Norm Maracle
Norm Maracle ( born October 2, 1974 in Belleville, Ontario ) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender, who was most recently at the Star Bulls Rosenheim from the 2nd hockey league under contract.
Career
North America
Norm Maracle began his career in 1991 with the Calgary North Stars in the Alberta Midget Hockey League. In 1992 he moved to the Western Hockey League with the Saskatoon Blades. After his second season of goalie in the NHL Entry Draft in 1993 was selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the fifth round at position 126, he remained another year in the WHL and played his best season for Saskatoon. From 56 games Maracle won 41 and was awarded both the WHL, as well as of the umbrella organization for the Canadian Hockey League as the best goalkeeper of the season.
The following three years spent the Canadians in the American Hockey League farm team of the Detroit, the Adirondack Red Wings, where he was first-choice goalkeeper and provided convincing performance. In the 1997/98 season Maracle was allowed to play four times in the National Hockey League, but remained first-choice goalkeeper in Adirondack. In the year the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup.
In the 1998/99 season Maracle was as a back -up goalie Chris Osgood integral part of the NHL teams and came up 16 times in the regular season to use and twice in the playoffs.
In the summer of 1999 with the Atlanta Thrashers a new team in the NHL established and since the cadres of the Thrashers had to be filled with players, they were allowed to select from each team a player. The team itself had, however, the possibility to lock a certain number of their players for the draft in order to continue to keep. Norm Maracle was not among them and was eventually selected by the Thrashers in the NHL Expansion Draft, 1999.
In the season 1999/2000 Maracle got more ice age in the NHL, as he held the position of master goalkeeper was divided mainly with Damian Rhodes. The season was because Thrashers still new team were, as expected bad. In the following season the keeper came only rarely in the highest North American professional league to use and spent most of the season in the International Hockey League with the Orlando Solar Bears. There he led the team to the Turner Cup and was even awarded the MVP of the play-offs.
After the season, however, the IHL ceased their game operation, so Norm Maracle in the 2001/ 02 season only came to one and his most recent use in the NHL and played this and the next season almost exclusively with the Chicago Wolves in the AHL.
Russia and Europe
In 2003, Maracle then in the Russian Super League, where he played a very successful season with Metallurg Magnitogorsk and came to the finals for the championship. In July 2004, the Canadians signed a contract with the Nuremberg Ice Tigers, but was disbanded soon after. Instead Maracle played two more years in Russia for Avangard Omsk HK and reached again the final.
After the end of the 2005 /06 standard Maracle was a free agent, and only in December 2006, he signed a new contract with Avangard Omsk. After the 2006 /07 finally committed him the Iserlohn Roosters of the DEL. There, his contract was already late November 2007, due to its outstanding performance, prematurely extended until 2010. After a mixed season 2008/ 09 his contract from the Iserlohn Roosters was dissolved.
After that he played until December 2009 when HDD Olimpija Ljubljana of the Austrian Hockey League before his contract was terminated. From January to June 2010, he stood at the Cologne Sharks of the DEL under contract. For the 2010/2011 season he moved to the Star Bulls Rosenheim. In his first season in Bavaria knew Maracle to be completely satisfactory, and was superior to that of experts voted the best goalkeeper and even the player of the year in the 2nd Bundesliga; he is regarded as the best goalie in Rosenheim since Karl Friesen. After a successful season at the Star Bulls Rosenheim Maracle extended his contract for another season. After winning the runner-up in 2011/12 he finished his career for family reasons.
Awards and achievements
- 2001 James Norris Memorial Trophy (together with Scott Fankhouser )
- 2001 James Gatschene Memorial Trophy
- 2001 Norman R. " Bud " Poile Trophy
- 2002 Calder Cup win with the Chicago Wolves
- 2001 IHL First All -Star Team
- 2005 IIHF European Champions Cup win with the Avangard Omsk HK
- 2005 Best Goalkeeper of IIHF European Champions Cup
- 2005 All- Star team of the IIHF European Champions Cup
- 2011 DEB Cup winners with the Star Bulls Rosenheim
- 2011 Best Goalkeeper and Player 2 Bundesliga
Career Stats
( Key to the goalkeeper stats: GP or Sp = Total Games; W or W = Wins, L = Losses, or N, T or D = Draw or shootout defeat, min = minutes; SOG or ZAT = Shots on goal, GA or GT = Goals against; SO = shutouts, GAA or GTS = Gegentorschnitt; Sv % or SVS % = quota, EN = Empty Net Goal; Play-downs/Relegation 1 )