Career
Skrastiņš was drafted by the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League in 1998 as a defenceman and spent twelve years in the league playing for the Predators, the Colorado Avalanche, the Florida Panthers, and the Dallas Stars. Foreign the 2011-2012 season, Skrastiņš left the National Hockey League and signed a contract to play in Russia for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). However, he never got to play a game for Lokomotiv as he was killed when a plane carrying the entire team crashed on September 7, 2011.
Skrastiņš was drafted by Nashville Predators with the 230th pick in the ninth round of 1998 National Hockey League Entry Draft.
On October 15, 2002, against the New York Islanders, he scored a 5-on-3 shorthanded goal. He played for Nashville for five seasons until being traded to the Colorado Avalanche in 2003.
On February 8, 2007, he played in his 487th consecutive game to pass Tim Horton for the longest playing streak in National Hockey League history for a defenceman. Skrastiņš" streak ended at 495 games, when he missed a February 25, 2007 game against the Anaheim Ducks with a knee injury.
He had previously missed only one other game due to injury in his career — against Saint Louis on February 18, 2000, with a minor shoulder injury.
The streak led to him being given the nickname "Ironman". In his fourth season with the Avalanche in 2007-2008, he was traded to the Florida Panthers for Ruslan Salei on February 26, 2008. In his first full season with the Panthers in 2008-2009, Skrastiņš scored a career high 18 points in 80 games.
On October 16, 2008, he played his 600th career National Hockey League game against the Minnesota Wild and on November 1, 2008, he scored his 100th point in his National Hockey League career in a 3–2 loss fittingly against his original club, the Nashville Predators.
On July 2, 2009, he was signed by the Dallas Stars to a two-year contract worth $2.75 million. On May 17, 2011, after eleven seasons in the National Hockey League, Skrastiņš left to sign a contract with Russian team, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.
On September 7, 2011, he was killed, when a Yakovlev Yak-42 passenger aircraft, carrying nearly his entire Lokomotiv team, crashed just outside Yaroslavl, Russia. The team was traveling to Minsk to play their opening game of the season, with its coaching staff and prospects.
Lokomotiv officials said ""everyone from the main roster was on the plane plus four players from the youth team"".