| Eric Heffler | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 29, 1976, Geneva, New York, USA |
| Height Weight |
6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 190 lb (86 kg; 13 st 8 lb) |
| Position | Goaltender |
| Catches | Right |
| Pro clubs | St. Lawrence Hamilton Bulldogs Greensboro Generals New Haven Knights B.C. Icemen |
| Playing career | 1995–2002 |
Eric Heffler is an American former ice hockey goaltender who was an All-American for St. Lawrence.[1]
Career[]
After playing junior hockey in Canada, Heffler returned to New York to play college hockey at St. Lawrence. He started his career as the team's third goaltender and then progressively earned more playing time in net. He became the primary netminder as a junior and then backstopped the team to a massive improvement as a senior. St. Lawrence won more than twice as many games in Heffler's final season and he was one of the top goaltenders in the nation in both goals against average and save percentage.[2] St. Lawrence finished second in the ECAC Hockey standings and was ranked #10 in the country while Hellfer was named an All-American and the ECAC Hockey Player of the Year. He helped the team earn an NCAA Tournament bid for the first time in seven years but, unfortunately, couldn't help them win the match.[3]
Though undrafted, Heffler embarked on a professional career after graduating and quickly found himself in the NHL. The next year, when Edmonton's primary netminder, Bill Ranford, contracted an ear infection, Heffler was called up to serve as a backup behind Tommy Salo. He sat on the bench for two games in late-November before Ranford returned to action. Heffler would later joke about the situation:
“I was hoping to get home for Thanksgiving, but this is a good reason not too.”[4]
In the AHL, Heffler was the co-starter for the Hamilton Bulldogs and had a mediocre season. While his numbers weren't any worse than any other of the team's goaltenders, he was relegated to being the team's third goaltender during their playoff run. In his second full season of pro hockey, Heffler's performance declined, but he still earned a second call-up to the Oilers, this time for one game. Afterwards he slid down the depth chart and was eventually demoted to the ECHL. In the second half of the season he didn't appear to be improving, so Heffler ended up playing single-A hockey the year after. He split time between two teams and retired after the year.
Heffler was inducted into the St. Lawrence Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019.[5]
Statistics[]
Regular season and playoffs[]
| Regular season | Playoffs | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | League | GP | W | L | T | MIN | GA | SO | GAA | SV% | GP | W | L | MIN | GA | SO | GAA | SV% | ||
| 1994–95 | Oshawa Legionaires | MetJHL | 29 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1995–96 | St. Lawrence | ECAC Hockey | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 55 | 3 | 0 | 3.27 | .864 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1996–97 | St. Lawrence | ECAC Hockey | 12 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 458 | 31 | 0 | 4.06 | .886 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1997–98 | St. Lawrence | ECAC Hockey | 26 | 8 | 14 | 0 | 1529 | 73 | 2 | 2.90 | .917 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1998–99 | St. Lawrence | ECAC Hockey | 37 | 22 | 12 | 3 | 1185 | 88 | 0 | 2.39 | .931 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1998–99 | Hamilton Bulldogs | AHL | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 119 | 5 | 0 | 2.52 | .939 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1999–00 | Hamilton Bulldogs | AHL | 47 | 11 | 25 | 7 | 2643 | 138 | 5 | 3.13 | .910 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2000–01 | Hamilton Bulldogs | AHL | 19 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 1037 | 68 | 0 | 3.93 | .891 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2000–01 | Greensboro Generals | ECHL | 15 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 821 | 55 | 0 | 4.02 | .894 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2001–02 | New Haven Knights | UHL | 10 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 601 | 32 | 1 | 3.20 | .896 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2001–02 | B.C. Icemen | UHL | 9 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 421 | 19 | 0 | 2.71 | .929 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| NCAA totals | 79 | 32 | 29 | 4 | 4,248 | 195 | 2 | 2.75 | .920 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| UHL totals | 19 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 1,022 | 51 | 1 | 2.99 | .911 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| AHL totals | 68 | 17 | 37 | 7 | 3,799 | 211 | 5 | 3.33 | .906 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
Awards and honors[]
| Award | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| All-ECAC Hockey First Team | 1998–99 | [6] |
| AHCA East First-Team All-American | 1998–99 | [1] |
| ECAC Hockey All-Tournament Team | 1999 | [7] |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Men's Ice Hockey Award Winners", NCAA.org.
- ↑ Men's Division I Hockey Overall Statistics: 1998-1999. USCHO.com.
- ↑ "Saint Hockey Record Book 2015-16", St. Lawrence Saints. Retrieved on November 4, 2019.
- ↑ "Eric Heffler", NHL Backups, November 11, 2012. Retrieved on November 13, 2021.
- ↑ "Eric Heffler '99 - 2019 Hall of Fame Induction Video", YouTube, October 7, 2019. Retrieved on November 13, 2021.
- ↑ "ECAC All-Teams", College Hockey Historical Archives.
- ↑ "Men's All-Tournament Teams", ECAC Hockey. Retrieved on 2014-04-26. Archived from the original on 2013-07-02.
External links[]
- Biographical information and career statistics from NHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or ESPN.com, or Eurohockey.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or The Internet Hockey Database
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Alex Westlund |
Ken Dryden Award 1998–99 |
Succeeded by Joel Laing |
| Preceded by Raymond Giroux |
ECAC Hockey Player of the Year 1998–99 |
Succeeded by Andy McDonald |
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Eric Heffler. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA). |