Darius Kasparaitis won Olympic gold in 1992, was drafted fifth overall that summer, and spent 14 NHL seasons keeping star forwards’ heads up. Pittsburgh hated him before it loved him. He settled in Miami when his playing days were over and found a second career under the Florida sun, far from any penalty box.
Where is Darius Kasparaitis now?
Darius Kasparaitis is a real estate developer in South Florida, where he led the condo builder Verzasca Group as president, The Real Deal reported in December 2018. He co-founded the firm in late 2014, and its first projects were two boutique condo buildings in Bay Harbor Islands, the 15-unit Pearl House and the 30-unit Le Jardin, according to The Real Deal in February 2015. Both had sold out by 2018, when the company lined up construction financing for Aurora, a 17-story tower with 61 condos in Sunny Isles Beach.
| Darius Kasparaitis: then and now | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Open-ice hits, the 1993 Islanders upset of Pittsburgh |
| Position | Defense, shoots left |
| Born | 16 October 1972, Elektrenai, Lithuania |
| Drafted | 1992, first round, fifth overall, New York Islanders |
| NHL career | 14 seasons, 863 games, four teams |
| Last NHL season | 2006-07, New York Rangers |
| Olympics | Gold 1992 (Unified Team), three more Games with Russia |
| Current role | Real estate development in Miami, as of May 2022 |
| Business | Verzasca Group, Bay Harbor Islands (president as of December 2018) |
He has described the work in his own words. When Stan Fischler asked where he lives and what he does, he told NHL.com in May 2022: “I live in Miami, Florida and work for a real estate developers office.” In February 2022, he told Lithuanian broadcaster TV3 that he still worked at the company and that it was designing a large spa center.
Hockey has not let go of him entirely. During the 4 Nations Face-Off break in February 2025, Alex Ovechkin came to Florida to train with him, and Kasparaitis later shared what those workouts with Ovechkin were like.
Darius Kasparaitis’s draft: fifth overall, four months after Olympic gold
Darius Kasparaitis was born in Elektrenai, Lithuania, and came through Dynamo Moscow, where he played his first Soviet league games in 1988-89. In February 1992, he won Olympic gold with the Unified Team, made up of former Soviet republics, and the New York Islanders selected him fifth overall in the 1992 draft. Three picks earlier, Ottawa had chosen Alexei Yashin, whose own life after the NHL we have covered. Kasparaitis went on to play for Russia at the 1998, 2002 and 2006 Olympics.
READ MORE: How to watch the New York Islanders
Darius Kasparaitis’s hits made him a villain in Pittsburgh first
Darius Kasparaitis built his name in his rookie playoffs. In the spring of 1993 the Islanders upset the two-time defending champion Penguins in seven games, and Kasparaitis “delivered one big hit after another” on Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Ron Francis and Kevin Stevens, the Tribune-Democrat recalled in 2019. Pittsburgh then traded for him during the 1996-97 season, and the crowd that had booed him adopted him.
The hits made enemies. Doug Gilmour once waited for him in the building after a game in which the two had fought, and the opponent Kasparaitis himself rated as the toughest of his NHL career was a former teammate from those Penguins years.
Darius Kasparaitis’s NHL stats
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | P | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992-93 | NY Islanders | 79 | 4 | 17 | 21 | 166 |
| 1993-94 | NY Islanders | 76 | 1 | 10 | 11 | 142 |
| 1994-95 | NY Islanders | 13 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 22 |
| 1995-96 | NY Islanders | 46 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 93 |
| 1996-97 | NY Islanders and Pittsburgh | 75 | 2 | 21 | 23 | 100 |
| 1997-98 | Pittsburgh | 81 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 127 |
| 1998-99 | Pittsburgh | 48 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 70 |
| 1999-00 | Pittsburgh | 73 | 3 | 12 | 15 | 146 |
| 2000-01 | Pittsburgh | 77 | 3 | 16 | 19 | 111 |
| 2001-02 | Pittsburgh and Colorado | 80 | 2 | 12 | 14 | 142 |
| 2002-03 | NY Rangers | 80 | 3 | 11 | 14 | 85 |
| 2003-04 | NY Rangers | 44 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 48 |
| 2005-06 | NY Rangers | 67 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 97 |
| 2006-07 | NY Rangers | 24 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 30 |
| Total | 863 | 27 | 136 | 163 | 1,379 |
Figures are from Hockey-Reference.
Darius Kasparaitis scored two goals in 83 NHL playoff games, and one of them ended a Game 7 in overtime. On 10 May 2001 in Buffalo, he scored at 13:01 of overtime, according to the game’s box score, set up by Robert Lang and Jaromir Jagr, to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 win and a place in the Eastern Conference final. Over his regular season career, he took 8.5 penalty minutes for every point he scored.
READ MORE: How to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins
Darius Kasparaitis after the NHL: the KHL and a comeback for Lithuania
Darius Kasparaitis played his last NHL game for the Rangers in 2006-07, dressed for a handful of AHL games with the Hartford Wolf Pack and then played two seasons for SKA St. Petersburg, the second of them in the new KHL, before retiring. After about four years without official games he joined Hockey Punks Vilnius in 2013 and played four seasons in Lithuania’s top league, the IIHF reported in November 2017.
That report covered his first game for Lithuania, a 7-2 win over Estonia in Klaipeda on 10 November 2017, in which he wore the captaincy and scored a goal. He went on to play five games for Lithuania at the 2018 Division I Group B World Championship in Kaunas, according to Elite Prospects, with two assists.
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