Question about Pat Lafontaine

[Beauty eh?]

Is he the only player in NHL history to play for the Islanders, Rangers and the Sabres? Kind of cool that he spent his entire career in the state of NY.



EDIT - whoops, meant to post this in the history of hockey board. Mods, feel free to move it

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[kaiser matias]

Martin Biron has as well now that he's with the Rangers.

 

[Killion]

Is he the only player in NHL history to play for the Islanders, Rangers and the Sabres? Kind of cool that he spent his entire career in the state of NY....EDIT - whoops, meant to post this in the history of hockey board. Mods, feel free to move it

Yepp. Wrong section. Amazing player. Scored 175G & had 149A playing for Detroit Compuware in minor hockey one yr; 104G & 103 assists one year with Verdun in the QMJHL. Islanders, Rangers & Sabers.

 

[reckoning]

Jason Dawe also played for all three teams.

 

[MayDay]

Is he the only player in NHL history to play for the Islanders, Rangers and the Sabres? Kind of cool that he spent his entire career in the state of NY.



EDIT - whoops, meant to post this in the history of hockey board. Mods, feel free to move it

There have been several others to play for all three NY State teams.

LaFontaine might have been the only player to play for only those three teams in his career, though. That I'm not sure about.

Biron also played in Philly, Dawe also played for the Habs, etc.

 

[reckoning]

According to LaFontaine's wikipedia page, the only other ones are Biron, Dawe and Mike Donnelly. LaFontaine was the only one to play for just those three teams and no other.

 

[Stephen]

If Biron plays for the Devils, he will have played for Buffalo, Isles, Rangers, Devils and Philadelphia Flyers, that'd be quite the career...

 

[Beauty eh?]

Ah, forgot all about Biron and Dawe. Thanks guys!

 

[Nalyd Psycho]

How can you forget about a guy who had three straight 20 goal seasons and then just 6 goals after that?

 

[MS]

How can you forget about a guy who had three straight 20 goal seasons and then just 6 goals after that?

Yeah, Dawe is one of the most incredible losses in ability ever.

At age 25, when he was traded away from Buffalo, he was finishing up his 3rd straight 20-goal, 40-50 point season.

At age 26, he scored 6 goals in 59 games and never scored another NHL goal after that.

At age 27, he was a 40-point player in the AHL.

At age 30, he scored 1 point in 15 games in the SM-Liiga in Finland.

At age 31, he was in the ECHL, and a middling ECHL player at that - 30 points in 50 games, not even close to being one of the best players on his team.

Then he retires as he's turning 32.

This was a guy who'd been a massive scoring star in the OHL, star for Canada at the WJCs, scored 49 goals in 92 games in the AHL at age 20-21 to make the NHL. Then just completely fell to pieces.

Other guys have 'lost it' (Kyle Calder, Derek Plante spring to mind) but I can't think of any other established NHL players who fell so far, to the point where they couldn't even stand out in the ECHL when they should have still been in the prime years of their careers.

 

[reckoning]

At the time I was shocked that they traded Dawe away for such a low return; but considering how his career went, Reiger must've known that something was wrong with him.

 

[Franck]

Yeah, Dawe is one of the most incredible losses in ability ever.

At age 25, when he was traded away from Buffalo, he was finishing up his 3rd straight 20-goal, 40-50 point season.

At age 26, he scored 6 goals in 59 games and never scored another NHL goal after that.

At age 27, he was a 40-point player in the AHL.

At age 30, he scored 1 point in 15 games in the SM-Liiga in Finland.

At age 31, he was in the ECHL, and a middling ECHL player at that - 30 points in 50 games, not even close to being one of the best players on his team.

Then he retires as he's turning 32.

This was a guy who'd been a massive scoring star in the OHL, star for Canada at the WJCs, scored 49 goals in 92 games in the AHL at age 20-21 to make the NHL. Then just completely fell to pieces.

Other guys have 'lost it' (Kyle Calder, Derek Plante spring to mind) but I can't think of any other established NHL players who fell so far, to the point where they couldn't even stand out in the ECHL when they should have still been in the prime years of their careers.

I'd honestly love to know what could cause such a dramatic drop, but I realise that all that I could ever get would be very loose speculation at best.

 

[AmericanDream]

Yepp. Wrong section. Amazing player. Scored 175G & had 149A playing for Detroit Compuware in minor hockey one yr; 104G & 103 assists one year with Verdun in the QMJHL. Islanders, Rangers & Sabres.

his numbers that one season in the Q was absolutely astonishing, especially considering an American kid having to adjust to a French speaking (majority) league is amazing...

I still think that the movie Youngblood is very much based on Pat Lafontaine and his amazing young career....American kid heads up to Canada at 17 with such an amazing skill set and the actor Rob Lowe even looks like Patty a bit!!

Either way I miss Pat Lafontaine, a true gentleman and imo, the greatest American player ever who sadly had his career cut short due to head injuries.

 

[Big Phil]

I'd honestly love to know what could cause such a dramatic drop, but I realise that all that I could ever get would be very loose speculation at best.

Change of scenery is all I can think about. Honestly, I never thought he was very good in the first place