Zarley Zalapski

Zarley Zalapski began his ice hockey career with the Fort Saskatchewan Traders of the Alberta Junior Hockey League in 1984. One year later he was also a member of the Canadian National Team, and in 1986 he was drafted into the National Hockey League (NHL) by the Pittsburgh Penguins as the #4 overall draft pick. He remained in the NHL for over a decade with the Penguins (1987-1990), Hartford Whalers (1990-1993), Calgary Flames (1993-1998), Montreal Canadiens (1998) and Philadelphia Flyers (1999-2000), spending an intermediate season (1998-1999) in Europe with Zürich’s ZSL Lions of Switzerland’s National A League (NLA). In total he scored 99 goals with 285 assists in 637 games in the NHL, and played in the league’s all-star game in 1993. During this time, he also represented Canada internationally as part of its fourth-place finishing teams at the 1987 World Championships and the 1988 Winter Olympics.

From 1999 through 2001 Zalapski was with three different teams in the International Hockey League (the Utah Grizzlies, Long Beach Ice Dogs, and Houston Aeros) and also played 20 games with the Munich Barons of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. With the exception of one season (2004-2005) spent with the Kalamazoo Wings of the United Hockey League, he remained in Europe until his 2010 retirement. During that time, he suited up with HC Merano of Italy’s Serie A league (2001-2002), IF Björklöven of Sweden’s tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan league (2002-2003), the NLA’s Rapperswil-Jona Lakers (2005-2006), Innsbrucker EV of the Austrian Hockey League (2005-2006), and EHC Visp (2005-2006), EHC Chur (2006-2007), EHC Biel (2007-2008), EHC Olten (2008-2009), and Lausanne HC (2009-2010), all of Switzerland’s National League B. He died relatively young, at the age of 49, after his heart was weakened by a viral infection.