Bill Barber

William Charles "Bill" Barber ( born July 11, 1952 in Callander, Ontario ) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach, who played from 1972 to 1984 for the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League. Since 2002 he is Director of Player Personnel for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Career

As a junior Bill Barber played with the Kitchener Rangers of the OHA. The Philadelphia Flyers picked him up at the NHL Amateur Draft 1972 in the first round as a seventh player. After a short time in the farm team for the Richmond Robins in the American Hockey League, he managed in the 1972/73 season with the Philadelphia Flyers to the breakthrough. There he remained until the 1983/84 season, in which he, his time as a player ended due to a knee injury he had suffered in a 1982 game. During his time with the Flyers this were 1974 and 1975 Stanley Cup win.

He was honored in 1990 with induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Coaches and management career

After his playing days he remained the Flyers and took over in the spring of 1985 for a few months the post as head coach of the AHL farm team Hershey Bears, before he was appointed in the summer as assistant coach of the Philadelphia Flyers and remained on the position for three years. 1988 Barber was appointed at the Flyers to Director of Pro Scouting and was responsible for the observation of potential players for the NHL team. After more than seven years he resigned this office and returned in December 1995 as head coach back to the Hershey Bears. After the season ended, the cooperation between the Flyers and the Bears, as they had established with the Philadelphia Phantoms a new AHL team itself. Barber was head coach of the team, winning the Calder Cup in the second year. In July 2000, the Phantoms left and he again took up the post of assistant coach with the Flyers before he was appointed in December to head coach. After the season, he was awarded the Jack Adams Award as the best coach in the NHL, but in the spring of 2002, ended his term in office. In the summer of 2002, he finally joined the Tampa Bay Lightning and obtained the post of Director of Player Personnel. In this role, he assists the General Manager in the evaluation of players and has impact on all personnel decisions in the field of players. In 2004, he won with the Lightning to the Stanley Cup.

NHL stats

Awards