Brandon DeFazio

Did You Know?

• His father, Dean DeFazio, also played professional hockey within the Penguins organization.
• DeFazio earned his AHL team's man of the year award multiple times for community work.
• He is married with one baby girl and a second child on the way.

Playing career

Brandon DeFazio played four years of college hockey at Clarkson University with the Golden Knights before going pro. After graduating, he finished the 2010-11 season with two Pittsburgh Penguins farm teams: the Wheeling Nailers in the ECHL and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the AHL. Wilkes-Barre gave him a one-year AHL contract, and he also got a tryout at Pittsburgh's NHL training camp for the next season. On July 2, 2012, he signed a one-year, two-way deal with the New York Islanders as a free agent. A year later, he left the Islanders and signed a one-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks on July 12, 2013. During the 2014-15 season, the Canucks called him up to the NHL for the first time on November 9, 2014. He made his long-awaited debut that night in a 2-1 shootout win over the Anaheim Ducks. Two days later, on November 11, he played his second NHL game against the Ottawa Senators, recording his first career shot on goal while logging 5 minutes and 49 seconds of ice time. After leaving Vancouver as a free agent, he signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Boston Bruins on July 6, 2015. He then left the Bruins and signed a one-year AHL deal with the Texas Stars on July 25, 2016. With Texas in the 2016-17 season, he played every regular-season game and set a career high with 47 points. After six seasons mostly in the AHL, he signed a one-year contract with Chinese KHL club HC Kunlun Red Star on June 6, 2017. He left Kunlun for the 2018-19 season to play for Lukko in Finland's Liiga, then returned to Kunlun for the 2019-20 campaign. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he signed with Czech Extraliga team HC Kometa Brno on November 17, 2020. After six scoreless games there, he moved to German DEL club ERC Ingolstadt on December 5, 2020.