Matt Pettinger

Playing career

Matthew Pettinger, a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger, was born in Edmonton, Alberta and grew up in Victoria, British Columbia. He appeared in the National Hockey League for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Vancouver Canucks, and Washington Capitals. As a youth, he took part in the 1994 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a Victoria minor team. The Washington Capitals selected him 43rd overall in the second round of the 2000 NHL entry draft. Before turning pro, Pettinger spent a season and a half with the University of Denver Pioneers, then moved to the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League midway through the 1999–00 season.

His early NHL years saw him shuttle between the Capitals and their American Hockey League affiliate, the Portland Pirates, until he secured a full-time spot with Washington in 2003–04. During the 2004–05 NHL lockout, he played eight games for HDD Olimpija Ljubljana in Slovenia. When NHL play returned, he posted career highs of 20 goals, 18 assists, and 38 points. At the 2008 trade deadline, the Capitals sent him to the Vancouver Canucks for Matt Cooke. Starting the 2008–09 season with the Canucks' AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, he was claimed on re-entry waivers by the Tampa Bay Lightning on October 21, 2008, and finished that season with 15 points in 59 games.