Paul Messier (ice hockey)
Template: Infobox ice hockey player / file type
Paul Edmond Messier ( born January 27, 1958 in Nottingham, England ) is a former Canadian- British ice hockey player. During his career he played in the National Hockey League for the Colorado Rockies and in the Hockey League for the ECD Iserlohn and Mannheimer ERC.
Childhood and youth
Born in England Messier moved already during his childhood with his family to Canada. Messier comes from a hockey loving family. His father Doug Messier was a player, among other things with the Portland Buckaroos, a team that was located in the Western Hockey League and later coach, including at the Moncton Alpines a team of American Hockey League. His younger brother Mark Messier was one of the best hockey players of all time and look back on a highly successful career in the NHL. Paul Messier's career was not as successful.
Career
Canada and USA
From the 1973/74 season played Paul Messier in Edmonton Hockey, however, was first committed by any club in the NHL. Rather, he had all the way through the minor leagues and junior leagues compete before the NHL scouts were aware of him. Until the 1978/79 season he therefore played in six minor league and university teams, so with the Tulsa Oilers in the CHL or the Edmonton Oil Kings in the WCHL before in the NHL Amateur Draft by the Colorado Rockies in 1978 third round was drawn to 41st. For the team from Colorado but he made only nine games in which he failed to reach a point scorer. Messier had to go back to the Minor Leagues, but showed time and again promising performance. Until 1983 he was again at six teams actively, including at the Birmingham Bulls in the CHL and the Moncton Alpines in the AHL, where he was able to achieve 27 goals. His father was coach of that team, stood in the gate of the legendary Grant Fuhr.
Europe
How many players from Canada, where the frequent changes of the association came to meet not to Messier decided to move to Germany and played from the 1983/84 season at the ECD Iserlohn, where he drew attention to himself with powerful performance. He scored for the team from Iserlohn 50 scorer points in 46 games and was so interesting for the top teams in the league. A year later he was taken from the Mannheimer ERC under contract. Messier, who had already put in Iserlohn his skills, developed under coach Ladislav Olejník one of the top scorer of the team from Mannheim and the entire league. It was because of its speed and the ability to lead the puck certainly hard to stop by his opponents. In the 1984/85 season he was with the team runner-up, where he was repeatedly set by his strike partner Ross Yates in scene with 33 goals scored the most hits of all Mannheim players. The runner-up was again able to win the team in the season 1987/88. Before Dave Silk Messier this year was again top scorer of his team with 63 points. In the 1986/87 season he scored 42 goals with the most goals of all players in the league. After the 1989/90 season Messier moved to Italy for HC Bolzano in the Serie A, but ended after only two games his career.
After the career
Messier has worked as a sports agent today. One of his clients was a Canadian professional and star of the Calgary Flames Jarome Iginla.
Honors
Messier played in 1975 at the Centennial Cup, a game selection of the best Canadian junior players. In 1988, he played in the All-Star game of ice hockey league in Dusseldorf. The German national team competed against the best foreign players in the league. The game ended after Penalty Shootout 6-5 for Messier's team. He had scored two goals.