Patrick Kaleta (born June 8, 1986) is an American former professional ice hockey right winger who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Buffalo Sabres from 2006 until 2015. He was drafted by the Sabres in the sixth round, 176th overall, of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. Kaleta is just the third native of the Buffalo Niagara Region to play for the hometown Sabres in the regular season. (Although Marcus Foligno was born in Buffalo, he spent most of his childhood in his father's hometown of Sudbury, Ontario.) Kaleta retains the highest career rate of drawing penalties since the NHL began collecting this data in the 2007-08 season. Playing career Junior Kaleta grew up in the Buffalo suburb of Angola and played most of his minor hockey with Hamburg Hawks and the West Seneca Wings, also playing high school hockey for St. Francis HS in Athol Springs. It was there he was discovered by the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), who selected him in the second round, 31st overall, in the 2002 OHL Priority Draft. He spent his major junior ice hockey career with Peterborough, where he compiled 147 points and 460 penalty minutes over four seasons. In the 2006 OHL playoffs, Kaleta scored eight goals and ten assists as the Petes reached the 2006 Memorial Cup. Kaleta signed his first professional contract in June 2006 with the Buffalo Sabres, the organization that drafted him two years prior in 2004, 176th overall. Professional On February 21, 2007, partway through his first professional season, Kaleta was called up from the American Hockey League (AHL)'s Rochester Americans by his parent club in Buffalo. In his first NHL game on February 22, 2007, against the Ottawa Senators, Kaleta earned his first NHL point, an assist on a goal by Clarke MacArthur, and his first NHL fight against Ottawa's Chris Phillips. The game is best known as a brawl broke out which included Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff and Bryan Murray fighting from the benches. Kaleta scored his first career NHL goal on February 10, 2008, against the Florida Panthers. Kaleta recorded his first two-goal game on December 12, 2009, against the New York Rangers, a 3–2 Buffalo victory. He scored the game-winner on a short-handed breakaway, beating Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist high on the glove side. Kaleta has earned a reputation as a hard hitter, usually playing on