Pat LaFontaine - NHL Career

NHL Career

On October 1, 1981, the New York Islanders traded Bob Lorimer and Dave Cameron to the Colorado Rockies for the Rockies' (later market rival New Jersey Devils') first round draft pick in 1983. Pat LaFontaine was selected by the Islanders in the 1st round as the 3rd pick overall in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft with the draft pick they had acquired from the Rockies. LaFontaine started his NHL career after representing the United States in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.

He appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals in only his rookie season, although the Edmonton Oilers won the series and ended the Islanders' reign of four consecutive Stanley Cup Championships. LaFontaine distinguished himself with a strong performance, scoring two third-period goals during the Islanders' 5–2 loss to the Oilers in the fifth and deciding game of the series.

However, his arrival was concurrent with the beginning of the end of the Islanders' dynasty, which was steeped deep in aging veterans. LaFontaine would have a promising career ahead as one of the team's best players, but he was unable to reverse the Islanders' gradual slide.

In the 1987 playoffs, LaFontaine scored a famous goal in the 4th overtime period of the seventh and decisive game between the Islanders and Washington Capitals, known as the "Easter Epic". The game was started on Saturday, April 18, and concluded just before 2 a.m. on the 19, Easter Sunday. "It was the most memorable moment in my hockey life," he later recalled. "Even today, wherever I go, people come up to me and start telling me where they were during the Easter Epic."

The Islanders continued to struggle and in 1989, they missed the playoffs for the first time since 1974. In the first game of his next series, in 1990, LaFontaine suffered the first of many concussions, after a controversial, open-ice hit by James Patrick of the New York Rangers. He fell on his head and was unconscious while being taken off the ice on a stretcher. Famously, his ambulance was delayed en route to the hospital by Ranger fans who tried to turn the ambulance over. He was lost for the remainder of the series.

The 1990–91 season was another strong season for LaFontaine, but the Islanders did not have a good season, finishing a dismal 25–45–10. LaFontaine, frustrated with his situation on Long Island, turned down a four year, $6 million contract offer and refused to report to the Islanders for the start of the 1991–92 NHL season. Three weeks into the season, on October 25, 1991, LaFontaine was traded, along with teammate Randy Wood, to the Buffalo Sabres for four players, including former first overall pick Pierre Turgeon.

LaFontaine exploded offensively in the 1992–93 season with a personal-best and team-record 148 points (53 goals and 95 assists). The 148 points are also the most points ever scored by an American-born player in one season. His play-making ability enabled his linemate, Alexander Mogilny to set a team season record with 76 goals, (both LaFontaine's 95 assists, 148 points and Mogilny's 76 goals still stand as the Sabres' team records for a single season). LaFontaine finished as runner-up to Mario Lemieux in the scoring race and earned a spot on the postseason NHL All-Star Second Team. He was also a finalist for the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP and the Lady Byng Trophy as the most sportsmanlike player.

In the 1994–1995 season he was awarded the Bill Masterton Trophy as the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey.

LaFontaine is one of four players in NHL history to skate for all three teams based in the state of New York. The others were Mike Donnelly, former teammate Jason Dawe and Martin Biron, who accomplished the feat with the Rangers in the 2010-11 NHL season. But LaFontaine played his entire career in the state of New York while Donnelly also played for the Los Angeles Kings and Dallas Stars, Biron played for the Philadelphia Flyers and Dawe also played for the Montreal Canadiens and Nashville Predators. LaFontaine once joked about it, saying "I got to play for three great organizations in my career and never once had to buy new license plates."