Ray Ferraro

Ray Ferraro
Born August 23, 1964 (1964-08-23) (age 47)
Trail, BC, CAN
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight 192 lb (87 kg; 13 st 10 lb)
Position Centre
Shot Left
Played for Hartford Whalers (1984–1990)
New York Islanders (1990–1995)
New York Rangers (1995–1996)
Los Angeles Kings (1996–1999)
Atlanta Thrashers (1999–2002)
St. Louis Blues (2002)
National team  Canada
NHL Draft 88th overall, 1982
Hartford Whalers
Playing career 1984–2002

Raymond Ferraro (born August 23, 1964) is a retired professional ice hockey player. He played in the National Hockey League for the Hartford Whalers (1984–1990), New York Islanders (1990–1995), New York Rangers (1995–1996), Los Angeles Kings (1996–1999), Atlanta Thrashers (1999–2002) and St. Louis Blues (2002). His nickname was the "Big Ball of Hate", coined by Rangers teammate Glenn Healy.[1] He is currently a broadcaster for Team 1040 Radio and TSN in Canada.

Contents

Biography

Playing career

Ferraro was a prolific scorer in junior hockey, including a 108–goal and 192–point season for the Brandon Wheat Kings in 1983–84. He also was a member of the 1982-83 Portland Winter Hawks squad that won the Memorial Cup, emblematic of the best Junior Hockey (ages 15–20) team in North America. Teammates on that club included Cam Neely, Mike Vernon, Brian Curran, John Kordic and other future NHL-ers.

In his NHL career, he scored 408 goals and 490 assists, for a total of 898 points in 1258 games in 18 seasons. He was named to the NHL all-star game in 1992. He had two 40 goal seasons.

Ferraro had a memorable playoff run for the New York Islanders in 1993, scoring two overtime goals against the Washington Capitals as the Islanders defeated both the Capitals and the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Ferraro assisted on David Volek's game- and series-winning goal during overtime of Game 7 against the Penguins. The goal advanced the Islanders to the Wales Conference Finals, which they lost to the eventual champion Montreal Canadiens. Ferraro finished that playoff season with team-leading totals in goals (13) and points (20).

Broadcasting

Ferraro retired on August 2, 2002. He has done work for ESPN hockey broadcasts, including work on NHL 2Night with John Buccigross and Barry Melrose, where he began working while still an active player. On that show Ferraro was often referred to as "Chicken Parm" by Buccigross after an accident with chicken parmesan moments before going on the air. He later worked as a studio analyst for the NHL on NBC, as a colour commentator on Edmonton Oilers broadcasts on Rogers Sportsnet West, and on Sportsnet's other hockey programs.

Currently, Ferraro cohosts a morning show on Vancouver radio station TEAM 1040 with Scott Rintoul. Ferraro also works as a game analyst and studio analyst for the NHL on TSN. Ferraro provided colour commentary and analysis for CTV during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Since Pierre McGuire left TSN for NBC/Versus, Ferraro became the lead game analyst.

Personal life

Ferraro's second wife is former U.S. women's ice hockey team captain Cammi Granato, who also worked as a women's hockey analyst during NBC's 2006 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Olympics coverage, and they have two sons, Riley, who was born in December 2006, and Reese, born in December 2009. Ray has two sons from a previous marriage to Tracey Ferraro; Matt (b. 1988) and Landon (b. 1991). Landon, a centre, was drafted 2nd overall by the Red Deer Rebels in the 2006 WHL Bantam Draft and in the 2nd round of the 2009 NHL draft (32nd overall) by the Detroit Red Wings and has since been traded from Red Deer to the Everett Silvertips, where he is their Captain; Matt, a former goalie, was drafted in 2003 by the Prince George Cougars, but has expressed a desire to pursue a career in law and hockey related business.

Following the Swedish women's team upset of the U.S. at the Torino games, Ferraro publicly criticized US Women's coach Ben Smith for failing to bring the best US players to the games, which led to their downfall. His comments were broadcast on MSNBC during the intermission of a men's game. This appeared to be directly related to his wife being cut in August 2005, along with other veterans in favor of younger, faster players. Some critics and fans also questioned Granato's cut from the team and cited it as a factor in the US team's disappointing performance.

Ferraro currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

On April 7, 2008, Ferraro returned to ESPN to call his first ever Frozen Four and as the replacement for Barry Melrose, who left ESPN to coach the Tampa Bay Lightning. With Ferraro switching from NBC to ESPN, there have been rumors that Bill Clement and Gary Thorne might re-partner up at ESPN as well. He currently works with TSN, which he joined in 2008.

Transactions

Career statistics

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1980–81 Trail Smoke Eaters BCJHL 1 0 1 1 0 — — — — —
1981–82 Penticton Knights BCJHL 48 65 70 135 90 — — — — —
1982–83 Portland Winter Hawks WHL 50 41 49 90 39 14 14 10 24 13
1983–84 Brandon Wheat Kings WHL 72 108 84 192 84 11 13 15 28 20
1984–85 Binghamton Whalers AHL 37 20 13 33 29 — — — — —
1984–85 Hartford Whalers NHL 44 11 17 28 40 — — — — —
1985–86 Hartford Whalers NHL 76 30 47 77 57 10 3 6 9 4
1986–87 Hartford Whalers NHL 80 27 32 59 42 6 1 1 2 8
1987–88 Hartford Whalers NHL 68 21 29 50 81 6 1 1 2 6
1988–89 Hartford Whalers NHL 80 41 35 76 86 4 2 0 2 4
1989–90 Hartford Whalers NHL 79 25 29 54 109 7 0 3 3 2
1990–91 Hartford Whalers NHL 15 2 5 7 18 — — — — —
1990–91 New York Islanders NHL 61 19 16 35 52 — — — — —
1991–92 New York Islanders NHL 80 40 40 80 92 — — — — —
1992–93 Capital District Islanders AHL 1 0 2 2 2 — — — — —
1992–93 New York Islanders NHL 46 14 13 27 40 18 13 7 20 18
1993–94 New York Islanders NHL 82 21 32 53 83 4 1 0 1 6
1994–95 New York Islanders NHL 47 22 21 43 30 — — — — —
1995–96 New York Rangers NHL 65 25 29 54 82 — — — — —
1995–96 Los Angeles Kings NHL 11 4 2 6 10 — — — — —
1996–97 Los Angeles Kings NHL 81 25 21 46 112 — — — — —
1997–98 Los Angeles Kings NHL 40 6 9 15 42 3 0 1 1 2
1998–99 Los Angeles Kings NHL 65 13 18 31 59 — — — — —
1999–00 Atlanta Thrashers NHL 81 19 25 44 88 — — — — —
2000–01 Atlanta Thrashers NHL 81 29 47 76 91 — — — — —
2001–02 Atlanta Thrashers NHL 61 8 19 27 66 — — — — —
2001–02 St. Louis Blues NHL 15 6 4 10 8 10 0 3 3 4
NHL totals 1258 408 490 898 1288 68 21 22 43 54

See also

References

  1. ^ Buccigross, John (2003-04-06). "Da Vinci knew all about the Stanley Cup". ESPN.com (ESPN Internet Ventures). http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs2003/story?id=1534879. Retrieved 2007-09-19. 

External links