Peter DeBoer
Peter DeBoer ( born June 13, 1968 in Dunnville, Ontario ) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey player and since July 2011 head coach of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League.
- 3.1 As a player
- 3.2 As a coach and general manager
Career as a player
Peter DeBoer began his career in 1985 at the Windsor Compuware Spitfires of the Canadian Junior Football League OHL. After his rookie season with three goals and six assists he improved in his second year on a total of 30 points scorer in the playoffs and was the third-best scorer of the team with four goals and nine assists.
The greatest success of his career he was able to celebrate with Windsor in the 1987/88 season when they won so the first time the finals of the OHL playoffs and the J. Ross Robertson Cup. By winning the championship, the Spitfires to the Memorial Cup finals were allowed to participate, where they were beaten in the final of the Medicine Hat Tigers subject.
DeBoer was then selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the twelfth round at position 237 in the NHL Entry Draft in 1988, but remained another year in the juniors. There he played his personal best season with 45 goals and 46 assist in 65 league games, which he led his team, but the success of the previous year could not be repeated.
After the early departure of the Spitfires from the playoffs DeBoer still existed in the spring of 1989, his professional debut with the Milwaukee Admirals of the IHL second-rate. The following two seasons, he also played with the Admirals and showed a total of 48 goals and 53 assists in 149 games while solid performances, but ended in the summer of 1991 his active career.
Career as a coach
DeBoer 1994 returned back to the sport of ice hockey when he was assistant coach Paul Maurice at the Detroit Junior Red Wings of the Junior League OHL. The team won in the season the J. Ross Robertson Cup as champions of the league and moved to the Memorial Cup round of the finals to the finals. Head coach Maurice was promoted after the success of team owner Peter Karmanos and join his NHL team to the Hartford Whalers.
Peter DeBoer subsequently went successor of Maurice as head coach and general manager of the junior team that Detroit Whalers called from the 1995/96 season. After a good first season by reaching the semi-finals of the playoffs, the team faltered in the following year, was able to win only 26 of the 66 league games and was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
As was built in Plymouth Township, a suburb of Detroit, a new arena for the team, the team moved there and named in the summer of 1997 in Plymouth Whalers. DeBoer then helped the team regain its former strength and the Whalers reached the semifinals of the tournament again. The 1998/99 season ended the team with 51 wins from 68 games as best team in the OHL, but failed in the playoffs surprisingly in the second round of the London Knights. Nevertheless DeBoer received the Matt Leyden Trophy as the best coach in the league.
The following season joined the Whalers from in the first place the OHL and then moved down to a playoff final, but where they failed to the Barrie Colts. Again DeBoer subsequently received the Matt Leyden Trophy and also the CHL Coach of the Year Award. Also in the 2000/ 01 season reached the Whalers the final, but failed again.
Peter DeBoer then left the team in the summer of 2001 and took over the coach and general manager positions at league rival Kitchener Rangers. The Rangers have always had a negative balance of victories in the four seasons before, but DeBoer these negative series could quit. In the 2002/03 season the team continued on her way to the top on, played the second best season of their 40th anniversary, with 46 wins and finished second in the regular season in first place in the OHL. With only one defeat, the Rangers went into the playoffs until the Conference Finals, where they just met on the Plymouth Whalers, but they could beat in a competitive seven games lasting series. In the final, they eventually defeated nor the Ottawa 67 's. Also in the Memorial Cup final round they could continue their dominance and completed the tournament undefeated and successful.
It was followed by two rather average seasons before the Rangers in the 2005/06 season were back to the top of the league, but failed in the playoffs already in the first round. 2006/ 07 they eliminated in the second round against the Plymouth Whalers, but could find back to winning ways again in 2007 /08. With 53 wins, the Rangers reached the best result of the season in its history, and went with only one defeat in the first three rounds of the OHL Finals, where they ushered in a competitive series only 3-0, the Belleville Bulls but could not compensate. It was only in the seventh game, the Rangers were able to secure the win the championship. In the subsequent Memorial Cup tournament they also reached the final, but subject to the representative of the WHL Spokane Chiefs to.
Due to the success in the junior committed him the Florida Panthers of the NHL on his 40th birthday as a new head coach. After a solid first season with 93 points in the Panthers missed qualifying for the playoffs in short supply, followed by two weaker seasons in which the team sports was not enough to reach the playoffs and finished these seasons each at the last place of the Southeast Division. On April 10, 2011 DeBoer was relieved when the Panthers his office. On July 19, 2011 DeBoer was introduced as head coach of the New Jersey Devils.
Internationally
Peter DeBoer was active in addition to his work as a coach in the OHL for the Canadian U20 National Team. In 1998 he stood for the first time as an assistant coach behind the gang, as Canada finished a disappointing sixth place finish at the U20 World Cup. Seven years later, he assisted head coach Brent Sutter on the title winning the U20 World Cup and worked again at the Super Series 2007 Sutter together.