Right wingerLucio Topatigh is often regarded as one of the best Italian-born players in the game. Nicknamed il Falco di Gallio by the Italian fans (which translates as the Gallio Hawk, after the city of Gallio where he was born), Topatigh enjoyed some outstanding seasons in the Serie A. In 1989-90, Topatigh registered 83 points (39 goals and 44 assists) in only 41 games while playing on an extremely powerful HC Bolzano team that featured former NHLersMark Napier and Ron Flockhart, young Italian-Canadian star Bruno Zarrillo and Martin Pavlu.
Topatigh enjoyed his best season in 1999-00 while playing along with Aliaksandr Galchenyuk for AS Asiago. Topatigh delivered a 58 goals and 69 assists effort, good for 127 points, six points ahead of Galchenyuk and 25 points ahead of the third best scorer of the league, Lino De Toni. Through his career that spanned on 23 seasons, Topatigh registered an impressive total of 517 goals and 635 assists (1152 points) in 819 matches, all leagues and competitions together.
