Félix Potvin
Félix Potvin ( born June 23, 1971 in Anjou, Quebec ) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender, who was active for the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Islanders, Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings and Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League. Currently, he works as an assistant coach of the youth team Cantonniers de Magog.
Career
Félix Potvin began his career in 1988 in the Canadian Junior Football League QMJHL at the Chicoutimi Sagueneens. In his first two years he was already goalkeeper of the team, but he could not bring any outstanding achievements. In the NHL Entry Draft 1990 Toronto Maple Leafs picked him in the second round at position 31. In the 1990/91 season, he then had his best year in the QMJHL. The Sagueneens brought the Championship and thus qualified for the final round at the Memorial Cup, the most important Canadian hockey trophy in the young field of players under 21 years.
The Sagueneens could not win the Cup but, but Potvin was showered with awards. From the QMJHL, he received the Trophée Jacques Plante as the best goalkeeper and the Guy Lafleur Trophy as MVP of the playoffs. Added to this was the award for best goalkeeper in the Memorial Cup finals, as well as the awards for best goalkeeper in the CHL.
In the season 1991/92 he moved to the pros and played principal with the St. John 's Maple Leafs, the farm team of Toronto in the AHL. But he also came to four inserts in the NHL, three times he was allowed to play from the start. He could win any of the games, still produced very good performance and had a catch rate of 93.3 percent. The AHL honored him at the end of the season with the Aldege " Baz " Bastien Award as the best goalkeeper and with the Dudley "Red" Garrett Memorial Award as the best rookie of the season.
Already in the season 1992/ 93, Potvin had become established as first-choice goalkeeper at the Toronto Maple Leafs and had so veteran and multiple Stanley Cup winner Grant Fuhr displaced, which was delivered to the Buffalo Sabres. With the Maple Leafs, he was able to move into the Conference Finals, where they were forced to admit defeat in a competitive series after the seventh game. Potvin was after the season among the nominees for the Calder Memorial Trophy for the best rookie in the NHL.
In the 1993/94 season Potvin first played more than 60 games and was able to celebrate a total of 34 victories. Added to this was his first participation in the NHL All-Star Game. In the playoffs, he was also able to shine. In the first round the Maple Leafs faced the Chicago Blackhawks and won the round with 4-2. Potvin was there the most important player of the team, as the Maple Leafs three of their four games could only win with 1-0 and he managed three shutouts. Again he went out with a Toronto to the Conference Finals, but failed again. 1995 and 1996 were not the Maple Leafs on the first round of the playoffs also. 1997 and 1998, they could not qualify.
In the summer of 1998 obliged the Maple Leafs Curtis Joseph with a new goalkeeper and Potvin found himself at the beginning of the season only as a back-up goalie again and played only five games in the first three months of the season. In January 1999 he was transferred to the New York Islanders, but after only one months he suffered a knee injury and could thereafter only playing four games.
In August 1999, he signed with the Islanders a new one-year contract for 2.7 million dollars and he went as the number one in the season, but in December he was transferred to the Vancouver Canucks. But even there he stayed only a year since he was sent in January 2001 in a transfer business to the Los Angeles Kings. Potvin, who could not come close to the excellence of his early days in the past few years, returned to Los Angeles at last get back to the old class. For the Kings, he completed the rest of the season 23 games, of which he won 13. He had at the end of season one Gegentorschnitt of 1.96 and had managed five shutouts in the short time and led the Kings to the playoffs.
In the 2001 /02 season, he completed 71 games and was the undisputed number one in Los Angeles. In the following season, Potvin shared the season with Jamie Storr and came at the end at 42 games. The playoffs they had missed.
In September 2003, Potvin was awarded a contract with the Boston Bruins. He was back-up goalie of the 23-year old Andrew Raycroft, who was awarded at the end of the season as the best Neuprofi. After the lockout and the failure of the NHL season 2004/ 05 Potvin had no contract and also gave no end of his career known.
Meanwhile Potvin is responsible as an assistant coach for the boys team goalkeeper Cantonniers de Magog from the Canadian province of Québec.