Mark Rycroft
Mark Rycroft ( born July 12, 1978 in Penticton, British Columbia ) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey player who played in his playing days from 1995 to 2008 among others for the St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League.
Career
Mark Rycroft began his career as a hockey player with the Nanaimo Clippers for which, by 1997, he was active from 1995 in the British Columbia Hockey League. Then the attacker played three years for the team from the University of Denver, before he received a contract with the St. Louis Blues on May 15, 2000 as a free agent. In his first three seasons in the franchise of the blues, he completed only nine games for St. Louis in the National Hockey League and spent the entire rest of the time in the American Hockey League with their farm team, the Worcester IceCats.
In the 2003 /04 season Rycroft made a breakthrough in the NHL. In his first full season with the Blues, he scored nine goals in 74 games and gave twelve templates. The lockout during the 2004/ 05 NHL season he spent at HC Briancon in the French Ligue Magnus. Following the resumption of the operation of the right shooter game first returned to St. Louis, signed in the summer of 2006, however, in their league rivals Colorado Avalanche. In the 2007 /08 season, he only came in Colorado's AHL farm team Lake Erie Monsters to use, so he was transferred to the Columbus Blue Jackets on January 22, 2008 in exchange for Darcy Campbell and Philippe Dupuis.
After Rycroft was until season's end also used in Columbus only in their AHL farm team Syracuse Crunch, he decided to spend the 2008/09 season at HK Dinamo Minsk of the newly formed Kontinental Hockey League. However, the White Russians dismissed the Canadians before the first season playing out of his contract, and he ended his active career at the age of 30 years. Since then he works as a video analyst for Altitude Sports and Entertainment, which transmits the games of his former clubs Colorado Avalanche on TV.