Jay McKee

Infobox Ice Hockey Player


image_size=
team=St. Louis Blues
former_teams = Buffalo Sabres
league = NHL
position = Defence
shoots = Left
height_ft = 6
height_in = 3
weight_lb = 199
nickname =
nationality = CAN
birth_date = Birth date and age|1977|9|8|mf=y
birth_place = Kingston, ON, CAN
draft = 14th overall
draft_year = 1995
draft_team = Buffalo Sabres
career_start = 1996

Jay McKee (born September 8, 1977, Kingston, Ontario) is an ice hockey defenceman who plays for the St. Louis Blues. Throughout his career he has been noted as one of the NHL's best shot-blockers. McKee was drafted in the first round, 14th overall, of the 1995 NHL Entry Draft by the Buffalo Sabres. McKee played his junior hockey with the Niagara Falls Thunder, where he was an OHL second team all-star in 1996.

McKee parlayed his solid junior career into a steady pro career, becoming one of the Sabres top defenceman in his 9 years with the club. McKee played in 582 regular season games with the Sabres, amassing 98 points and 470 penalty minutes. During the 2005–06 NHL season with the Buffalo Sabres he served as an alternate captain under co-captains Daniel Briere and Chris Drury.

McKee was part of the Sabres' Eastern Conference Championship run in 1999 (before losing to the Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup Finals). McKee was injured during the Sabres's two subsequent playoff runs. In 2001, he missed the team's final five games of the playoffs after a vicious collision with the Pittsburgh Penguins's Mario Lemieux during game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, and in 2006 McKee missed the deciding seventh game of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Carolina Hurricanes when he was sidelined with a severe infection in his leg, reportedly caused by a cut or bruise that McKee sustained blocking a shot in an earlier round of the playoffs. All totaled, McKee appeared in 51 playoff games with the Sabres, recording 9 points and 60 penalty minutes. On July 1, 2006, McKee signed with the St. Louis Blues for a four-year, $16 million contract. His first season with the Blues was cut short due to various injuries including a knee injury, a broken finger, and two lower body injuries.

Career statistics

ee also

*List of NHL players
*List of NHL seasons
*List of AHL seasons
*List of OHL seasons

External links

*hockeydb|17664