Defenseman Rob Blake spent two years in the Ontario Junior Hockey League prior to entering Bowling Green State University in 1987 and spending three years on their ice hockey squad. He was recruited by the National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings in 1988 and suited up for four games with the team during the 1989-1990 season. He spent the next ten years skating exclusively for the squad, being named captain in 1996 and winning the James Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman in 1998. Along the way he won silver (1991) and gold (1994, 1997) medals playing for Canada at the World Championships and made non-medaling appearances at the 1998 and 1999 World Championships, as well as the 1998 Winter Olympics, scoring one goal in six games. Near the end of the 2000-2001 season he was traded to the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche and won the 2001 Stanley Cup with his new team. The following year he suited up for six matches and scored one goal at the 2002 Winter Olympics and brought home one of Canada’s first gold medals in Olympic ice hockey in fifty years. After six matches at the 2006 Winter Olympics, where Canada failed to reach the podium, he returned to the Los Angeles Kings in and regained his captaincy in 2007 prior to signing with the league’s San Jose Sharks in 2008, whom he captained from 2009 until his 2010 retirement.
Canada