When all-star defenseman Rob Blake was traded from the Los Angeles Kings to the Colorado Avalanche along with Steve Reinprecht last season, most of the hockey world said, "Steve who?"

	Reinprecht

But the Avalanche knew who they were getting, and had no problem dishing off right winger Adam Deadmarsh, defenseman Aaron Miller, and a first-round pick in exchange.

Reinprecht finished the 2000-01 season, his first in the NHL, with 15 goals and 21 assists. As a fourth-liner, he appeared in 22 playoff games for the Avs and won the Stanley Cup. Not a bad year for a 25-year-old from Edmonton.

This year, Reinprecht is a little older, a little faster, and a lot smarter. He plays right wing on the Avs' second line with Peter Forsberg and Chris Drury and is gunning for a second Stanley Cup.

"Rhino sees the ice extremely well and he's really learning to finish in this league," says Drury. "L.A. didn't know what they were giving up."

However, Reinprecht's pre-NHL credentials are nothing to scoff at. As a center at the University of Wisconsin, Reinprecht was a Hobey Baker Memorial Award finalist his senior year, racking up 40 assists while turning his freshman linemate -- Dany Heatley -- into a second overall draft pick and rookie phenom for the Atlanta Thrashers.

During this year's playoff run, Reinprecht has seven goals and five assists and is a plus-8. He scored two of the Avs' four game winners against his former team in the Western Conference quarterfinals.

The Avalanche have scored the first goal in all five games of the Western Conference finals, a crucial means to combat the Red Wings' deeper arsenal. Blake has done it once. Joe Sakic has done it once. Alex Tanguay has done it once. Reinprecht has done it twice -- in Games 4 and 5.

In the first period of Game 4, he picked up the rebound of a flubbed Blake shot that was floating in the slot and lifted it over a sprawling Dominik Hasek and into the net.

In the first period of Game 5, he did it again, taking a nifty backhanded pass from Forsberg, who was driving up the left wing boards. Reinprecht cut sharply behind the net with the puck and stuffed a wraparound off Detroit defenseman Nick Lidstrom's skate and past Hasek, as Lidstrom's defensive partner Fredrik Olausson took a spray of snow to the face from Forsberg's screeching halt.

"As long as I'm skating, I'm effective," says Reinprecht. "My speed gives me my best advantage."

Reinprecht, like his linemates, is quiet and humble, and is quick to divert any praise from himself.

"Playing with Peter and Chris is unbelievable," he says. "They're so talented, they elevate the games of everyone."

To the point where fewer and fewer people are asking, "Steven who?"