Blair Betts (born February 16, 1980) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre who currently plays for the Philadelphia Flyers in the National Hockey League (NHL).

[edit] Playing career

Betts was drafted by the Calgary Flames in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft in the second round, 33rd overall.

During the 2006–07 season, Betts found success on the Rangers checking fourth line. He was mostly paired with Colton Orr and Ryan Hollweg. Betts was also a key factor on the penalty kill. He was one of the Rangers most consistent faceoff men with 52.3 percent of faceoffs won. He was first on the team with 1186 faceoffs taken. He was also sixth on the team, first among forwards, with 98 blocked shots and led the team with 276 minutes and 42 seconds of short handed time on the ice. In the 2008-09 NHL season, Betts played as one of the Rangers' alternate captains while Scott Gomez was injured.

Recently, TSN hockey analyst Pierre McGuire declared Betts "the most underrated player in the league". Praise continued for Betts on January 24, 2009 when Larry Brooks, columnist for The New York Post, wrote that Betts and teammate Fredrik Sjöström could be the best penalty kill tandem in Rangers history. As of then, the penalty kill was a franchise high of 87.6 percent.^[1]

After becoming a free agent, Betts was invited to the 2009 Philadelphia Flyers training camp. The Flyers signed him to a one-year contract on October 1st, 2009. ^[2]

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Blair Betts's career stats at The Internet Hockey Database
• Blair Betts at TSN.ca