Richard Park

:"This is an article about the ice hockey player. For the British TV personality and radio executive, see Richard Park"Infobox Ice Hockey Player


team=New York Islanders
league = NHL
position = Right Wing
shoots = Right
height_ft = 5
height_in = 11
weight_lb = 190
nationality = USA
birth_date = Birth date and age|1976|5|27|mf=y
birth_place = flagicon|South Korea Seoul, South Korea
draft = 50th overall
draft_year = 1994
draft_team = Pittsburgh Penguins
career_start = 1994
former_teams = Pittsburgh Penguins
Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
Philadelphia Flyers
Minnesota Wild
Vancouver Canucks

Richard Park ( _ko. 박용수, Bak Yong-Su) (born May 27, 1976 in Seoul, South Korea) is an American professional ice hockey player currently with the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League.

Playing career

Richard Park moved to Southern California near Los Angeles with his family at the age of three. After 10 years in the United States, at the age of thirteen, he moved to Ontario, Canada where he played minor hockey in the GTHL. He eventually worked his way up to the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League and then was drafted into the National Hockey League by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round, 50th overall, of the 1994 NHL Entry Draft.

Richard Park played for Belleville from the 1992–93 season to the 1995–96 season. He got his first taste of the bigs when he played one regular season game and three playoff games for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1994–95 NHL season. He played most of the next season, 1995–96, in the NHL totalling 56 games. Those 56 games would be the most he would play in the NHL until the 2001–02 when he joined the Minnesota Wild as he spent the next few years bouncing around the minors and different NHL teams. During that time, he played for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL and various IHL and AHL teams.

He spent three seasons in Minnesota from 2001–02 to 2003–04 where he achieved career highs in games played (81), goals scored (14), assists earned (15), and points totalled (25). After the lockout during the 2004–05 NHL season, Park left Minnesota and signed a one-year contract as a free agent with the Vancouver Canucks for $750,000US. At the end of his contract with Vancouver, he signed a two-year deal with the New York Islanders.

He is only the second Korean-born person to play in the NHL. Jim Paek was the first, whose jersey is hung in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Coincidently, both of them were drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

On March 29th, 2008 Park was named the recipient of the Bob Nystrom Award, awarded annually to the Islander "who best exemplifies leadership, hustle and dedication."

Career statistics

International play

Played for the United States in:
*1994 World Junior Championships
*1995 World Junior Championships
*2002 World Championships
*2004 World Championships (bronze medal)
*2004 Deutschland Cup [http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-hockey/stories/111404aao.html] (won championship)
*2005 World Championships
*2006 World Championships

ee also

*List of NHL players
*List of NHL seasons

References

*hockeydb|6207
*TSN-NHL-profile|351
* [http://edit.usahockey.com/usa_hockey/international/main/home/2002_wc_park_richard/ USA Hockey - Richard Park]