New York Islanders’ Rick DiPietro to play for SC Riessensee team in German league during lockout
Rick DiPietro, an American professional ice hockey player and a goaltender who plays for the New York Islanders in the National Hockey League (NHL), became another player to move to Europe during the NHL lockout to keep himself busy by playing hockey.
The news was confirmed by the hockey writer Matias Strozyk, who informed about the transfer of the player, his arrival and the day of his first game as he tweeted on his Twitter account,
“Rick DiPietro to SC Riessensee of Germany’s 2nd league is now official. Already in Germany. Debuts on Sunday, just like D’Agostini. #Isles”.
The 31-year-old goalie had signed a 15-year deal with the New York Islanders in 2006 and still has got 9 years left with that deal, which would keep him with the team for a long time. He would surely be looking to having a good time with the German team
and some time away from New York.
The SC Riessensee team is currently based in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Oberbayern and plays in the 2. Eishockey-Bundesliga, which is the second division of the German hockey league.
But one thing would be sure that, until he is in Germany, he would keep his new team excited and biting their nails as he is not a very consistent player when it comes to keeping himself fit.
In last four seasons, injuries have allowed him to play only 47 games and made him miss most of the games. He has been able to play only 5, 8, 26 and 8 games in 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 season respectively.
Last season DiPietro had suffered a groin injury, which made him miss the rest of the season, after getting off to good start and winning 9 points out of the 8 games that he played in.
The first overall selection of 2000 NHL Draft, was selected by New York Islanders in the first round and has been associated with them since then and would be going out to play for some other team for the first time since 2000. The only other team he represented
in the mean time was Islanders American Hockey League (AHL) affiliates Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
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