Clifford "Cliff" Pu (born June 3, 1998) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

professional

Ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

who is currently playing with

Kunlun Red Star HC Kunlun Red Star () is a Chinese ice hockey club that joined the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) prior to the 2016–17 season. History Preparation of the team In March 2016, representatives of Kunlun Red Star and the KHL signed a protocol o ...

in the

Kontinental Hockey League The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs ba ...

(KHL). He was selected 69th overall in the

2016 NHL Entry Draft The 2016 NHL Entry Draft was the 54th NHL Entry Draft. The draft was held on June 24–25, 2016 at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York. The first three selections were Auston Matthews going to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Patrik Laine go ...

by the

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team was established in 1970, along w ...

Playing career

Youth

Pu played at the AAA hockey level since the Atom age group. He was named an International Silverstick Atom AAA All Star in 2009. In his final year of

minor ice hockey Minor hockey is an umbrella term for amateur ice hockey which is played below the junior age level. Players are classified by age, with each age group playing in its own league. The rules, especially as it relates to body contact, vary from cla ...

, he played for the Toronto Marlboros Minor Midget AAA team. He was seen as one of the top prospects in the 2014 OHL Priority Selection after finishing 4th on his team in points.

Junior

Pu was drafted in the 1st round, 16th overall, in th
2014 OHL Priority Selection
by the

Oshawa Generals The Oshawa Generals are a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League. They are based in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. The team is named for General Motors, an early sponsor (commercial), sponsor which has its Canadian headquarters in Oshawa. ...

. He appeared in 17 games with the Generals, scoring 2 goals and adding an assist. On January 1, 2015, Pu was traded to the London Knights along with Josh Sterk and 3 draft picks, in exchange for Michael McCarron and Dakota Mermis. In the 24 games he appeared in for the London Knights following the trade, Pu scored 4 goals and added 2 assists. In his first complete season with the Knights, Pu scored 12 goals and 19 assists. In the following season, he greatly improved on his totals, leading the Knights in regular season scoring. On January 3, 2018, the Knights traded Pu to the

Kingston Frontenacs The Kingston Frontenacs are a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League, based in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The Frontenacs play home games at Leon's Centre, which opened in 2008. Team history predates the OHA, back to 1945, to a te ...

for Nathan Dunkley and draft picks.

Professional

In 2016, Cliff Pu became eligible for the

. He was the eighty-third ranked North American skater by the NHL's Scouting Service. He was drafted in the third round, 69th overall, by the

. On October 23, 2017, Pu signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Sabres. Pu was traded to the

Carolina Hurricanes The Carolina Hurricanes (colloquially known as the Canes) are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, ...

on August 2, 2018, along with future draft picks (2nd-round (2019), and a 3rd-round and a 6th-round (2020)) in exchange for forward

Jeff Skinner Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...

. After attending the Hurricanes 2018 training camp, Pu was assigned to begin the 2018–19 season, with Carolina's AHL affiliate the

Charlotte Checkers The Charlotte Checkers are a minor-league professional ice hockey team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the American Hockey League (AHL), and are the top minor league affi ...

. Pu struggled to translate his offensive game to the professional level and was re-assigned to

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The E ...

affiliate, the

Florida Everblades The Florida Everblades are a professional minor league ice hockey team based in Estero, Florida, in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan area. They play in the ECHL and are affiliated with the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League (N ...

, on February 9, 2019. After scoring at a point-per-game through 5 appearances with the Everblades, Pu was returned to the AHL. Having contributed with 1 goal and 6 points in 44 games with Charlotte, Pu was traded by the Hurricanes to the

Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern ...

in exchange for future considerations, which correlated with the Checkers acquisition of Tomas Jurco, on February 25, 2019. On October 8, 2020, Pu was traded for the third time during his entry-level contract by the Panthers to the

Columbus Blue Jackets The Columbus Blue Jackets (often simply referred to as the Jackets) are a professional ice hockey team based in Columbus, Ohio. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, ...

in exchange for Markus Nutivaara. With his contract concluded with the Blue Jackets, Pu was not tendered a qualifying offer and was released as a free agent. On August 13, 2021, with limited opportunity in North America, Pu embarked on a European career in agreeing to a one-year contract with Austrian based club, Vienna Capitals of the ICEHL.

Personal life

Pu was born in

North York, Ontario North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough to the east. As of the 2016 Census, it had a popu ...

and was raised in

Richmond Hill, Ontario Richmond Hill (Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population: 202,022) is a city in south-central Regional Municipality of York, York Region, Ontario, Canada. Part of the Greater Toronto Area, it is the York Region's third most populous municipality and th ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pu, Cliff 1998 births Living people Buffalo Sabres draft picks Canadian ice hockey centres Canadian sportspeople of Chinese descent Charlotte Checkers (2010–) players Cleveland Monsters players Florida Everblades players Greenville Swamp Rabbits players Ice hockey people from Ontario Kingston Frontenacs players London Knights players Memorial Cup winners Oshawa Generals players Springfield Thunderbirds players Sportspeople from North York