Al Iafrate

Albert Anthony Iafrate ( born March 21, 1966 in Dearborn, Michigan ) is a retired American professional ice hockey player. During his career he played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins and San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League.

Career

At the beginning of his career in the 1983/84 season played Iafrate for the junior team of U.S. national ice hockey team, which he represented at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. After that, he played ten games in the same season for the Belleville Bulls in the Ontario Hockey League before he was selected in the NHL Entry Draft in 1984 in the first round in fourth position of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

After three problematic early years in Toronto, who had brought him equal to the NHL, where he did quite convinced with its offensive capabilities, the defender in the season 1987/88 succeeded with 52 points, the final breakthrough. Before the season starts Iafrate had the invitation of the American Hockey Association at the Canada Cup in 1987 refused to participate, to improve his defensive game in the summer. Iafrates efforts were rewarded with the first call to the NHL All-Star Game, which he played in his entire career four times. In the course of the season 1990/91, the Maple Leafs the Americans transferred for Bob Rouse and Peter Zezel to the Washington Capitals, where he anknüpfte back to his old performance by a knee injury suffered in March 1990. There he played in the 1992/93 season the best season of his career with 66 points in 81 games, which also earned him a call to the NHL Second All-Star Team. In addition, he applied to the so-called Skills Competition at the All - Star Game a valid until 2009 record with a slap shot 105.2 mph ( 169.3 km per hour). The Capitals gave Iafrate in March 1994 for Joé from Juneau to the Boston Bruins. For this he ran over the rest of the season to only twelve games, before he had to undergo a knee surgery because his symptoms had become chronic. Through the operation of the defender missed the entire seasons 1994/95 and 1995/ 96 and was released in June 1996 to the San Jose Sharks. In return, Jeff Odgers and a draft law changed to Boston. For the Sharks played Iafrate two more seasons, but kept falling out because of discomfort in the knee and so played only 59 games for the team. He also played once for the national team at the World Ice Hockey Championship 1998 in Switzerland, as the team only narrowly avoiding relegation in the B-Class.

In June 1998, he then chose the newly established Nashville Predators in the NHL Expansion Draft from, but Iafrate decided to sign a contract with the Carolina Hurricanes to sign. The contract concluded in July contract was superseded by his resignation in September.

Awards and achievements

NHL stats

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