(Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Erik Christensen spent seven seasons in the National Hockey League, but he certainly made his rounds across the league during that time. 

Christensen suited up for five different NHL teams during his career, in part due to three separate trades and a waiver claim. But he never failed to make an impact wherever he went. 

Nicknamed “Crusher” as a kid, Christensen was a draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins all the way back in 2002, 69th overall in the third round. 

He spent the next two seasons finishing out his junior hockey days, tallying a whopping 108 points in 67 games for the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers, before splitting the 2003-04 campaign between the Blazers and the Brandon Wheat Kings. 

Christensen turned pro for the 2004-05 season, just in time for the NHL lockout that would end up killing the whole season. During that time, Christensen appeared for Pittsburgh’s American Hockey League affiliate Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. 

The 2004-05 WBS Penguins featured many talented young players, including Colby Armstrong, Michel Ouelett, Tomas Surovy, Rob Scuderi, Marc-Andre Fleury, and many others. Despite having a loaded lineup, the team went a mediocre 37-29-14 that season, and were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs. 

Christensen finished the season with 27 points in 77 games, but he did have 7 points in 11 postseason games. 

The following season, Christensen started the season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but after scoring 9 goals and 19 points in 9 games, the Penguins called him up to Pittsburgh. 

Christensen was joining a very young and very exciting team that reunited him with guys like Fleury, Armstrong, and Ouellet, as well as placing him on a team with a rookie Sidney Crosby. 

He would spend the 2005-06 season going back and forth between Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Pittsburgh, putting up 13 points in his 33 NHL games, while being nearly a point a game player in the AHL, tallying 46 points in 48 games. 

The following season saw Christensen also split between the NHL and AHL. However, he appeared much more at the NHL level, playing in 61 games and recording 33 points. He added 24, including 12 goals, and 16 AHL games. 

He also appeared in 4 playoff games for the Penguins that season, but had no points as Pittsburgh was bounced in five games in the first round by the Ottawa Senators. 

Christensen’s game possessed a unique skill, however. He was a master at the shootout. His 52.73% career shootout success percentage ranks 15th best in league history during the shootout’s near two decade existence. Among players who have 50 or more shots attempted in the shootout, Christensen’s percentage ranks the best in league history. 

Christensen’s skill in the shootout usually relied on similar approaches. His patented backhand forehand movement usually fooled goaltenders into biting towards the backend, allowing Christensen to pull the puck back and fire it in with a forehand wrist shot. 

He would be able to showcase some of that skill while in Pittsburgh, including a game in the opening month of the 2007-08 season, where he was able to execute his patented move to help the Penguins win a game against the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3. 

Christensen had become an NHL regular by 2007-08, staying out of the AHL and contributing 20 points in 49 games for Pittsburgh. However, this season would mark his last in the city. 

At the 2008 trade deadline, Christensen was part of a package with teammate Armstrong, Angelo Esposito, and a first round pick to the Atlanta Thrashers for Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis. 

None of the assets acquired by Atlanta lasted long, or made a huge impact on the team. 

Christensen was joining a team in Atlanta that, like Pittsburgh, had experienced an early playoff exit the season prior. Unlike Pittsburgh, however, Atlanta was having a rough time re-signing and extending players, which is what helped cause the Hossa trade to the Penguins. 

Upon arrival in Atlanta, Christensen saw an increase in ice time, and put up 4 points in 10 games, as the Thrashers missed the playoffs. 

He also got a chance to showcase to Thrashers fans his shootout prowess, beating Minnesota’s Niklas Backstrom in a shootout Atlanta ultimately lost.

Starting off the 2008-09 season, Christensen recorded 8 points in his first 16 games. Unfortunately, his pace started to slow after, and an injury that kept him out nearly all of December didn’t help. 

In one of his first games back, Christensen scored a shootout goal to win the game for the Thrashers. 

He came back for Atlanta right around the turn of the new year, but his days as a Thrasher were numbered. 

On February 16, 2009, Christensen used his patented move to beat Los Angeles Kings goaltender Erik Ersberg, nearly bending him in half on the deke and winning the game for the Thrashers. Ten days later, he was traded. 

Atlanta sent him to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman prospect Eric O’Dell. O’Dell never played a game for the Thrashers, and only played 41 NHL games in total for the franchise, all happening after the team was sold and relocated to Winnipeg. 

Christensen, meanwhile, tallied 9 points in 17 games for the Ducks, and added 2 assists in 8 playoff games for Anaheim. 

In the offseason, he signed a one year extension with the Ducks, but would hardly see that contract played out in Anaheim. 

After 9 games to open the 2009-10 season, Anaheim placed Christensen on waivers, where the New York Rangers swept in and claimed him. With New York, he was able to find his game again, fitting in much better in the Rangers’ system than the Ducks’. 

Christensen recorded 26 points in 49 games for the Rangers, his best totals in a season with a team since the Penguins back in 2006-07. 

The Rangers fought tooth and nail during the 2009-10 season for a chance at the playoffs, with their final game of the season deciding who made the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs: the Rangers, or their opponent that night, the Philadelphia Flyers. 

It was speculated on the Flyers’ local broadcast, CSN, that the Rangers may have intentionally stalled during overtime, playing keepaway in the hopes of getting the game to a shootout, where the legendary Henrik Lundqvist could backstop them to a win and therefore, a playoff spot.

Christensen was one of the shooters for New York in that game’s shootout, but he could not beat Brian Boucher as it was the Flyers who won the game and the playoff spot. 

Christensen again had several flashy shootout moments as a Ranger, including a stunning one-handed tuck. 

The following season 2010-11, Christensen put up 27 points in 63 games for the Rangers, the first season of his NHL career that he spent entirely with one team. 

New York would make the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but would be eliminated in round one in five games by the Washington Capitals. Christensen would score once. 

Christensen would play just 29 games as a Ranger in 2011-12, being traded that February to the Minnesota Wild along with a conditional 7th round pick for Casey Wellman. 

Wellman would never play a game for the Rangers, and after the trade, only played 13 more NHL games, all with Washington. 

Christensen finished out the 2011-12 season with the Wild, putting up just 7 points in 29 games. 

During the 2012 offseason, Christensen decided to take his talents overseas. He signed with HC Lev Praha of the Kontinental Hockey League in Russia, but during his second and final year under contract for them, transferred to the Swedish Hockey League, joining HV71. 

There, Christensen was able to put up much better numbers, and played out the final years of his professional career with HV71. 

His best season with HV71 came in 2014-15, when he was nearly a point a game, with 44 points in 46 games. 

During the 2016-17 season, Christensen was able to help lead his club to the SHL’s Le Mat Trophy, the franchise’s 5th in history. 

After the championship, he was not re-signed by HV71, and soon after, announced his retirement.