Steve Pinizzotto

Steve Pinizzotto
Born April 26, 1984 (1984-04-26) (age 27)
Toronto, ON, CAN
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight 205 lb (93 kg; 14 st 9 lb)
Position Right wing
Shoots Right
NHL team (P)
Cur. team		 Vancouver Canucks
Chicago Wolves (AHL)
NHL Draft Undrafted
Playing career 2007–present

Steven Pinizzotto (born April 26, 1984) is a Canadian professional ice hockey winger/centre currently under contract with the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Pinizzotto was previously signed by the Washington Capitals organization to a two-year entry level contract as a free agent on March 16, 2007; and resigned 2009.

Steve charted a second straight Calder Cup Championship in 2009-10 Season with the AHL Hershey Bears, picking up 41 points (13-28-41) and was a team-best plus-40 with 124 penalty minutes in 69 regular season games for the Bears in 2009-10. Prior to signing with the Caps, Steve left his NCAA Div 1 Career with the RIT Atlantic Hockey Champions 2006-07 Season.[1]

Contents

Playing career

Pinizzotto was born in Toronto, Ontario. He started skating at age 4, and began playing hockey at age 5 in Tyke Major for the Lorne Park Ojibwa, Pinizzotto also played for such minor organizations as The Toronto Redwings, Toronto Marlies, Mississauga Reps, Don Mills Flyers, and Oakville Rangers before joining the Jr.A Oakvile Blades of the OPJHL as a 16 year old. Pinizzotto played 5 Years with the Blades where he led them to the West Division championship in 2003-04. He was named team captain in 2004-05 and team MVP, as well as leading the team in scoring with 33 goals and added 62 assists. He was named the 2005 All-Star Game MVP.[2]

In 2006-07 season Pinizzotto led the RIT team with 44 points on 13 goals and 31 assists in only 34 games and 76 penalty minutes. He was fifth in the country with 0.91 assists per game and 12th in all of Division I, averaging 1.29 points per contest. RIT won the Atlantic Hockey regular season championship with a Tiger offense and power play finishing second overall in the nation. Pinizzotto scored eight goals and added 17 assists on the power play. Pinizzotto was among the RIT Division I leaders recording 22 goals and 40 assists for 62 points in 58 career games for RIT.

In March 2007, Pinizzotto became the first RIT ice hockey player to sign an NHL contract[3] since the program moved to the Division I level in 2005[4] when he signed a two year entry level contract with the Washington Capitals in March 2007. He was assigned to the South Carolina Stingrays in September 2007 and was called up to play for the AHL Hershey Bears.

In March 2009, Pinizzotto was called up to the Washington Capitals as an injury reserve. Despite taking part in the pre-game warmup against the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 23, he remained on standby.[5] By the latter part of the season was sent back to Hershey, without appearing for the Capitals, and remained for duration of the season. Pinizzotto picked up 41 points (13-28-41) and was a team-best plus-40 with 124 penalty minutes in 69 regular season games for the Bears in 2009-10.

On July 3rd he signed with the Vancouver Canucks.

Personal

Steve has dual citizenship Canadian and German because his mother is of German descent. His father is Italian. He has two older brothers, Jason, who is a Professional hockey player in Germany, and Marc who is a metro Toronto police officer. Steve also excelled in AAA Rep Baseball playing for the OBA (Ontario Baseball Association) until he was 15 years old. Steve grew up in the Lorne Park neighborhood of Mississauga.[6]

Career statistics

Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2000–01 Oakville Blades OPJHL 5 2 1 3 2 — — — — —
2001–02 Oakville Blades OPJHL 34 10 16 26 40 — — — — —
2002–03 Oakville Blades OPJHL 44 16 24 40 152 — — — — —
2003–04 Oakville Blades OPJHL 39 17 34 51 177 — — — — —
2004–05 Oakville Blades OPJHL 48 33 62 95 86 — — — — —
2005–06 RIT Tigers NCAA Indep. 20 7 6 13 32 — — — — —
2006–07 RIT Tigers AHA 34 13 31 44 76 — — — — —
2006–07 Hershey Bears AHL 5 0 0 0 4 — — — — —
2007–08 South Carolina Stingrays ECHL 40 15 17 32 58 10 1 2 3 34
2007–08 Hershey Bears AHL 23 0 4 4 12 5 0 0 0 13
2008–09 Hershey Bears AHL 45 4 7 11 61 21 3 2 5 28
2008–09 South Carolina Stingrays ECHL 11 4 6 10 19 — — — — —
2009–10 Hershey Bears AHL 69 13 28 41 124 21 5 3 8 33
2010–11 Hershey Bears AHL 68 17 25 42 178 6 2 2 4 6
AHL totals 210 34 64 98 379 53 10 7 17 80

References

  1. ^ "Capitals Sign Travis Morin, Steve Pinizzotto to Entry-Level Contracts". Washington Capitals. 2007-03-16. http://capitals.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=462479. Retrieved 2010-07-16. 
  2. ^ "Steve Pinizzotto profile". Rochester Institute of Technology. 2010-10-01. http://www.ritathletics.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=4506. Retrieved 2010-10-01. 
  3. ^ "Former RIT player a Hershey Bear". Messenger Post. 2010-04-03. http://www.mpnnow.com/ontario_county/x1838124750/Former-RIT-player-a-Hershey-Bear. Retrieved 2010-11-10. 
  4. ^ "Men's hockey players enjoying success at the professional level". RIT Athletics. 2010-10-04. http://www.ritathletics.com/news/2010/10/4/MHOCKEY_1004102225.aspx. Retrieved 2010-11-10. 
  5. ^ "A players' dream will have to wait". Toronto Sun. 2009-03-25. http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/2009/03/25/8873251-sun.html. Retrieved 2009-03-25. 
  6. ^ "Fans party with Cup". Mississauga.com. 2010-08-21. http://www.mississauga.com/sports/article/864156--fans-party-with-the-cup. Retrieved 2010-08-21. 

External links