Jim Rutherford
Jim Rutherford ( born February 17, 1949 in Beeton, Ontario ) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. He was pulled in the NHL Amateur Draft 1969 in the first round, the tenth of the Detroit Red Wings. He is currently General Manager and President of the Carolina Hurricanes in the National Hockey League.
Playing career
As a goalkeeper, Rutherford played primarily for the Detroit Red Wings, who exchanged it twice, but both times it also brought back again. Rutherford can to 457 games in the NHL look back at where he was able to record 14 shutouts. In 1976, he was with the club 's internal record of Glenn Hall over three shutouts to catch up with the Red Wings in a row. However, Rutherford's achievements were not always stable, so that he was repeatedly set only as "Number 2 " in the goal. In his final season as a professional Rutherford only came on a game in the NHL and was then demoted to the farm team of the Red Wings.
For the Canadian national team Rutherford played at the World Championships 1977 in Vienna and 1979 in Moscow.
Manager career
After his playing career Rutherford turned to the sports management. He became director of the Hockey section of the Compuware Sports Corporation. Under his leadership, the company acquired in 1984 Windsor Spitfires, who are based in the Ontario Hockey League. He also served for four years as the Spitfires general manager. 1989 Rutherford was found together with the owner Peter Karmanos, Compuware Detroit Compuware Ambassadors, the first U.S. team in the Ontario Hockey League. In the second season of Ambassadors Rutherford jumped as coach of the team, as one, separated after a disappointing season by Andy Weidenbach, the former coach in the middle of the current season. The Ambassadors subjected to Rutherford for the first time in the play-offs one. After this season the team was renamed the Detroit Junior Red Wings.
In 1994, the group led by the Hartford Whalers Karmanos and Rutherford took over the managerial positions and became president of the Whalers organization. Coach was Paul Maurice, the Rutherford knew from the Windsor Spitfires. When the club moved to Raleigh, North Carolina in 1997 and became the Carolina Hurricanes, Rutherford retained the proven structures. Under Rutherford, the Hurricanes were able to increase continuously until they reached the final of the Stanley Cup play-offs in 2002. Rutherford managed to leaders like Rod Brind'Amour, Glen Wesley and Kevyn Adams to commit and experienced players like Cory Stillman or Ray Whitney. Rutherford showed sensitivity in the selection of players in the NHL Entry Draft, as he opted for talents such as Josef Vašíček, Erik Cole, Eric Staal and Cam Ward.
After the Hurricanes and 2002/ 03 and 2003/ 04 the play-offs could not reach, the Hurricanes celebrated their biggest success, winning the Stanley Cups under Rutherford in 2006.
As president and general manager of the Hurricanes he oversees the activities of the Florida Everblades ( ECHL ) and the Plymouth Whalers ( OHL ).
Rutherford was elected by the North American Hockey News magazine for the NHL Executive of the Year 2002.