After a dominant collegiate hockey career playing for coach George Menard (pp.85-86) at St. Lawrence University, capped by being selected to the ECAC First All-Star Team in 1968, Croteau was signed as a free agent by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1968, which promptly dealt him to the Los Angeles Kings.
He played two sound seasons with LA's American Hockey League Springfield Kings farm team, and in limited action with Los Angeles in 1968 scored a fine five goals in eleven games.
When the NHL expanded to Kansas City and Washington in 1974, Croteau was the seventh pick of the Scouts[1] and a key player for the weak franchise from the beginning.
After a modest 1974-75 season, Croteau was one of the team's leading scorers and few decent players for four years thereafter, even after the franchise moved to Denver and became the Colorado Rockies in 1976.
[citation needed] Icing on the Plains: The Rough Ride of Kansas City's NHL Scouts, Troy Treasure, 2018, Balboa Press.