Ole-Kristian Tollefsen

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Position	Defence
Shoots	Left
Height Weight	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 187 lb (85 kg)
NHL Team	Columbus Blue Jackets
Nationality	Norway
Born	March 29, 1984, Oslo, Norway
Pro Career	2005 – present

Ole-Kristian Tollefsen (born 29 March 1984 in Oslo, Norway) is a professional ice hockey player in the National Hockey League. He currently plays for the Columbus Blue Jackets of the NHL. He currently wears #55.

[edit] Playing career

Ole-Kristian Tollefsen started his ice hockey career playing for Nes IK's youth teams, after one of his friends had talked him into it. He played for teams in the club until he turned 16, when he moved to Lillehammer, to attend Norges Toppidrettsgymnas. Tollefsen played with Lillehammer Ishockeyklubb for two seasons, spending most of that time on the senior team, instead of any of the club's two junior teams where a player his age should have spent that stage of career. During the 2001-02 season, he was a regular in the team's starting lineup as they reached fourth spot in the Norwegian Elite Lague, and reached the play off semi-finals for a bronze medal. He also played for both the junior teams in their playoffs, getting a silver medal with the Elder Junior(Under-20) team, and the gold medal with the Younger Junior(U-18) team. Those medals was the last thing he did in the Norwegian league system, so far in his career.

After that impressive season, Tollefsen was drafted by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the third round, 65th overall, in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, something that made him one of the highest-drafted Norwegians ever(incidentally, the highest-drafted Norwegian ever, Dallas Stars prospect Marius Holtet, went in the second round, as the 42nd overall pick in the same draft).

The next stop for Tollefsen was the Western Hockey League where he played the next two seasons for the Brandon Wheat Kings. During his time in the WHL, he showed that he could adapt to the North American style of play. His physical style of play showed on the 2003-04 Blue Jackets training camp, when one of his hits put star player Geoff Sanderson out of play for a couple of weeks with an injury.

During the 2004-05 NHL lockout season, Tollefsen had signed for the Blue Jackets, but spent most of the season with the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League, but also had a short trip to the East Coast Hockey League where he played for the Dayton Bombers.

For the 2005-06 NHL Season he started the season in the AHL, but on November 23, he got his NHL debut in a 4-2 loss against the Phoenix Coyotes. He got an additional four games for the Blue Jackets, with two penalty minutes, before he was sent down to Syracuse again, where he spent the rest of the season.

As of November 25 2006, he has played in all of the Blue Jackets' games so far in the 2006-07 NHL season. On November 10, he, and fellow Norwegian NHL player Patrick Thoresen played in the first game ever to have two Norwegian players facing each other, when the Blue Jackets hosted Thoresen's Edmonton Oilers. In Ken Hitchkock's debut as the coach for the Blue Jackets, a November 24 away game against the Philadelphia flyers, Tollefsen had his first career NHL point when he assisted on Jason Chimera's second period goal. So far this season, he has accumulated 38 penalty minutes, including fights against Mark Smith, Joffrey Lupul, Jordin Tootoo and Bill Guerin.

Tollefsen is one of only five Norwegians to ever play in the NHL, the others being Bjørn Skaare, Anders Myrvold, Espen Knutsen, and Patrick Thoresen.