Monday, October 6, 2008

Forgotten Superstars:Peter Stastny


We continue to expand the Forgotten Superstars universe to the ice as today's installment honors one of the all-time greats in Peter Stastny.

Stastny was the star of the Czechoslovakian teams that were second only to the powerful Soviet teams of the late 70s and played for the Czech entry in the first-ever Canada Cup at the age of 19 in 1976.
Stastny played for the Czech team in the 1980 Olympics before defecting to Canada under cloak and dagger in the summer with his brother Anton to begin to play for the now-defunct Quebec Nordiques.

Stastny started his NHL career with six 100+ point seasons in a row and would add another later in his career to finish with seven, with his 46 goals,139 points second season as his career benchmark.
Stastny finished his career with over 1200 points and after leaving Quebec in the 1989-90 season, he became a member of the Devils and that left me ecstatic as one of my favorite players was joining my favorite team.
Peter had three solid seasons in red and green (yes, green) with the middle season being the best with 24 goals and 38 assists before finishing his career with the St.Louis Blues in the 94-95 season and played in just six games.

Stastny was not finished playing though as he represented his native Slovakia in the 1994 Olympics in their first appearance as a sovereign nation since the Soviet Bloc collapsed.
Stastny spent some time in the front office with the St.Louis Blues before returning to Slovakia for a political career.
His son Paul is currently a member of the Colorado Avalanche.

Hope you liked the first hockey player in Forgotten Superstars-Peter Stastny

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