Craig Johnson (ice hockey b. 1972)
Craig Thomas Johnson ( born March 8, 1972 in St. Paul, Minnesota ) is a retired American professional ice hockey player who during his active career, among others, for the St. Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Toronto Maple Leafs and Washington Capitals played in the National Hockey League as well as the Hamburg Freezers and DEG Metro Stars in the German Ice Hockey League.
Career
Johnson spent three years as player of the high school team of Hill - Murray in Maplewood, Minnesota. There he became the outstanding player of his team and was pulled at the NHL Entry Draft in 1990 by the St. Louis Blues in the second round as the 33rd. After graduating, he went to the University of Minnesota and played there for three years (1990-1993) in the American League NCAA University. In 120 games he scored 54 goals and 81 templates.
In 1994 he participated with the U.S. national team at the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, in which the U.S. team finished eighth. Then the St. Louis Blues took him to the Peoria Rivermen, their farm team in the International Hockey League unterklassigen. But this season he could also challenge 15 games in the National Hockey League. In the following season were the trip to the farm team, the Worcester IceCats, been the exception, and he made the breakthrough in the NHL.
Then His most successful period, he experienced the NHL team the Los Angeles Kings. For this he played from 1995 to 2003. Since he but in terms of performance degraded, his contract was not renewed. In the season 2003/ 04 Johnson then shuttled back and forth between three different NHL clubs and forth, but could not for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Toronto Maple Leafs still with the Washington Capitals prevail. Between 1994 and 2004 he came to a total of 557 NHL games on 75 goals and 98 templates.
For the season 2004 /05 he had worked for the Hamburg Freezers of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga a fresh start. This was also very successful, since Johnson came in worse the level DEL forth in only 42 games on 19 goals and 25 templates. This year, however, he could not participate in the play-offs, as threw him a severe groin injury from the web.
Despite its susceptibility to injury him DEG Metro Stars made before the season 2005 /06 a contract offer by the end of 2006/ 07, which he accepted also. However, almost right at the start of the season broke after a body check by an opponent, the old injury back on, so that Johnson was sidelined for several weeks.
In the playoffs, the offensive player has flourished and became the most valuable player of his team and the second best scorer of the DEL Playoffs 2006 he had associated in ensuring that the DEG Metro Stars were able to celebrate the runner-up at the end -. This and have a good perspective of the Düsseldorf Club Johnson moved to the statement of wanting to finish his career at DEG. After the 2006/ 07 season, Johnson got a new contract more. He left the MetroStars initially unknown destination, changed in November 2007, then to Austria for the Red Bulls Salzburg, with whom he became a master. He then ended his career.