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.\n', '

Kaleta 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.\n', '

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.\n', '

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