Born in Roubaix, France, Roussel began his childhood athletic career playing rugby. But when he was let go by his hometown club team for repeatedly leaving the field to escape the heat during summer practices, his mother enrolled him in a hockey league. Roussel has been playing hockey like a rugby player ever since.
A gritty wing who worked his way onto Chicoutimi in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League after his family moved to Canada when he was 16, Roussel has had a solid career since entering the NHL as an undrafted free agent. After finishing his fourth and final season with Chicoutimi, he played most of 2010-11 for Providence of the American Hockey League.
Born in Roubaix, France, Roussel began his childhood athletic career playing rugby. But when he was let go by his hometown club team for repeatedly leaving the field to escape the heat during summer practices, his mother enrolled him in a hockey league. Roussel has been playing hockey like a rugby player ever since.
A gritty wing who worked his way onto Chicoutimi in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League after his family moved to Canada when he was 16, Roussel has had a solid career since entering the NHL as an undrafted free agent. After finishing his fourth and final season with Chicoutimi, he played most of 2010-11 for Providence of the American Hockey League.
An invitation to attend a Vancouver Canucks prospect camp in the summer of 2011 earned Roussel a contract with Chicago, the Canucks' AHL affiliate, for the 2011-12 season. He signed as a free agent with the Dallas Stars on July 2, 2012. Seven months later, after playing the first half of the 2012-13 season with Texas in the AHL, Roussel got the call from Dallas. He made his NHL debut and scored his first NHL goal in a 4-3 shootout victory against the Phoenix Coyotes on Feb. 1, 2013.
Roussel ranked in the top three on the Dallas Stars in hits in each of his first three full NHL seasons and led them in penalty minutes in all three. He became a checking-line regular with the Stars in 2013-14, scoring 29 points (14 goals, 15 assists) and getting 209 penalty minutes in 81 games. He played 80 games in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons and combined for 26 goals, 54 points and 271 penalty minutes, and scored 17 points (five goals, 12 assists) with 126 penalty minutes in 2017-18.
Despite the reduction in offense, Roussel's grit and ability to play a physical game earned him a four-year, $12 million contract with the Canucks, who signed him July 1, 2018. He scored an NHL career-high 31 points (nine goals, 22 assists) before a knee injury sustained against the New York Rangers on March 13, 2019 ended his season after 65 games.
Internationally, Roussel played for France at the IIHF World Championship in 2012, 2013 and 2014. His 11 points in 2014 earned him a berth on the tournament's all-star team.
NOTES & TRANSACTIONS
- Signed as a free agent by Dallas, July 2, 2012.
- Signed as a free agent by Vancouver, July 1, 2018.
