Michael Henrich (born March 4, 1980) is a Canadian 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. An NHL first-round draft pick of the

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. Th ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, Henrich played several years of professional hockey in North America before moving to professional hockey in Europe. Henrich is the first Jewish player to be selected in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft, and the only player taken in the first round of the 1998 NHL Entry Draft who did not play a regular season game 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 ...

. Henrich's younger brother

Adam Henrich Adam Henrich (born January 19, 1984) is a Canadians, Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Henrich was drafted as the 60th overall selection in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning. He was Tampa Bay's first selection o ...

was also a former professional hockey player for the Coventry Blaze.

Personal life

Henrich, who is Jewish, is from

Thornhill, Ontario Thornhill is a suburban district in the Regional Municipality of York in Ontario, Canada. The western portion of Thornhill is within the City of Vaughan and its eastern portion is within the City of Markham, Ontario, Markham, with Yonge Street ...

Playing career

Junior

Michael Henrich had a standout junior career with the

Barrie Colts The Barrie Colts are a junior ice hockey team in Ontario Hockey League (OHL), based in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. The Colts play home games at the Sadlon Arena. The Colts joined the OHL in 1995, and previously competed at lower levels of junio ...

from 1996 to 2000 in the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; ) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League, alongside the Western Hockey League and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. The league is for players ag ...

. Barrie drafted him 5th overall in the 1996

priority selection draft out of the Metro Toronto Hockey Leagues Midget

Wexford Raiders The Toronto Jr. Canadiens are a Junior "A" ice hockey team based in the Downsview neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They were known as the Wexford Raiders until the end of the 2005–06 season and are a part of Ontario Junior Hockey Lea ...

. In 1997 he was selected to the

all-star game, was voted MVP for Team Orr at the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game and was voted by the

eastern conference coaches poll as best shot, hardest shot and most dangerous in the goal area. In 1999–2000 he was an assistant captain of the

champion

. Barrie competed in the 2000

Memorial Cup The Memorial Cup () is the national championship of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), a consortium of three Junior ice hockey, major junior ice hockey leagues operating in Canada and parts of the United States. It is a four-team round-robin tou ...

in Halifax finishing runner-up.

1998 NHL Draft and North American Hockey

Prior to the 1998 NHL Entry Draft in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

, Henrich was rated high by the NHL's Central Scouting Service who ranked him 3rd in their initial rankings amongst North American skaters, and by many sportswriters, including USA Today's Phil Colvin, who had him ranked as the third best prospect in the draft behind David Legwand and

Vincent Lecavalier Vincent Lecavalier (born April 21, 1980) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre currently working as a special advisor of hockey operations for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected first ove ...

. Henrich was ultimately selected 13th overall by the

. He was selected ahead of eight future NHL All-Stars including Simon Gagne (22nd overall), Scott Gomez (27th overall),

Brad Richards Bradley Ray Richards (born May 2, 1980) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre (ice hockey), centre. Richards was drafted in the third round, 64th overall, by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft and played for the Li ...

(64th overall), and Pavel Datsyuk (171st overall). As a result of Henrich not playing a regular season NHL game, coupled with the large number of NHL all-stars drafted after him, many sportswriters and networks cite him as an example of a

draft bust A draft is a process used in some countries (especially in North America) and sports (especially in closed leagues) to allocate certain players to teams. In a draft, teams take turns selecting from a pool of eligible players. When a team selec ...

, with NHL.com columnist and hockey author John Kreiser even listing Henrich as one of Edmonton's all-time biggest draft disappointments alongside Jason Bonsignore and Scott Allison. His professional career in North America lasted four seasons in which he played a total of 9 preseason games for the

scoring 1 goal and 1 assist. He also played 219 games for the Hamilton Bulldogs,

Toronto Roadrunners The Toronto Roadrunners were an ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They played in Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada at the Ricoh Coliseum. In their only season the Roadrunners featured players such as Jani Rita, Brad Winchester, Jamie W ...

and

Hershey Bears The Hershey Bears are a professional ice hockey team based in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The Bears have played in the American Hockey League (AHL) since the 1938–39 season, making it the longest continuously operating member club of the league still ...

of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America that serves as the primary developmental league of the National Hockey League (NHL). The league comprises 32 teams, with 26 in the United States and 6 in Cana ...

and 6 games with the

Tallahassee Tiger Sharks The Tallahassee Tiger Sharks were a minor league professional ice hockey team that played in Tallahassee, Florida, from 1994 to 2001 as members of the East Coast Hockey League. The Tiger Sharks home rink was the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Cent ...

of the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a minor professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams across the United States and Canada. Competitively, it is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ...

International

In 1996–97 Henrich competed for Team Ontario at the

World U-17 Hockey Challenge The World U-17 Hockey Challenge, originally known as the Quebec Esso Cup, is an international ice hockey tournament held annually in Canada. Prior to 2011, the tournament did not operate during years in which the Canada Winter Games were held. A ...

in Red Deer, Alberta where Team Ontario won the gold medal. He was selected to the

Canada men's national junior ice hockey team The Canadian men's national under-20 ice hockey team is the ice hockey team representing Canada internationally in under-20 competition. Their primary participation in this age group comes at the International Ice Hockey Federation's World Juni ...

selection camp in 1998 and 1999. He represented

Canada men's national ice hockey team The Canada men's national ice hockey team (popularly known as Team Canada; ) is the ice hockey team representing Canada internationally. The team ...

at the Deutschland Cup in

Hannover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in 2002 where

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

finished as champion. In 2003, he represented

Canada men's national ice hockey team The Canada men's national ice hockey team (popularly known as Team Canada; ) is the ice hockey team representing Canada internationally. The team ...

at the Sweden Hockey Games in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, where

placed third. Henrich played hockey for Team Canada at the age of 17 at the

1997 Maccabiah Games The 15th Maccabiah Games are primarily remembered for being marred by a Maccabiah bridge collapse, bridge collapse that killed several participants. The Maccabiah had more than 5,000 athletes from 33 countries competing in 36 sports. New sports fo ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

where the team won a gold medal.

Europe

Henrich played in the

HockeyAllsvenskan HockeyAllsvenskan (previously Allsvenskan and SuperAllsvenskan) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league, and the second-highest league in the Swedish ice hockey system, after the Swedish Hockey League, SHL. Since the 2009–10 season, t ...

for

Mora IK Mora IK (or Mora Ishockeyklubb) is a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Mora in northern Dalarna. After failing the 2019 SHL qualifiers, Mora has been relegated for play in the second-tier league, HockeyAllsvenskan. Mora has previously p ...

in 2002. He spent the

2004–05 NHL lockout The 2004–05 NHL lockout was a labor lockout that resulted in the cancellation of the National Hockey League (NHL) season, which would have been its 88th season of play. The main dispute was the league's desire to implement a salary cap to ...

with the Austrian National League team EK Zell am See and won the league championship. In 2005, he played for the Füchse Duisburg of the

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 ...

. In 2006, he played for the Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg of the 2nd Bundesliga and won the league championship. In 2008 he signed with Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio club HC Asiago and won the league championship. He was a member of Dornbirner EC of the

Erste Bank Eishockey Liga The ICE Hockey League (International Central European Hockey League, ICEHL), known as the win2day ICE Hockey League for sponsorship reasons, is a Central European hockey league that also serves as the top-tier ice hockey league in Austria. It c ...

in 2012 and finished his career in 2014 with the Coventry Blaze of the

Elite Ice Hockey League The Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL), sometimes referred to internationally as the British Elite League, is an ice hockey league in the United Kingdom. Formed in 2003 following the demise of the Ice Hockey Superleague, it is the highest level ...

Career statistics

References

External links

*
Michael Henrich Serie A Profile

Oilers: Q&A with Michael Henrich
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henrich, Michael 1980 births Asiago Hockey 1935 players Barrie Colts players Canadian ice hockey right wingers Jewish Canadian sportspeople Coventry Blaze players Dornbirn Bulldogs players Edmonton Oilers draft picks Grizzlys Wolfsburg players Füchse Duisburg players Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL) players Hershey Bears players Living people Maccabiah Games competitors for Canada Mora IK players NHL first-round draft picks Tallahassee Tiger Sharks players Toronto Roadrunners players Competitors at the 1997 Maccabiah Games Ice hockey people from Toronto EK Zell am See players 21st-century Canadian sportsmen