Derek John Plante (born January 17, 1971) is an American

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 ...

coach and former professional ice hockey player. Plante played eight seasons in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL) for 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 ...

Dallas Stars The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference, and were founde ...

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...

and

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games in Wells ...

. He was a member of the 1999

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

champion Dallas Stars. He was an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota-Duluth from 2010-2015 before returning to the program as Associate Head Coach in 2020, a position he holds to this day.

Playing career

Drafted out of high school by the

in 1989, Plante attended the

University of Minnesota Duluth The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) is a public university in Duluth, Minnesota. It is part of the University of Minnesota system and offers 16 bachelor's degrees in 88 majors, graduate programs in 25 different fields, and a two-year progr ...

and by his senior year was an All-Star leading the

WCHA The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

in goals, assists, and total scoring. Plante skipped minor league hockey and jumped right to the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

in 1994, replacing an injured

Pat LaFontaine Patrick Michael LaFontaine (born February 22, 1965) is an American former ice hockey center who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) and spent his entire playing career with the league's New York State-based teams. LaFontaine played for th ...

and scoring 21 goals. By turning pro so quickly, Plante missed out on an opportunity to represent the United States in the 1994

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

. In the lockout-shortened 1994–95 season, Plante managed only 3 goals and 19 assists, but rebounded nicely in 1995–96 on a rebuilding, but hard-working Sabres squad, netting 23 goals and adding 30 assists. In 1997, Plante became the Sabres' top scoring

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

. he netted a career high 27 goals and led the surprising Sabres squad to a Northeast Division championship and playoff berth. Plante scored the game winning, series-clinching game 7 overtime goal against the upstart

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a membe ...

. Plante knocked down an opponent pass at center, quickly positioned himself, and fired a

slapshot A slapshot (also spelled as slap shot) in ice hockey is a powerful shot. Its advantage is as a high-speed shot that can be taken from long distance; the disadvantage is the time to set it up as well as its low accuracy. It has four stages whi ...

that managed to escape the glove of netminder

Ron Tugnutt Ronald Frederick Bradley Tugnutt (born October 22, 1967) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender. Tugnutt played several seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Quebec Nordiques, Edmonton Oilers, Mighty Ducks of Anahei ...

and trickle into the goal. Mobbed by his ecstatic teammates, Plante suffered a cut lip in the ensuing celebration. Plante played well in the next series vs.

Eric Lindros Eric Bryan Lindros (; born February 28, 1973) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Lindros was born in London, Ontario, but grew up in Toronto. He played junior hockey in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) for the Oshawa Generals pr ...

and the

, but the overmatched team fell in 5. Plante's numbers slipped in 1997–98, scoring only 13 goals and 34 points, however the Sabres advanced deeper into the playoffs than many expected, losing to the

Washington Capitals The Washington Capitals (colloquially known as the Caps) are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL) ...

in the Eastern Conference Finals. Halfway through the

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

season Plante was traded to the

. The Stars went all the way to the

finals and met Plante's old team, the Sabres. Plante had played in the first two series of the playoffs, scoring a critical goal in the second round, but was a healthy scratch for every game of the finals, which the Stars won 4 games to 2. Even though he didn't play in the finals, Plante got in on the time-honored tradition of taking personal stewardship of the Cup, which he spent in his home town of

Cloquet, Minnesota Cloquet ( ) is a city in Carlton County, Minnesota, United States, at the junction of Interstate 35 and Minnesota State Highway 33. Part of the city lies within the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation and serves as one of the reservation's three admi ...

. The

had Plante's name engraved on the

even though he did not play in the required number of games. The following year Plante found himself in the Chicago Blackhawks organization. For the first time in his career, Plante played on a minor league team, the

Chicago Wolves The Chicago Wolves are a professional ice hockey team playing in the American Hockey League and are the top minor-league affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League. The Wolves play home games at the Allstate Arena in the C ...

. In 2000–01 Plante starred for the AHL

Philadelphia Phantoms The Philadelphia Phantoms were a professional ice hockey team that played in the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1996 to 2009. The club was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and played most of its home games at the Spectrum (arena), Spectrum ...

, and by the end of the year was called up to join the

. The Flyers kept Derek on their playoff roster to face the Sabres. Plante scored a goal against his former teammate

Dominik Hašek Dominik Hašek (, ; born January 29, 1965) is a Czech former ice hockey goaltender who mostly played for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL). Widely regarded as one of the best goaltenders of all time, Hašek also played for t ...

earlier in the season, but the Sabres prevailed, and Plante hasn't been back in the NHL since. Plante later went on to play in European leagues, most notably with the

Munich Barons The Munich Barons were a professional ice hockey team between 1999 and 2002 run by the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) in the German Ice Hockey League (''German: Deutsche Eishockey Liga - DEL''). The best year the team had was in 2000 when th ...

. From 2005 to 2007, he played in the Asian Hockey League as a member of the

Nippon Paper Cranes The were an Asia League Ice Hockey team based in Kushiro City in Hokkaidō, Japan. History The club was founded as Jūjō Paper Kushiro Ice Hockey Club in 1949. They adopted the new name Nippon Paper Cranes in 1993 when Jūjō Paper and Sany� ...

, winning the championship in 2007. During 2007–2008, he played for the SC Langenthal.

Coaching career

University of Minnesota Duluth (2010–2015, 2020–Present)

He was hired on June 9, 2010 as a Minnesota Duluth assistant men's hockey coach. In June 2015, he announced he was resigning from his assistant coaching position with UMD. On July 17, 2020 it was announced that he would return to Minnesota Duluth, as associate men’s hockey coach.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Plante, Derek 1971 births Living people Adler Mannheim players American men's ice hockey centers Buffalo Sabres draft picks Buffalo Sabres players Chicago Blackhawks players Chicago Wolves (IHL) players Dallas Stars players Kalamazoo Wings (1974–2000) players Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs men's ice hockey players München Barons players Nippon Paper Cranes players People from Cloquet, Minnesota Philadelphia Flyers players Philadelphia Phantoms players SC Langenthal players Stanley Cup champions ZSC Lions players Ice hockey coaches from Minnesota Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs men's ice hockey coaches AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans Ice hockey players from Minnesota American expatriate ice hockey players in Germany American expatriate ice hockey players in Japan American expatriate ice hockey players in Switzerland