Réjean Lemelin

Réjean " Reggie " Lemelin ( born November 19, 1954 in Quebec City, Quebec ) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender and is currently goalkeeping coach of the Philadelphia Flyers in the National Hockey League.

Career

Lemelin began his career in 1972 in the Canadian Junior Football League QMJHL at the Sherbrooke Castors, where he shared with Mario Lessard the place in goal. After his second year in the QMJHL, he was selected in the NHL Amateur Draft in 1974 by the Philadelphia Flyers in the sixth round at position 125. Shortly after the draft, he joined the Philadelphia Firebirds, the farm team of the Flyers, with whom he played three years in the unterklassigen North American Hockey League. In 1977, the League was disbanded, the team was but further in the AHL and Lemelin remained loyal to the team.

The Philadelphia Flyers had decided Lemelin offer no contract for the NHL and so he signed in 1978 at the Atlanta Flames a contract. He took the position of the second goalkeeper and played the way some games for the Philadelphia Firebirds. For financial reasons, the owner of the Atlanta Flames in 1980 to relocate the team to Calgary and Calgary Flames decided to rename. Lemelin moved to Calgary and continued working as a back -up goalie, but he got more and more missions. The 1982/83 season he shared then the post as goalkeeper with Don Edwards. Both denied ever 39 games in the season for Calgary, at the Ice Age resulted Lemelin completed just two minutes.

However, in the 1983/84 season Lemelin was the sole goalkeeper and brought significantly better benefits than Edwards. Three years he remained number one in Calgary, participated with Team Canada at the Canada Cup in 1984, they could win. But Lemelin 1986/87 was replaced by Mike Vernon from the gate of the Flames and they parted from him at the end of the season.

He was awarded a new contract with the Boston Bruins, where he was immediately goalkeeper and went with the Bruins in a Stanley Cup final against the Edmonton Oilers, where they were subject, however. Already during the season came with Andy Moog, another keeper of the Edmonton Oilers with which Lemelin told the stakes in the target. Both were in no way inferior to and complemented each other brilliantly. Lemelin was invited to the NHL All-Star Game in 1989 and won with Moog 1990, the William M. Jennings Trophy, as they had the fewest goals allowed. In the playoffs, six years younger than Andy Moog now got the nod and led the Bruins to the 1990 Stanley Cup Finals, where they faced Edmonton again, and again had the Bruins end up as losers, the final series.

In the next few years, Moog developed becoming the sole number one and Lemelin got less and less ice age. Was it 1990/91 for 33 games, he played in the season it only eight times, where it turned out even longer time due to injury. During the 1992/93 season he came in the first three months to ten inserts, but then declared in January 1993 end of his career.

During the 1993/94 season he was goalkeeper coach of the St. Louis Blues. In the same post he was hired in the summer of 1994 by the Philadelphia Flyers and is there since then responsible for training the goalkeeper.

NHL stats

Awards and achievements

• Canada Cup 1984
• Stanley Cup Finals 1988 and 1990
• William M. Jennings Trophy in 1990 (along with Andy Moog )
• NHL All-Star Game in 1989