Wayne Primeau
Wayne Primeau ( born June 4, 1976 in Scarborough, Ontario ) is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the National Hockey League.
Career
Wayne Primeau began his career in 1992 in the Canadian Junior Football League OHL with the Owen Sound Platers. He was selected in the NHL Entry Draft in 1994 by the Buffalo Sabres in the first round at position 17. He also graduated from the same in the 1994/95 season his first game in the NHL and immediately scored his first goal, but was then sent back to the OHL, where he moved during the season on the Oshawa Generals. 1995/96 came Primeau in some games the Sabres and their farm team, the Rochester Americans in the AHL, for use, but the majority of the season, he continued to play in the OHL.
1996/97 he managed to finally make the leap to the pros and played the season with the Sabres and the Americans. He took over the team 's role as a striker in the Checking Line and reached the final in 1999 with the Sabres to the Stanley Cup, which they lost to the Dallas Stars.
During the 1999/2000 season Primeau was transferred to the Tampa Bay Lightning, but further sent him after less than a year to the Pittsburgh Penguins. There he played for two years before he committed the San Jose Sharks in a transfer in March 2003. With San Jose he played a successful season 2003/ 04, which ended in the Western Conference Finals.
After the season, he was an Unrestricted Free Agent, but decided after the failure of the NHL season 2004/ 05, to sign a new contract in San Jose. In November 2005, Primeau was sent to a " blockbuster" transfer along with Marco Sturm and Brad Stuart to the Boston Bruins, who submitted superstar Joe Thornton to San Jose. The season ended in disappointing with the Boston miss the playoffs. On 10 February 2007, the Canadian was then transferred again. Since his contract expired at the end of season and the Bruins did not expect that he would renew his contract, they gave him and Brad Stuart and a draft law on to Calgary. In turn, Chuck Kobasew and Andrew Ference Boston received.
After the 2008/ 09 season of Canadians was transferred together with a second-round draft pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Flames received in return Anton Strålman, Colin Stuart and a seventh- round draft pick.
Primeau is a good defensive forward who is mainly used for its physical hardness in the Checking Line and outnumbered. At the scorer services which he had shown in his time as a junior in the OHL, but he could never come close in the NHL.
His brother Keith Primeau was also a professional hockey player and played over 900 games in the NHL among other things, for the Detroit Red Wings and the Philadelphia Flyers. Both fought in the 1996/97 season a brawl in a game between the Buffalo Sabres and the Hartford Whalers.