Mark David Beaufait (born May 13, 1970) is an American former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player. He resides in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...

. He played 5 games in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL) with the

San Jose Sharks The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California. The Sharks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Con ...

during the 1992–93 season. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1992 to 2009, was spent mainly in the International Hockey League and in the

Deutsche Eishockey Liga The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (for sponsorship reasons called Penny (supermarket), PENNY Deutsche Eishockey Liga) (; English: ''German Ice Hockey League'') or DEL, is a professional ice hockey league in Germany and the highest division in German i ...

, where he won 4 championships with

Eisbären Berlin The Eisbären Berlin (; English: ''Berlin Polar Bears'') is a professional ice hockey team based in Berlin, Germany. The team competes in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), the highest level of play in professional German ice hockey, and is also ...

. Internationally, he played for the American national team at the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, were an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Hav ...

Playing career

As a youth, Beaufait played in the 1982 and 1983

Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament The Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament () is an annual minor ice hockey event in Quebec City. The tournament was founded in 1960 to coincide with the Quebec Winter Carnival, and give an opportunity for international competition to p ...

s with the Detroit Compuware and Michigan Dynamos

minor ice hockey Minor ice hockey or 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 c ...

teams. Beaufait attended

Northern Michigan University Northern Michigan University (Northern Michigan, Northern or NMU) is a public university in Marquette, Michigan, United States. It was established in 1899 by the Michigan Legislature as Northern State Normal School. In 1963, the state designa ...

from 1988 to 1992, winning the 1991 NCAA championship, and then turned pro. He played five games for the

of the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

during the 1992–93 season. He was a member of the 1994 US Olympic team. After playing for the

Kansas City Blades The Kansas City Blades were a professional ice hockey team in the International Hockey League (1945–2001), International Hockey League (IHL) from 1990 until 2001, when the league folded. The Blades were based in Kansas City, Missouri, at Kempe ...

and the

San Diego Gulls The San Diego Gulls are a professional ice hockey team based in San Diego. They are the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Anaheim Ducks. The team plays its home games at Pechanga Arena. History On Jan ...

, he embarked on a six-year stint with fellow IHL side

Orlando Solar Bears The Orlando Solar Bears are a professional ice hockey team that plays their home games at Kia Center (formerly Amway Center) in Orlando, Florida. They play in the South Division of the ECHL's Eastern Conference and are affiliated with the Tampa ...

, winning the

Turner Cup The Turner Cup was the championship trophy of the International Hockey League from 1945 to 2001 and the renamed United Hockey League from 2007 to 2010. The Cup was named for Joe Turner, a goaltender from Windsor, Ontario. Turner became professi ...

in 2001, while leading the team in scoring, followed by a single season with AHL's Houston Aeros (2001–02). He spent the last seven years of his career playing for the

of the German

DEL Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes ...

. Beaufait appeared in 400 DEL games for Berlin between 2002 and 2009, scoring 134 goals, while assisting on 249 more. He won four national championships with the Eisbären team, while leading the league in scoring in 2002-03. He retired on April 16, 2009. In January 2011, he had his jersey number 19 retired by the

organization.

Coaching career

He coaches his son Cole, as the head coach of Little Caesers Peewee AAA Team in Grand Rapids and was named full-time assistant coach of

East Kentwood High School East Kentwood High School (EKHS) is a public high school located just outside the city of Kentwood, Michigan, United States. It is part of the Kentwood Public Schools district, working together with the Crossroads High School, an alternative ...

in Kentwood,

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, prior to the 2010–11 season.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honors

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beaufait, Mark 1970 births Living people American men's ice hockey right wingers Eisbären Berlin players Houston Aeros (1994–2013) players Ice hockey players from Michigan Ice hockey players at the 1994 Winter Olympics Kansas City Blades players NHL supplemental draft picks NCAA men's ice hockey national champions Northern Michigan Wildcats men's ice hockey players Olympic ice hockey players for the United States Orlando Solar Bears (IHL) players Sportspeople from Royal Oak, Michigan Ice hockey people from Oakland County, Michigan San Diego Gulls (IHL) players San Jose Sharks draft picks San Jose Sharks players American expatriate ice hockey players in Germany 20th-century American sportsmen