Position Centre National team Canada Name Steve Rucchin Height 1.88 m Career start 1994 | Shot Left Playing career Role Ice hockey player Weight 98 kg Career end 2008 | |
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Born July 4, 1971 (age 52)
Thunder Bay, ON, CAN ( 1971-07-04 ) Played for Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
New York Rangers
Atlanta Thrashers NHL Draft 1994 NHL Supplemental Draft
Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Education University of Western Ontario Similar People Scott Mellanby, Ryan Getzlaf, Bill Masterton, Bruce Boudreau | ||
Steve Rucchin Game 4 OT goal vs Detroit Red Wings 2003
Steven Andrew Rucchin (/ˈruːtʃin/; born July 4, 1971 in Thunder Bay, Ontario) is a retired ice hockey centre who played for three teams in the National Hockey League, most notably for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
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Playing career
Rucchin played high school hockey for Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School in London, Ontario. His coach happened to also be an assistant with the University of Western Ontario and recruited him. He was an Ontario University All-Star in three of his four seasons there, and was named Player of the Year and First-team All-Canadian in his senior season. He was drafted 2nd overall in the 1994 NHL Supplemental Draft by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
He soon centered Anaheim's top line with Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne, a major feat for a former CIS player. Though there are numerous former NCAA players in the NHL, Canadian Interuniversity Sport alumni are few and far between in the NHL, let alone a top line center. Rucchin was an alternate captain from 2000–2003, and captain in 2003–05. In the 2003 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Rucchin earned his spot in Mighty Ducks immortality when he helped the Ducks upset the Detroit Red Wings in a sweep of four games by scoring the game-winning and series-clinching overtime goal in Game 4. At the World Championship 1998 in Switzerland he and his older brother Larry made history when they face each other when Steve used to play for Canada while Larry played for Italy.
In August 2005, he was traded to the New York Rangers for minor-league enforcer Trevor Gillies and a conditional 2007 draft pick in a move to dump salary. He ranks fifth in Ducks history in assists (279), goals (153), points (432), and game-winning goals (23). Known as a great locker-room teammate, he provided veteran leadership in 2005–06, as an alternate captain (along with Jaromir Jagr and Darius Kasparaitis) on a young Rangers team.
On July 3, 2006, Rucchin signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Thrashers. In his 47th game with the Thrashers, on March 6, 2007, he suffered a concussion on a hit by Ben Guite of the Colorado Avalanche. He was ruled out for the remainder of the season with post-concussion syndrome. Prior to the 2007-08 season, Rucchin failed a physical at training camp and sat out the final year of his contract effectively ending his professional career.