Peter Vincent Scamurra (born February 23, 1955) is an American-born former 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 ...

defenseman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

. He played 132 games 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 ...

with 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) ...

from 1975 to 1979. He was drafted 19th overall in 1975 by the Capitals and 50th overall by the

Cleveland Crusaders The Cleveland Crusaders were a professional ice hockey team from Cleveland. They played in the World Hockey Association from 1972 to 1976. Their home ice was the Cleveland Arena from 1972 to 1974, and the Richfield Coliseum from 1974 to 1976. T ...

of the

World Hockey Association The World Hockey Association (french: Association mondiale de hockey) was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) ...

Hockey career

Early career

Scamurra was born in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

and raised in

Williamsville, New York Williamsville is a village in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 5,423 at the 2020 census. The village is named after Jonas Williams, an early settler. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical ...

. He started playing ice hockey in fifth grade while attending

Nichols School Nichols School is a private, non-denominational, co-educational college- preparatory day school in Buffalo, New York, United States. The average enrollment is 570 students with an average Upper School grade/class size of 98 students. The average ...

. He attended high school at

Amherst Central High School Amherst Central High School (ACHS) is a public High school (North America), high school in Snyder, New York, Snyder, New York (state), New York, United States, a Hamlet (New York), hamlet within the town of Amherst, New York, Amherst, which is wit ...

and captured the Erie County Interscholastic Conference first singles tennis title, while ranked as a top-ten tennis player in the area.

Junior Hockey

During his senior year of high school Scamurra played hockey for the

Niagara Falls Flyers The Niagara Falls Flyers were two junior ice hockey franchises that played in the top tier in the Ontario Hockey Association. The first, a Junior "A" team existed from 1960 until 1972, and the second in Tier I Junior "A" from 1976 until 1982. ...

in the

Southern Ontario Junior A Hockey League The Southern Ontario Junior A Hockey League was a Tier II Junior "A" ice hockey that lasted from the late 1960s until 1977 in Southern Ontario, Canada. The league was swallowed by what is now called the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League ...

. There, he was scouted by Bob Johnson, then the coach at the Wisconsin Badgers Ice Hockey Team, which had just won the 1973 NCAA National Championship. Scamurra played 13 games for the University of Wisconsin in 1973-74 as a left winger, when he was offered a contract by

Roger Neilson Roger Paul Neilson, (June 16, 1934 – June 21, 2003) was a Canadian professional ice hockey coach, most notably in the NHL, where he served with eight teams in a checkered career. Known as Captain Video because of his technological contributi ...

, then head coach of the

Peterborough Petes The Peterborough Petes are a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League. The team has played at the Peterborough Memorial Centre in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, since 1956, and is the oldest continuously operating team in the league. ...

of the

Ontario Hockey Association The Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) is the governing body for the majority of junior and senior level ice hockey teams in the Province of Ontario. The OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern Ontario Hockey As ...

to play defense. He played the final 35 games for the Petes in 1973-74, who were runners-up for the

J. Ross Robertson Cup The J. Ross Robertson Cup is a Canadian ice hockey trophy. It is awarded annually in junior ice hockey to the champion of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs. It was donated by John Ross Robertson to the Ontario Hockey Association in 1910, and ...

. Team Canada was represented by the Peterborough Petes in the inaugural 1974 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, and Scamurra played for the team, despite being American. He scored one goal in the tournament, and Canada finished with the bronze medal. Scamurra played for the Petes again in 1974-75, leading defensemen in goals, and finishing with 52 points in 62 games.

Professional Hockey

Scamurra was selected 19th overall by the Washington Capitals in the 1975 NHL Draft, as the highest American taken in the draft that year. At the time he was the first player drafted in the NHL from the Buffalo area, and remained the highest selected from the region until

Patrick Kane Patrick Timothy Kane II (born November 19, 1988) is an American professional ice hockey right winger and alternate captain for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Blackhawks selected him with the first overall pick ...

was selected first overall in the 2007 NHL Draft. He was invited to a tryout for

Team USA The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

in the

1976 Canada Cup The 1976 Canada Cup was an international ice hockey tournament held September 2 to 15, 1976, in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Quebec City in Canada as well as in Philadelphia, in the United States. It was the first of five Canada Cup to ...

but did not make the final team. Scamurra played in parts of four seasons for the Capitals between 1974 and 1980, but was often sidelined, having four knee surgeries throughout his career. He briefly played in the

SM-liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

, playing 16 games for

SaiPa SAIPA ( fa, سایپا, ''SAIPA'') is an Iranian automaker headquartered in Tehran. The SAIPAC (an acronym for the French ''Société anonyme iranienne de production des automobiles Citroën'') was established in 1965 as with 75% Iranian ownersh ...

in 1980-81. In 2019, Scamurra was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Scamurra's daughter,

Hayley Scamurra Hayley Scamurra (born December 14, 1994) is a women's ice hockey player who currently plays internationally for the USA Women's Ice Hockey team, and previously played for the Buffalo Beauts of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). Before joining ...

, is a professional ice hockey player who currently plays for PWHL Ottawa of the

PWHL The Provincial Women's Hockey League (or PWHL) is a Junior women's ice hockey league in Ontario, Canada that was founded in 2004. It is considered to be the highest level of junior women's amateur ice hockey in Ontario, and is sanctioned by Hock ...

and also represented the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beij ...

, winning the silver medal with the team.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

*
Profile at hockeydraftcentral.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scamurra, Peter 1955 births Living people American men's ice hockey defensemen Amherst Central High School Alumni Binghamton Dusters players Binghamton Whalers players Cleveland Crusaders draft picks Ice hockey players from New York (state) People from Williamsville, New York Peterborough Petes (ice hockey) players SaiPa players Sportspeople from Erie County, New York Springfield Indians players Wisconsin Badgers men's ice hockey players Washington Capitals draft picks Washington Capitals players