Claude Noël
Claude Noël ( born October 31, 1955 in Kirkland Lake, Ontario ) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey player and current coach. Most recently, he was head coach of the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League.
- 2.1 As a player
- 2.2 As a coach
Career
Playing career
Noël began his junior career in 1974 with the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey League today. After him no NHL team had drafted, the Center signed his first professional contract with the Buffalo Norsemen of the North American Hockey League. As the team but after a season ceased the operation of gambling, Noël was before the 1976/77 season committed by the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League. There, he already established himself in his debut season as a regular player of the team and was able to set up two years later with 30 goals and 80 points scorer new personal bests.
In the 1979/80 season Noël was taken as a free agent by the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League contract. There, however, he completed only seven games in which he remained unpunished point and before he returned to Hershey in the AHL. With 19 points in 16 playoff games, the center of the team helped eventually to win the Calder Cup.
After four years with the Hershey Bears of the AHL Noël turned his back and joined the Swiss first division club SC Bern in the National League A. There, however, he only played 26 games and could not help also with 24 points, scored the team's relegation from the Premier League. He then returned to North America and signed a contract with the Toledo Goal Diggers from the International Hockey League before the 1982/83 season. With 124 points scored he was there behind Dirk Graham 's second best scorer of his team. After the end of the season he was finally awarded the James Gatschene Memorial Trophy for the best player of the season. Also in the play-offs, the team was able to continue its services from the regular season and then win the Turner Cup. The following year it moved the center but to Europe again, this time to the Salzburg EC in Austria, before he returned to Toledo after one season again. In 1985, he moved within the league to the Kalamazoo Wings. After two season with the team, he signed a one year contract with the Milwaukee Admirals before he finally ended his career there.
Coaching career
Already in 1984/85 Claude Noël worked as a player at the Toledo Goal Diggers as assistant coach. After end of his career as a player he began as an assistant coach with the North Bay Centennials in the Ontario Hockey League, before he received in 1990 his first job as head coach at the Roanoke Valley Rebels of the ECHL. The following season, he was obliged by league rivals Dayton Bombers and coached the team for two years.
In the summer of 1993 Noël joined as an assistant to his former team to Kalamazoo, where he rose to become head coach of the now renamed the Michigan K- Wings team after two seasons. After he was released there after the end of season 1997/ 98, introduced him to another former team of the IHL, the Milwaukee Admirals, also initially as assistant coach a. The team that moved to the American Hockey League in 2001, he coached three seasons, until he was obliged for a playing time of the Toledo Storm of the ECHL. There he received after the end of the season the John Brophy Award, which is awarded annually to the best coaches in the league. Noël returned then still to Milwaukee in the AHL back and received an appointment as head coach. There he could retract with the team total of 46 wins from 80 games, which it completed the regular season as the best team. Also in the play-offs, the Admirals were able to continue their success and ultimately win the Calder Cup. Noël subsequently received the Louis AR Pieri Award as the best coach of the AHL season. In the following three seasons, his team was always able to qualify for the play- offs again and reach the final in 2006.
Prior to the 2007/ 08 season, Claude Noel got his first job in the National Hockey League when he was hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets as an assistant coach. As the former head coach Ken Hitchcock was fired due to persistent failures in February 2010, Noel took over his position until the end of the season and so stood 24 games behind the bench in Columbus. After the Blue Jackets had a new coach found him committed the Manitoba Moose of the AHL as head coach.
When it was announced before the season 2011/12 the relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg, took over the new Winnipeg Jets Noël as head coach of their NHL teams of the Moose. There, however, he missed in his first two seasons, the play-offs and was dismissed in January 2014 after a total of 177 games as a head coach. He was replaced by Paul Maurice.
Awards and achievements
As a player
As a coach
- 2003 John Brophy Award
- 2004 Louis A. R. Pieri Award
- 2004 Calder Cup win with the Milwaukee Admirals
Player stats
( Key to Career statistics: Sp or GP = Games Played, T or G = goals scored, V or A = achieved assists; Pts or Pts = scored points scorer, SM or PIM = received penalty minutes, / - = Plus / Minus balance sheet; PP = scored majority gates; SH = scored shorthanded goals, GW = achieved victory gates; Play-downs/Relegation 1 )