à ½igmund Pálffy (; born 5 May 1972), nicknamed "Ziggy" in English and "à ½igo" in Slovak, is a Slovak former professional ice hockey player.
Pálffy played in the NHL for 12 years with the New York Islanders, Los Angeles Kings, and Pittsburgh Penguins between 1993 and 2006. He announced his retirement in January 2006 and his comeback from retirement in the summer of 2007. Pálffy signed a contract to play for his boyhood club HK 36 Skalica in the 2007âÂÂ08 season and continued to do so until the end of his career. He also retracted his decision from 2005 never to play for the Slovak national team again by participating at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, where he was also the flagbearer. In July 2013, he announced his definite retirement. Pálffy was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2019.
Pálffy played with the Czechoslovakia national team in the 1991 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships and was drafted by the New York Islanders in the second round of the 1991 NHL Draft, 26th overall. After two more years in Slovakia, Pálffy came to North America for the 1993âÂÂ94 season. He spent the majority of the 1993âÂÂ94 season in the International Hockey League (IHL) with the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, while also making his NHL debut with the Islanders, appearing in five games, although he did not earn a single point. The following season, 1994âÂÂ95, he split the year between the Islanders and the Denver Grizzlies of the IHL.
In his first game of 1995âÂÂ96, his team went down one goal but Pálffy scored two goals to lead New York to a 2âÂÂ1 win over the Florida Panthers. He scored 87 points in 81 games. The following two seasons were much the same for Pálffy, scoring 90 and 87 points respectively. During the 1998âÂÂ99 season, Pálffy was limited to only 50 games but still scored 50 points. After the season, the Islanders traded him and Bryan Smolinski to the Los Angeles Kings in a deal that saw Olli Jokinen, Josh Green, Mathieu Biron and a first-round draft pick go to the Islanders.
After the 2004âÂÂ05 NHL lockout, Pálffy signed with the Penguins for three years and US$13.5 million. After playing 42 games with the Penguins during the 2005âÂÂ06 season, Pálffy retired from professional hockey. On January 18, 2006, then-Penguins general manager Craig Patrick told reporters Pálffy told him he was retiring due to a lingering shoulder injury. Pálffy completed his career with 329 goals and 384 assists for 713 points in 684 games over 12 NHL seasons.
Pálffy announced his comeback from retirement in the summer of 2007 and signed a contract to play for his hometown club of HK 36 Skalica for the entire 2007âÂÂ08 season. He became the most productive player of the regular season in the Slovak Extraliga, where he led four seasons in points. In July 2013, before the start of the 2013âÂÂ14 season, Pálffy formally announced his retirement from professional hockey. He said he was old enough and did not feel like playing and traveling with the team after so many years, but also that he was going to miss the game of hockey since he lived for it for almost 40 years.
Pálffy represented Slovakia and Czechoslovakia in international competitions, winning a gold medal with Slovakia in the 2002 after he had assisted on Peter Bondra's tournament-winning goal 100 seconds to go in the third period. Following the 2005 World Championships in Austria, Pálffy announced his retirement from the Slovak national team. Five years later, Pálffy broke his retirement and was named to the Slovak national team for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, recording three assists with the team for a total of three points in seven games.
1998 Ryan Raasch Award