Rick DiPietro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Position	Goaltender
Catches	Right
Nickname	"DP" or "Rico"
Height Weight	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 210 lb (95 kg)
NHL Team	New York Islanders
Nationality	United States
Born	September 19, 1981, Winthrop, MA, USA
NHL Draft	1st overall, 2000 New York Islanders
Pro Career	2000 – present

Rick DiPietro (born September 19, 1981 in Winthrop, Mass) is an American professional ice hockey goaltender who currently plays for the NHL's New York Islanders. He is a former student of Saint Sebastian's School, but left after his sophomore year to play junior hockey in Michigan.

1 Collegiate career
2 Professional career
3 International play
4 External links

[edit] Collegiate career

DiPietro played one season (1999-2000) with Boston University in the NCAA's Hockey East. In that one year DiPietro was named to the All-Rookie Team, named Second Team All-Hockey East, awarded the team's Co-MVP and was named Hockey East's Rookie of the Year. In addition, Dipetro set the record for most saves in a game when he stopped 77 out of 80 shots in a 3-2 quadruple overtime loss to St. Lawrence during the NCAA regional final. In his one and only Beanpot Tournament, Dipietro was named MVP and won the Eberly Trophy awarded to the tournament's top goaltender.

[edit] Professional career

He is known to be very emotional. Often having juvenile reactions such as throwing the puck, or jumping on other players.

He was drafted first overall by the Isles in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, out of Boston University, prompting them to trade fellow young goaltender Roberto Luongo. DiPietro was the second goaltender ever to be selected with the number one overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft, and was just the fourth American to occupy the top draft position.

Though his NHL debut was widely anticipated, and he played 20 games in the 2000-2001 season, he managed to post just 3 wins against 15 losses for a mediocre New York team and was sent to the minors for additional seasoning. He played for the Chicago Wolves of the IHL and the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL; he would play 10 games the next season before being called up for good in the 2003-2004 season. While playing in a game against the Hartford Wolfpack he allowed seven goals in one and a half periods. He also constantly tripped over the painted ribon behind the net. The ribbon was there to remember victims of the 9/11 attacks on our country.

Newsday reported that the team offered him a 15-year contract in September 2005, but the League discouraged this, instead he signed a one-year offer. This left enough space under the new salary cap for the Islanders to re-sign winger Mark Parrish.

Over time, DiPietro has shown improvement in net, though he often creates tense moments for Islander fans by leaving his net to play the puck. His goals-against average decreased from 3.49 in the 00-01 season to 2.36 in the 03-04 season. DiPietro plays a very different style from most NHL goaltenders, who generally stay in their goal crease the majority of the time to maximize their position when making saves. In certain situations, like on the power play, or when the puck ends up behind his goal net, DiPietro, arguably one of the best puckhandling goalies in the league, will leave his crease to play the puck up the boards and down the ice. The play could hit an open forward down the ice and spring odd-man rushes. In this role, albeit very risky, he's been likened to a "third" defenseman and has been compared in terms of puckhandling ability to goaltenders Martin Brodeur, Ed Belfour, Marty Turco, and Ron Hextall, who are also known as excellent puckhandling goalies.

Along with teammates Jason Blake and Mark Parrish, DiPietro was named to the US Olympic hockey team at the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics, held in February of 2006. DiPietro was Team USA's No. 1 goalie for the tournament, starting 4 of the team's 6 games. DiPietro went 1-3 with a 2.28 goals against average during the Olympics.

On September 12, 2006, DiPietro signed a 15-year, $67.5 million contract with the Islanders. It is the longest official NHL contract ever to be signed, topping teammate Alexei Yashin's contract of 10 years. [1]

On March 5, 2007, he made 56 saves in a 2-1 shootout loss to the New York Rangers. The tally was a record for the Islanders franchise, which has seen 55-save nights from both Felix Potvin and Billy Smith.