Barry Melrose
Barry James Melrose ( born July 15, 1956 in Kelvington, Saskatchewan ) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey defender and coach. During his career he played for the Winnipeg Jets, Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings in the National Hockey League and the Cincinnati Stingers in the World Hockey Association. He also worked as head coach of the Los Angeles Kings and Tampa Bay Lightning in the NHL.
Career
Barry Melrose began his career in 1973 in the second-class junior league in the SJHL Weyburn Red Wings, before the next year in the first-class WCHL with the Kamloops Chiefs it. After a solid first season of the defenders showed in his second year with twelve gates and 49 assists his offensive qualities and thus made the professional teams of the National Hockey League and its competitors League WHA attention. In the NHL Amateur Draft 1976 it chose the Montreal Canadiens, while the Cincinnati Stingers secured the rights to him in the WHA Amateur Draft.
Melrose finally opted for the Stingers to go on the ice and while he was still playing in his debut season in part in the American Hockey League with the Springfield Indians, he was one of 1977/78 to the root cadres in Cincinnati. In the following years he was in the league, especially by being physically tough game and less by goals and assists. In 1979, the WHA a game its operation and Cincinnati Stingers were dissolved. The Montreal Canadiens, who still held the rights to Melrose in the NHL since 1976, they sold to the Winnipeg Jets, which were changed after the resolutions of the WHA to the NHL. In addition, the Jets still had a compensation to the Quebec Nordiques leave, who had secured his services in WHA Dispersal Draft.
He played one and a half years for Winnipeg in the NHL before he was committed on the waiver list of the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he spent the remainder of the season as well as a further two seasons, in the third year, but partly also in their farm team, the St. Catharines Saints was from the second-rate AHL used.
In the summer of 1983 Melrose signed a contract with the Detroit Red Wings, but over the following four years, only 35 NHL inserts and instead played primarily with the Adirondack Red Wings, the AHL farm team of Detroit. There won in the 1985/86 season the Calder Cup, but missed the entire playoffs with a knee injury. The following year he took over in addition to his duties as a player and the position as assistant coach of the Adirondack Red Wings and finished at the end of the season his career.
Directly after, he took up the post as head coach of the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Canadian Junior Football League WHL. The then 17 -year-old Trevor Linden in the squad, he won directly the President's Cup and the Memorial Cup, the team that had won in the previous year. However, after the successful season it came between the General Manager Russ Farwell and team owner George Maser disagreements, whereupon Farwell left the team. Melrose showed solidarity with Farwell and then also resigned his post. Both hired then a little later on by league rival Seattle Thunderbirds.
Melrose remained only one year in Seattle and became the head coach of his former team as a player, the Adirondack Red Wings of the AHL. He was there to succeed his former coach Bill Dineen, who had resigned the office after a new Calder Cup victory and took over from him in 1991 the post of General Manager. However, Melrose could not tie directly to the success Dineens and failed in the playoffs in his first two years in the first round. 1991/92 he led the Red Wings but back on track and the total fourth Calder Cup win.
With this triumph, he sat down at the same time a final point for his involvement in Adirondack, because all the Los Angeles Kings wanted to have as a coach in the NHL. While the team to stars such as Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille and Jari Kurri played just an average regular season, which they finished as the sixth best team in the Clarence Campbell Conference, but moved to the playoffs to the Stanley Cup finals, but where they connect to the Montreal Canadiens failed.
Although the Kings for the 1993/94 season were able to keep their superstars, they missed with eleven points behind the eighth-placed San Jose Sharks to the playoffs significantly. In the following year, they failed to qualify and Melrose was fired as coach of the Los Angeles Kings.
For the 1995/96 season of the U.S. television network ESPN him committed as an expert and he analyzed since the NHL games for the station.
Melrose returned since his departure from Los Angeles back for only three games on the bench. In 1999 he took along with Emile Francis 's role as manager of Sunbelt Heroes of Hockey team at a game of former NHL players on which also took part in the Hockey player Cammi Granato and the actor Tim Robbins. The match was played under the name Heroes of Hockey Game as part of the NHL All-Star Game. He is in charge in the season 2003/ 04 and 2005/ 06 the UHL team from Adirondack for each game.
On 24 June 2008 Melrose returned after 13 - year absence, back in the NHL and took over the position as head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Already on 14 November of the same year - only 16 games in the season 2008/ 09 into it - had to, Canadian-born vacate his post after only five games won.