Jordan Leopold

Jordan Leopold has been to many places and seen many things on his long and winding hockey career.

It nearly began earlier than it actually did. The native of Golden Valley,Minnesota was pressured to leave college after his freshman year, but Leopold chose to stay in school and play another three years of NCAA hockey with the University of Minnesota.

From 1998 to 2002, Leopold scored 144 points. In his senior year, he helped the Golden Gophers win the National Championship, and was named the winner of the Hobey Baker Award for that season’s most outstanding college hockey player.

In the middle of his college playing days, Leopold became the 44^th pick at the 1999 NHL Entry Draft by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. But in 2000, he was traded to the Calgary Flames, which he would make his NHL debut with.

After spending only three games with the Saint John’s Flames (then Calgary’s AHL affiliate), Leopold joined the Calgary roster in 2002. He went on to play 58 games and score 14 points in his rookie season.

2003 was a great year for Leopold, who played all 82 games and put up 33 points across the season. He added another ten assists during the Flames’ playoff run which took them to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they lost in seven games to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Leopold only spent one more year with Calgary before being tried to the Colorado Avalanche. But Leopold hardly got his feet moving inColorado, and missed a staggering 106 games due to various injuries in the first two seasons with the Avalanche.

He stuck around for 64 contests in the 2008-2009 regular season, but was traded back to Calgary in the middle of the year. Interestingly, by playing an additional 19 games with the Flames, Leopold became the first NHL player to appear in 83 of an 82-game season.

But his return to Calgary did not last very long. On June 27^th, 2009, Leopold’s negotiation rights were traded to the Florida Panthers. He tested free agency, however eventually signed a one-year deal with the Panthers.

Leopold played 61 games before being traded yet again, this time to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He spent the remainder of the year with them, but had his season cut short in the playoffs. During Game 2 of Pittsburgh’s Eastern Conference Quarterfinal matchup with the Ottawa Senators, Leopold suffered a concussion on a hard hit by Andy Sutton which left him unconscious on the ice for several minutes, and ended his season.

Leopold never returned to the Penguins’ roster, and instead signed a three-year deal as a free agent with the Buffalo Sabres on July 1^st, 2010.

He got off to a roaring start while wearing blue and gold, posting 16 points in his first 25 games of the 2010-2011 campaign. Leopold went on to record a career-high 13 goals and 35 points that season, which led the Sabres defense in both categories.

In addition to his collegiate and professional accomplishments, Leopold has represented the United States in international competition on several occasions.

He was on the roster American roster for the World Junior Championships in 1998 and 1999, and even played in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Between 2002 and 2008, Leopold also was a member of the U.S. National team for the World Ice Hockey Championship four different times.