Kurtis Foster

Kurtis Foster (born November 24, 1981) is a Canadian ice hockey coach and a former professional ice hockey defenceman. He played 408 career games in the National Hockey League (NHL). Foster currently serves as an assistant coach of the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League.

Playing career

Kurtis Foster was selected in the second round, 40th overall, in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft by the Calgary Flames from the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League. On December 18, 2001, Foster was traded by Calgary with Jeff Cowan to the Atlanta Thrashers for Petr Buzek.

On June 26, 2004, Foster was traded to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim for Niclas Havelid. After one season with the Ducks, Foster signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Wild. He started the season with the Houston Aeros of the AHL, but after a hot start, got called up and played his first NHL game of the year on November 19, 2005. He scored his first two goals of his young career that game against Tomas Vokoun.

On March 20, 2008, Foster suffered a broken left femur in a game against the San Jose Sharks. Foster suffered the injury when Sharks centre, Torrey Mitchell, checked Foster into the bottom of the boards while attempting to prevent an icing call. The hit, which resulted in a penalty, was later ruled accidental by the NHL. Foster had season-ending surgery to repair his broken left femur and missed the remainder of the season and postseason.

In light of Foster's injury, following the 2007–08 season, the NHL added the following to the rule regarding icing to protect both competitors as they raced for the puck:

Foster was not ready for the beginning of the 2008–09 season, but on October 11, 2008, announced he was skating with full gear and feels no pain when skating. On February 9, 2009, Kurtis returned to play for the Aeros on a conditioning stint from the Wild. He played in a 6-3 win over the Chicago Wolves and registered 2 PIM.

On July 8, 2009, Foster was signed as a free agent to a one-year contract by the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he posted a career high 42 points. On July 1, 2010, he signed a two-year contract with the Edmonton Oilers.

In his ongoing effort to get the NHL to change its icing rule, on February 3, 2011 Foster told TSN that there were complications during his surgery to repair his broken femur. Foster bled out and was in danger of losing his leg and could have died. A surgery that typically takes three hours took close to eight hours to complete. Foster wondered aloud if the NHL would have changed the icing rule had he not made it through the surgery. He stated he would like to see the NHL change the rule before anybody else has to go through what he went through, or worse, such as a spinal injury. Don Cherry has been lobbying for many years for a rule change, and has been critical of the NHL for not going to no touch icing.

On February 12, 2011, Foster recorded his 100th career assist, a secondary assist on a goal by Andrew Cogliano, in a 5-3 Oilers loss to the Ottawa Senators. Foster finished the 2010–11 season with a disappointing record, as the Oilers hoped to get more out of him, despite this, he scored 8 goals to go along with 14 assist and 22 points.

On July 1, 2011, Foster was traded back to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for defenceman Andy Sutton. During the 2011–12 season after only 9 games with the Ducks, Foster was traded by the Ducks, along with goaltender Timo Pielmeier, to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for defenceman Mark Fraser and forward Rod Pelley on December 12, 2011. Foster's tenure with the Devils lasted only 28 games, before he was on the move again on February 24, 2012, when he was traded back to the Minnesota Wild along with Nick Palmieri and Stephane Veilleux, and draft picks in exchange for Marek Zidlicky. Foster was scoreless in 14 games as the Wild missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.

With the prospect of the 2012–13 NHL lockout affecting his Free Agent contract status, Foster signed his first European contract with Tappara of the Finnish SM-liiga on October 23, 2012. Foster appeared in 13 games with the Blues over the course of the lockout, scoring 6 points. On January 8, 2013, with the establishment of a new CBA, Foster left Tappara to return to North America with the intent of signing in the NHL.

On January 13 Foster agreed to contract terms with Philadelphia Flyers. During the shortened 2012–13 season, Foster appeared in 23 games with the Flyers posting 1 goal and 5 points.

Released from the Flyers as a free agent at season's end, Foster returned to Europe and signed a one-year contract on July 30, 2013, with a Croatian club, KHL Medveščak Zagreb, the newest member of the KHL.

After a brief spell in the KHL with HC Slovan Bratislava, Foster moved to the German DEL, in agreeing to contract for the remainder of the season with Adler Mannheim. In his short tenure with the Eagles, Foster helped contribute with 8 points in 15 post-season games to claim the Championship. On April 24, 2015, Foster opted to continue in Germany, agreeing to a two-year contract with the Nürnberg Ice Tigers. In June 2016, the Ice Tigers announced that the contract was terminated prematurely by mutual consent. Foster retired from hockey the following month to pursue a career in coaching.

Coaching career

He started his career behind the bench in July 2016 as an assistant coach of the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL).

Personal

Foster has a brother, Craig, who was drafted 5th overall in the 2000 OHL Draft. He spent 5 years playing in the OHL, before playing 4 more in the CIS league with the UPEI Panthers. Craig resides in Sherwood, PEI and coaches a Midget AAA girls hockey team. Foster is married to Stephanie (Bosch) Foster and has two boys, Jackson(5) and Charlie (3).

Awards

• 2003–04 AHL - Yanick Dupre Memorial Award (AHL Man of the Year)

Career statistics