We’re nearly to the final four in the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs and we thought it would fun to look at the coaches of the eight teams that made it to the conference finals. Well, actually it’s seven coaches because there wasn’t a Ken Hitchcock card to be found. These aren’t necessarily the rookie cards of each of the seven and they may not even be of them as players but they certainly are long before gray hair came into effect.
Peter DeBoer, coach of the New Jersey Devils, appears with the American Hockey League’s Milwaukee Admirals in the above picture. DeBoer played four years in the Ontario Hockey League with the Windsor Spitfires from 1985-86 to 1988-89 before a two year stint with Milwaukee. His only two pro seasons were with the Admirals in 1989-90 and 1990-91. Originally, Peter was a 12th round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1988.
Pictured is Dale Hunter’s O-Pee-Chee rookie card with the Quebec Nordiques. Hunter was also a product of the OHL, playing from 1977-78 to 1979-80 with the Kitchener Rangers and Sudbury Wolves. He played 1,407 games in the NHL from 1980-81 to 1998-99 with the Nordiques, Washington Capitals and Colorado Avalanche.
Peter Laviolette played just 12 games in the National Hockey League, all with the New York Rangers during the 1988-89 season. He played pro from 1986-87 to 1996-97 with several teams in the AHL and IHL. Laviolette was behind the bench for a Calder Cup victory with the Providence Bruins in 1998-99 and a Stanley Cup championship with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2005-06.
A young Darryl Sutter is pictured on his O-Pee-Chee rookie card as a member of the Chicago Black Hawks. Sutter played just over 400 games in the NHL, all with the Hawks. Chicago drafted him in the eleventh round of the 1978 NHL Amateur Draft from the Lethbridge Broncos of the WHL. The pinnacle of his playing career was a 40 goal season in 1980-81.
Dave Tippett is featured on the front of his O-Pee-Chee rookie card. Dave was undrafted but went on to play over 700 regular season games in the NHL with the Hartford Whalers, Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers. As a coach, Tippett won a championship with the 1998-99 Houston Aeros of the IHL.
Couldn’t find a hockey card of John Tortorella as a player but there are a few of him as a coach. Tortorella played in the old Atlantic Coast Hockey League in the 1980’s after playing for the University of Maine. He has been head coach of three championship teams: 1986-87 Virginia Lancers of the ACHL; 1995-96 Rochester Americans of the AHL; 2003-04 Tampa Bay Lightning of the NHL.
Barry Trotz played junior hockey with the Regina Pats of the WHL in the early 1980’s but that was the extent of his playing career. He jumped into coaching and found himself behind benches in the AHL by 1990. He won a Calder Cup with the Portland Pirates in 1993-94. Trotz has been the only head coach in Nashville Predators history.