movements, it is considered smart, intuitive and efficient.

Web links

Commons : Paul Stastny  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c espn.com, Stastny following father's footsteps in more ways than one
  2. ↑ denverpost.com, Avs sign Stastny to long-term deal
  3. ↑ avalanche.nhl.com, Stastny Activated
  4. ↑ nhl.com, Stastny out 2-4 weeks with broken foot
  5. ↑ denverpost.com, Foote plans to return
  6. ↑ cbssports.com, Skinner, Stastny replace Crosby, Malkin as Star replacements
  7. ↑ espn.com, Richards' hefty deal can actually bring the people together
  8. ↑ usatoday.com, Q&A: Colorado Avalanche center Paul Stastny
  9. ↑ avalanche.nhl.com, Stastny's New Lumber
  10. ↑ theglobeandmail.com, The Stastny bloodline is clear to see
  11. ↑ espn.com, Paul Stastny showing skills only genes can provide
Squad of Vegas Golden Knights in the season 2019/20
personal data
SURNAME Stastny, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Šťastný, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ice hockey player
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1985
PLACE OF BIRTH Quebec City , Quebec