ECHL ECHL

Tripp Becomes 206th Former ECHL Player in the NHL

Published on January 9, 2003 under ECHL (ECHL) News Release


John Tripp became the 206th former East Coast Hockey League player to advance to the National Hockey League when he made his debut in the New York Rangers 5-1 win on Wednesday against Carolina.

Tripp registered his first NHL point at 13:33 of the second period, assisting with Mark Messier on a power-play goal by Eric Lindros. He recorded his second NHL point at 18:18 of the second period, assisting with Boris Mironov on Jamie Lundmark's first NHL goal.

Tripp played parts of five seasons in the ECHL with Roanoke, Johnstown and Pensacola.

Selected by Colorado in the third round (77th overall) in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft and by Calgary in the second round (42nd overall) in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft, Tripp was recalled from Hartford of the American Hockey League on Tuesday. In 38 games with Hartford, Tripp has a team leading 21 goals and ranks second on the team with 32 points.

Playing 49 games in 2001-02, Tripp tied for the ECHL lead with five shorthand goals and was fourth on the Ice Pilots in goals (25), assists (27) and points (52). He scored 13 points (4g-9a) in 23 regular season games and six points (4g-2a) in 10 postseason games with Hartford in 2001-02.

The 25-year-old Tripp scored 33 points (19g-14a) in 36 games for Pensacola in 2000-01 while also seeing action in the AHL with Hershey and in the International Hockey League with Houston and Milwaukee. Tripp scored 24 points (13g-11a) in 38 games with Johnstown in 1999-2000 and had two goals in seven games with the Chiefs in 1998-99. He had two assists in nine games with Roanoke in his rookie season in 1997-98.

Tripp becomes the 11th ECHL player to make his NHL debut in 2002-03 joining Joe Corvo (Los Angeles), Fedor Fedorov (Vancouver), Vern Fiddler (Nashville), Brian Finley (Nashville), Ryan Kraft (San Jose), Brett McLean (Chicago), Cody Rudkowsky (St. Louis), Curtis Sanford (St. Louis), Jerred Smithson (Los Angeles), and Tim Thomas (Boston).

There have been 57 former ECHL players that have played in the NHL in 2002-03 and 23 of the 30 teams in the NHL have affiliations with teams in the ECHL. In 2001-02, there were 83 former ECHL players that played in the NHL, including 18 who played in their first NHL game with five of those playing in both the ECHL and NHL during the season.

Check out the ECHL Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



ECHL Stories from January 9, 2003


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central