Patrick Kaleta

Patrick Kaleta (born June 8, 1986) is an American professional ice hockey right winger currently playing for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted by the Sabres in the sixth round, 176th overall, of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft.

Junior
Kaleta grew up in the Buffalo suburb of Angola, NY and played most of his minor hockey with Hamburg Hawks and the West Seneca Wings. He played high school hockey for St. Francis HS in Athol Springs. It was there he was discovered by the Peterborough Petes of the OHL who selected him in the 2nd round (31st overall) in the 2002 OHL Draft.

Kaleta spent his junior hockey career with the Peterborough Petes of the OHL where he compiled 147 points and 460 penalty minutes over four seasons. In the 2006 OHL playoffs, Kaleta scored 8 goals and added 10 assists as Peterborough reached the Memorial Cup. Kaleta signed his first professional contract in June, 2006, with the Buffalo Sabres.

Professional
On February 21, 2007, partway through his first professional season, Kaleta was called up from the Rochester Americans by his parent club in Buffalo. In his first NHL game on February 22, 2007, against the Ottawa Senators, he earned his first NHL point, an assist on a goal by Clarke MacArthur, and his first NHL fight against Ottawa's Chris Phillips. Kaleta scored his first NHL goal on February 10, 2008 against the Florida Panthers.

Kaleta recorded his first 2 goal performance on Saturday, December 12, 2009, against the New York Rangers, a 3-2 victory for Buffalo. He scored the game winner on a short-handed breakaway, beating Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist high on the glove side.

Kaleta has earned a reputation as a hard hitter and usually plays on the Sabres' fourth line along with the team's enforcer (Andrew Peters during his time in Buffalo, and currently Cody McCormick). Kaleta describes his style as such: "I try to play a clean, hard-nosed game. A lot of people don't like that."

Kaleta is just the fourth Buffalo-area resident to play for the hometown Sabres in the regular season. Buffalo's Peter Ciavaglia played in 5 games between 1991 and 1993. Scott Thomas played 39 games for the Sabres between 1992 and 1994. Also, Fort Erie's Randy Burridge played with the Sabres from 1995 to 1998. Additionally, South Buffalo native Tim Kennedy used to play for the Sabres. Of the four, Kaleta has spent the most time and played the most games for Buffalo. In a playoff game against the Philadelphia Flyers on April 20, 2011, Kaleta opened the bench door when Nikolay Zherdev was pressed against the boards by another Buffalo player, causing Zherdev to fall awkwardly on to the floor of the Buffalo bench area.

Early in the 2011-12 season, Kaleta was suspended for 4 regular season games for a head-butt on Philadelphia Flyers forward Jakub Voracek. This marked the third time in less than 2 seasons that Kaleta was caught head-butting.