Vinny Lecavalier
Vincent Lecavalier, born in 1980 in Ile Bizard, Quebec, Canada, began his first organized hockey league at the tender age of four, playing with six- and seven-year-olds. When he was six, he played with and against nine- and ten-year-olds. At fourteen, Vincent and his family moved to the Saskatchewan town of Wilcox, a tiny farming community, where he attended the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame. The school is known for having produced a number of well-known NHL hockey players.
Lecavalier was later drafted by the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League franchise in Rimouski. He earned the Quebec and Canadian major junior rookie-of-the-year award at the age of sixteen, having posted 42 goals and 61 assists. He became the number one draft choice for the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1998 and was proclaimed by Lightning’s owner Art Williams as the “The Michael Jordan of Hockey.”
Lecavalier did not get much ice time in his first year with the Tampa Bay Lightnings, but finished with a decent season. It was not until his second season, at the age of nineteen, that he really excelled and was made team captain at the age of twenty. However, in the fourth season he lost his team captain status and had been embroiled in disputes with team coach John Tortorella as well as trade rumors and other distractions.
Things turned around for Lecavalier in the 2003-2004 season when he helped his team win the Stanley Cup. He was also named Most Valuable Player of the Canadian National Team which won the World Cup of Hockey in 2004. He also played for Canada in the 2006 Olympics, but Canada did not place for a medal.
He became the first Lightning player to score a record fifty goals in a season, plus made the all-time record of ninety-five points in 2007. Ending the season with fifty-two goals, Lecavalier won the Maurice Richard Trophy as the NHL’s high scorer of the season. Prior to the 2008-2009 season, he again became team captain.
Lecavalier continues to play for Tampa Bay, having agreed to an eleven-year, eighty-five million dollar contract.
