Peter-John Lee

Peter-John Lee
Date of birth	2nd January 1956
place of birth	Ellesmere , England , UK
size	174 cm
Weight	76 kg
position	striker
Shot hand	Right
Draft
NHL Amateur Draft	1976 , 1st lap, 12th position Canadiens de Montréal
WHA Amateur Draft	1976 , 2nd round, 21st position Toronto Toros
Career stations
1971-1976	Ottawa 67's
1976-1977	Nova Scotia Voyageurs
1977-1983	Pittsburgh Penguins
1983-1993	Düsseldorfer EG
1995-1997	Polar bears Berlin

Peter-John Lee (born January 2, 1956 in Ellesmere , England ) is a former Canadian ice hockey player ( striker ) of the Düsseldorfer EG and the Eisbären Berlin , as well as a former coach and current manager of the Eisbären Berlin. His son Chris Lee was also a hockey coach.

Career

Born in England, Lee initially played in the Canadian Ontario Hockey League for the Ottawa 67’s , where he became CHL Player of the Year in 1976, and in 1976 moved to the American Hockey League with the Nova Scotia Voyageurs for two years . Already in that year he was drafted for the World Hockey Association by the Toronto Toros in the second round in 21st place and in the NHL Amateur Draft 1976 by the Montreal Canadiens in the first round in twelfth position.

However, he moved with Pete Mahovlich after two months in the 1977/78 season to the Pittsburgh Penguins and played successfully for five years in the "best league in the world" . He achieved his best performance in the 1980/81 season with 64 points in 80 games. For the 1982/83 season he not only played in the NHL team of the Penguins, but also temporarily in the AHL team of the Baltimore Skipjacks . The following year he decided to try his luck in Europe.

The Düsseldorfer EG , which was in a sporting crisis in the early 80s, was urgently looking for a good foreign player for the Russian Victor Nechaew , who was also newly brought to DEG and promised a lot, and signed Lee for the 1983/1984 season. With 49 points in 46 games, Lee was the team's top scorer, putting Nechaew in the shade. Still, they weren't 100 percent satisfied with him and thought about bringing in another player.

Nevertheless, DEG continued to plan with him, threw Nechaew out and signed a compatriot, Canadian Chris Valentine from NHL Club Washington Capitals , for the following season in 1984/1985 , which was to kick off an incomparable career for both players in Germany. The center Valentine and the wing striker Lee became congenial partners who were among the top stars for a decade at DEG and in German ice hockey in general. Year after year they were among the top scorers in the Bundesliga. Since DEG was also able to make other important player commitments over the years, such as defenders Ulrich Hiemer , Mike Schmidt and Andreas Niederberger , as well as strikers Dieter Hegen , Gerd Truntschka , Roy Roedger and Manfred Wolf , they became a serious championship contender again.

In 1990 the time had come. After losing two finals in 1986 and 1989, DEG became German champions in 1990, not least thanks to Peter Lee and Chris Valentine, and defended the title three more times (1991, 1992 and 1993). The now 36-year-old Lee ended his active career with the DEG after his fourth championship title in a row and moved back to Canada.

After Chris Valentine also ended his career, DEG immediately decided to block the shirt numbers of Peter Lee (12) and Chris Valentine (10) and never to assign them again in memory of two of the greatest players in the club's history and German ice hockey. Since then, banners with these two numbers on the back have hung under the roof of the Düsseldorf ice stadium on Brehmstrasse. For the 2006/07 season , when DEG inaugurated the new ISS dome as a future venue, the banners were brought to the new sports facility together with the eight championship banners and are now hanging there.

Lee's other career plans included running an ice hockey school for children, and he also worked as a coach for his previous team, the Ottawa 67's, where he was able to record 22 wins, 38 losses and 6 draws in the 1994/1995 OHL season. However, dissatisfied with this activity, he returned to Europe, where he joined the second-rate team at EHC Wolfsburg .

For Wolfsburg, he scored 25 points in 16 games, but was no longer able to convince in sporting terms, so that the trade press mostly spoke of a mistake in having started the playing career again at all. The offer from the DEL Club Eisbären Berlin to submit a contract for the DEL team to Lee, who is now 39 years old , seemed all the more astonishing . Lee accepted and played very well for the club from Berlin-Hohenschönhausen for two more years until he finally ended his active career in 1997.

Trainer and manager

The Eisbären Berlin secured Lee's services even after his career ended. The following three years he acted as a trainer for the DEL team, but without any major successes. Resigned, he stepped back from the coaching job and moved to the management area of ​​the club, which has now been taken over by US billionaire Philip F. Anschutz . He put large amounts of money into the club and attaches great importance to solid management.

In the course of the following years, Manager Lee succeeded time and again through a clever purchasing policy of overseas professionals and the involvement of players from the well-founded Eisbären youth work to form a powerful team that won the German championship titles in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 and won the German Ice Hockey Cup in 2013 and 2008 . In addition, he was temporarily employed as an assistant to Ralph Krueger for the Swiss national team.

Achievements and Awards

• 1976 Jim Mahon Memorial Trophy
• 1976 CHL Player of the Year
• 1977 Calder Cup win with the Nova Scotia Voyageurs
• 2008 admission to the Hockey Hall of Fame Germany

Career statistics

• Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL) 1977/1978 to 1982/1983 - 450 games - 114 goals - 139 assists = 253 points - 261 minutes
• Düsseldorfer EG - 1983/1984 to 1992/1993 - 450 games - 340 goals + 334 ace = 674 points - 492 minutes - 4 championship titles
• EHC Wolfsburg - 1995/1996 - 16 games - 14 goals + 11 assists = 25 points - 61 minutes
• Eisbären Berlin - 1995/1996 to 1996/1997 - 71 games - 21 goals + 20 aces = 41 points - 78 minutes

Web links

• Peter-John Lee at hockeydb.com (English)
• Peter-John Lee at eurohockey.com