GERALD COLEMAN (at left), 22, is in his first full season with the Pirates. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2003. He played in a couple of NHL games for Tampa but saw most of his action with the Lightning's AHL team in Springfield, Mass. He was traded last season to the Anaheim Ducks, parent team of the Pirates. Coleman grew up in Evanston, Ill., and played on the U.S. national team as a teenager. As a member of the London Knights in the Ontario Hockey League, he was on squad that won the Memorial Cup.

MIKE HOFFMAN, 27, took a different path than most hockey players on the Pirates. He graduated from Scituate (Mass.) High 1999, then went to prep school and the United States Hockey League before playing for the University of Connecticut. In the fall of his junior year, Hoffman got a call from his agent asking if he'd like a tryout with the Worcester Ice Cats. Before the first game the coach asked, "Do you fight?" and Hoffman said, "I do now." He had a fight that night against Graham Belak, and according to Hoffman, "that's how my pro career started."