Andrew Ference

Andrew Ference (born Andrew James Stewart Ference on March 17, 1979) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman and captain for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Andrew started in the NHL during the 1999-00 NHL season and has played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Calgary Flames and Boston Bruins. In 2011, he helped the Bruins to their 6th Stanley Cup Championship.

WHL & Pittsburgh Penguins
Andrew began his hockey career in the Western Hockey League (WHL) with the Portland Winter Hawks.

After two full seasons with the team, he was selected 208th overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft.

Andrew played two more seasons with Portland and had a brief stint in the International Hockey League (IHL) with the Kansas City Blades before joining Pittsburgh in 1999.

After making his NHL debut on October 1, 1999 (in a game against the Dallas Stars), Andrew scored his first NHL goal a month later against the Nashville Predators on November 13, 1999.

Andrew split his rookie season between Pittsburgh and their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, finishing with 6 points (2 goals, 4 assists) in 30 NHL games and 28 points (8 goals, 20 assists) in 44 AHL games.

The next season, Andrew continued to share time between both Penguins teams. He played in his first NHL playoffs with Pittsburgh in 2001, playing 18 games and scoring 3 goals and 10 points before the Penguins were eliminated by the New Jersey Devils.

In his third NHL season, Andrew established himself as a full-time NHLer, scoring 11 points in 75 games.

Calgary Flames
On February 9, 2003, in the middle of the 2002–03 season, Andrew was traded to the Calgary Flames for future considerations. He posted 4 assists in 16 games during the remainder of the season with Calgary.

The next season, Andrew registered 16 points with 4 goals and 12 assists in 72 games for Calgary and also played 26 playoff games posting 3 assists. Calgary reached the Stanley Cup Finals where they lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

With the 2004–05 NHL season suspended due to a lockout, Andrew played in the Czech Republic for HC České Budějovice. He returned to the Flames when the NHL restarted the next season.

Andrew played all 82 games of the season for the first time in his career, scoring 4 goals, and 27 assists for a career high 31 points.

Boston Bruins
The following season, on February 10, 2007, Andrew was traded (along with teammate Chuck Kobasew) to the Boston Bruins for defenceman Brad Stuart and centre Wayne Primeau. He scored 1 goal, along with 15 assists, during the 2008–09 NHL season.

On March 23, 2010, Andrew agreed on a three-year contract extension with the Bruins worth an annual average salary of $2.25 million.

On April 22, 2011, he was fined $2,500 for an obscene gesture to the crowd at the Bell Centre in game four of The Stanley Cup Playoffs first round series against the Montreal Canadiens, although Ference's comments after the incident make it unclear whether or not the gesture was intentional.

In the Bruins 4-3 game 7 victory over the Montreal of the same series, Andrew drew much ire for a questionable collision to the head of Canadiens' Jeff Halpern, but upon a disciplinary hearing it was ruled that the hit did not warrant any sort of disciplinary action.

On June 15, 2011, Andrew and the Boston Bruins defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 in game 7 of the Finals to win the Stanley Cup.

The next season, Andrew scored 6 goals, a career high and was named alternate captain during home games for the first half of the season, and during away games for the second half of the season.

Edmonton Oilers
On July 5, 2013, Andrew signed a four-year deal as a free agent with his hometown team, the Edmonton Oilers.

On September 29, 2013, Andrew was named the 14th captain in Oilers NHL franchise history, succeeding Shawn Horcoff who had been traded to the Dallas Stars.

Personal Life
Andrew grew up in Sherwood Park, Alberta. He married his wife Krista Bradford in 2002. They have two daughters: Ava Tye (born in June of 2005) and Stella (born in March of 2009).

Ference's association with environmentalist David Suzuki while in Calgary led him to create a carbon-neutral program for the NHL which now includes over 500 players who purchase carbon offset credits to counteract the negative environmental impact of professional sports.

In February of 2012 National Geographic began a ten-episode Web series called "Beyond the Puck" highlighting Andrew's life as a NHL Player and "eco-warrior."

On September 5, 2011 following the Bruins Stanley Cup championship, Andrew organized and led a parade and flash mob in Boston's North End (which is the area where he resided during the NHL season).

After bringing the Stanley Cup to and from Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital on a bike trailer, Andrew brought the Cup to an area of the North End outside the TD Garden.

There, the Cup was hoisted up on a platform carried by friends and family, and paraded through the North End, with many stops at local shops along the way. Ference and the other Cup-carriers were accompanied by a marching band, members of The Boston Bruins Ice Girls, and the Boston Bruins mascot 'Blades.'

Hundreds of fans also joined them for the parade which was concluded with a dancing flash mob.

Andrew is a fan of English Premier League football club Arsenal F.C. He is also a member of the popular November Project workout tribe in Boston and Edmonton.