Craig MacTavish

Craig MacTavish ( born August 15, 1958 in London, Ontario ) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey player, coach and current - functionary, who from 1980 to 1996 for the Boston Bruins, Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and St. Louis Blues played in the National Hockey League. He was the last player in the NHL, who was freed from the helmet law.

Career

As a junior he played for the University of Lowell. In the NHL Amateur Draft 1978 it chose the Boston Bruins in the ninth round as 153 out.

From the season 1979/80 he came into the NHL with the Bruins used. In the early years he shuttled between the NHL and AHL, where he played for the Binghamton Dusters. In the next year with the Bruins, the Springfield Indians his team in the AHL were. Instead zuschaffen the breakthrough in the NHL, he spent his third season as a professional mainly in the AHL team of the Erie Blades. Only in the 1982/83 season he had finally won a starting berth. After he had caused a car accident under the influence of alcohol, in which a woman had come to death, he was not allowed to play in the 1984/85 season and moved to end of the season to the Edmonton Oilers.

After two Stanley Cup victories, the Oilers missed in his first year to defend the title. It was not until 1987 he was the first time win the Cup with the team around Wayne Gretzky. MacTavish was always known as a combative player and respected. In his ninth season with the Oilers they gave him in March 1994 in exchange for Todd Marchant from the New York Rangers. Here reunited with Mark Messier, with whom he already has three times the Stanley Cup win in Edmonton, he succeeded his fourth Cup win. One of his specialties was its strong performance at the Bully.

His next stop was the Philadelphia Flyers to Eric Lindros. Meanwhile he was, because he was still playing without a helmet, become an attraction in the league. In March 1996, the veteran against another renowned player has been replaced. From the St. Louis Blues Dale Hawerchuk came to the Flyers and MacTavish went the opposite way.

After the end of the 1996/97 season he finished as the last player who had played without a helmet, his career. Since the early 1980s, were only allowed to have players play without a helmet that already did this before the introduction of the rule.

Immediately after the end of his active career, he worked as an assistant coach with the New York Rangers. In his second year, his former teammate in Edmonton, Charlie Huddy, used as an additional assistant coach beside him. For the 1999/2000 season he moved to the Edmonton Oilers as an assistant to Kevin Lowe. A year later he took over the position as head coach and took Charlie Huddy as assistant after. In the season 2005/ 06 he led the Oilers surprise in the finals for the Stanley Cup. There, however, his team defeated the Carolina Hurricanes. In April 2009 he was released in Edmonton. In the Ice Hockey World Championship 2010, he was head coach of the Canadian national team, which finished the tournament in seventh place. On 1 August 2011 he was introduced as the head coach of the Chicago Wolves. After one season he left the job and took a position on the Board of the Edmonton Oilers.

NHL stats

Sporting successes

• Stanley Cup: 1987, 1988, 1990 and 1994

Personal Awards

• Participate in the NHL All-Star Game: 1996