Michael Steven Rathje (born May 11, 1974) 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 ...

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 ...

defenceman 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 ...

who played 13 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

San Jose Sharks The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference, and are owned by San Jose Sports & Entertainm ...

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 ...

. Rathje was born in

Mannville, Alberta Mannville is a village in central Alberta, Canada. It is located at the intersection of the Yellowhead Highway and Highway 881, approximately west of Vermilion, Alberta, Vermilion and east of Edmonton, Alberta, Edmonton. Its primary industry is ...

, but grew up in

Medicine Hat Medicine Hat is a city in Southern Alberta, southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff, Alberta, ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Playing career

Rathje was selected by the

3rd overall in the

1992 NHL Entry Draft The 1992 NHL Entry Draft was the 30th NHL Entry Draft. It was held on June 20 at the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec. A total of 264 players were drafted. The last active player in the NHL from this draft class was Sergei Gonchar, who retire ...

and made his NHL debut during the 1993–94 season. After holding out for nearly half of the 2001–02 season, Rathje responded with a career year in the 2002–03 season as he played in all 82 games scoring career highs with 7 goals and 22 assists for 29 points. After spending his first eleven seasons with the Sharks, Rathje signed a five-year contract with the

following the

NHL lockout The NHL lockout may refer to any of the four labour actions in the history of the National Hockey League: * The 1992 NHL strike, which postponed 30 games of the 1991–92 season * The 1994–95 NHL lockout, which cancelled many of the games of ...

. Shortly into his second season with the Flyers, Rathje was placed on Long Term Injured Reserve (LTI) due to chronic back and hip problems. Rathje attempted to return to the Flyers lineup prior to the 2007–08 season, but was placed on LTI after training camp.

Awards

* 1991–92: East Second All-Star Team ( WHL) * 1992–93: East Second All-Star Team (WHL)

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rathje, Mike 1974 births Canadian ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey people from Alberta Kansas City Blades players Living people Medicine Hat Tigers players National Hockey League first-round draft picks Philadelphia Flyers players San Jose Sharks draft picks San Jose Sharks players Sherwood Park Crusaders players Sportspeople from Medicine Hat