Leap Day special to current, former NHL players

For most of us, Wednesday is "Leap Day," a day that's added to the calendar once every four years to keep things in harmony. For a handful of NHL players past and present, however, it's a chance to celebrate their "real" birthday.

For Carolina goaltender Cam Ward, who turns 28 by normal standards, it's the seventh time he gets to celebrate his birthday on the right day -- Feb. 29.

"In the early ages I got made fun of for being so young," Ward told NHL.com. "Now being 28, I'm sure I'll get some 7-year-old cards."

Asked when he celebrates his birthday in non-leap years, Ward said he opted for earlier rather than later.

"I typically would celebrate on the 28th of February, just to keep it in the same month," he said. "It's unique and fun."

Ward and Los Angeles Kings forward Simon Gagne, who was born in 1980, are the only active NHL players with Feb. 29 birthdays. Defenseman Bobby Sanguinetti, who played five games with the New York Rangers in 2009-10 and currently is with Carolina's AHL team in Charlotte, is the only other current Feb. 29-born player who has played in an NHL game.

Sanguinetti has played fewer NHL games than any of the Feb. 29-born players -- though he needs only seven more to equal James Dobson, who played 12 games with the Minnesota North Stars and Colorado Rockies in the early 1980s.

Sanguinetti and Kari Eloranta, who played 267 NHL games from 1981-82 to 1986-87, all but 12 with the Calgary Flames, are the only defensemen born Feb. 29. Eloranta, who also is the only non-North American among the Feb. 29-born players, had 13 goals and 116 points before returning to his native Finland to conclude his career.

By far the most famous (and accomplished) member of the NHL's Feb. 29 club is its oldest member. Hall of Famer Henri Richard was born on this date in 1936 and joined the Montreal Canadiens in 1955-56, just in time to be a member of the team that went on to win a record five consecutive Stanley Cups. The younger brother of the legendary Maurice "Rocket" Richard is by far the best offensive player among the eight Feb. 29 players, with 358 goals, 688 assists and 1.046 points in 1,256 games.

Richard also is the only one to make a postseason All-Star team -- the "Pocket Rocket" was a First-Team All-Star in 1957-58 and made the Second Team the next season.

Richard is one of only two Feb. 29 players to win a Stanley Cup -- but he leads all players, regardless of birthday, by winning 11 of them. When he won his 11th Cup in 1973, Richard actually had more championships than "birthdays"; Feb. 29 had come around only nine times.

The other Cup-winner is Ward, who not is only the only goaltender in the group, but also the only one to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. The Edmonton native did both as a rookie in 2006, when his goaltending sparked the Hurricanes to the only Stanley Cup in franchise history.

Richard's 80 points in 1957-58 are the most in one season by any Feb. 29-born player, but Gagne is the only one to break the 40-goal mark. He did it twice, scoring 47 times in 2005-06 and posting 41 goals the following season. Gagne's 761 games, 283 goals, 298 assists and 581 points all are second to Richard -- and far ahead of third-place Daniel Daoust, who had 87 goals, 167 assists and 254 points in 522 games between 1983 and 1990.

Though Lyndon Byers played less than a quarter as many games as Richard in his 10 NHL seasons, he's taken more penalty minutes than anyone else in the Feb. 29 octet -- Byers piled up 1,081 penalty minutes in just 279 games, mostly with Boston.

Gagne has been sidelined with a concussion, leaving Ward as this season's only active Feb. 29 player. He said his birthday will be a little happier after his performance Tuesday -- he returned from a lower-body injury to make 26 saves as Carolina held off Nashville 4-3.

"You've got to wait every four years to get one," he said of his true birthday, "so it's going to be fun to celebrate knowing we got a win."

NHL.com correspondent Kurt Dusterberg contributed to this story