Steve Christoff
Steven Mark "Steve" Christoff ( born January 23, 1958 in Richfield, Minnesota ) is a retired American professional ice hockey player who in his playing days from 1976 to 1984 among others for the Minnesota North Stars, Calgary Flames and Los Angeles Kings in the National Hockey League has played. Too great a reputation he came as a member of the U.S. national team, which was founded in 1980 Olympic champion.
Career
Steve Christoff began his career as a hockey player at the University of Minnesota, which he attended from 1976 to 1979, while he was active in parallel for their hockey team in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. In the season 1977/78 he was elected to the second all-star team of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and then selected in the NHL Amateur Draft 1978 in the second round than a total of 24 players from the Minnesota North Stars. First, he remained at his university team and led it in the 1978/79 season as an assistant captain, first on winning the championship title of the WCHA, and then to win the NCAA championship. The majority of the 1979/80 season he spent with Team USA that was preparing for the 1980 Winter Olympics. After the Olympic victory in 1980, he joined the Minnesota North Stars and played until the end of season 34 times in the National Hockey League, where he scored 16 goals and had eleven templates. In the following two seasons, he was one Zuden permanent employees at the North Stars in the NHL. He also graduated in the 1980/81 season in parallel three games for Oklahoma City Stars Minnesostas farm team in the Central Hockey League, scoring one goal. His best point season in the NHL was the 1981/82 season, in which he 55 points scorer, 26 goals scored for the Minnesota North Stars in 71 games.
On June 7, 1982 Christoff was with Bill Nyrop and made a second-round vote for the NHL Entry Draft in 1982 in exchange for Willi Plett and a fourth- round option for the 1982 Entry Draft to the Calgary Flames. For the Canadians, he was unable to match his performance from the previous year and he scored in the 1982/83 season only 17 points scorer in 46 games. Since he could not meet the high expectations in Calgary, he was then first transferred back to his former team out of Minnesota, which in turn along with Fred Barrett transferred him in October 1983 in exchange for Dave Lewis to the Los Angeles Kings. Even with the Californians he could not prevail completely, and came in the 1983/84 season in 58 games on eight goals and seven assists. Then he ended his active career at the age of 26.
Internationally
For the U.S., Christoff participated in the World Cup in 1979 and 1981 in part at the Canada Cup. His greatest success with the U.S. national team was winning the gold medal in the Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.