Barry Melrose

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CanadaCanada  Barry Melrose Ice hockey player
Barry Melrose
Date of birth July 15, 1956
place of birth Kelvington , Saskatchewan , Canada
size 183 cm
Weight 93 kg
position defender
Shot hand Right
Draft
NHL Amateur Draft 1976 , 2nd lap, 36th position
Montréal Canadiens
WHA Amateur Draft 1976 , 4th lap, 37th position
Cincinnati Stingers
Career stations
1972-1974 Weyburn Red Wings
1974-1976 Kamloops Chiefs
1976-1979 Cincinnati stingers
1979-1980 Winnipeg Jets
1980-1983 Toronto Maple Leafs
1983-1984 Detroit Red Wings
1984-1987 Adirondack Red Wings

Barry James Melrose (born July 15, 1956 in Kelvington , Saskatchewan ) is a retired Canadian ice hockey defender and coach . During his career he played for the Winnipeg Jets , Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings in the National Hockey League and the Cincinnati Stingers in the World Hockey Association . He also worked as the head coach of the Los Angeles Kings and Tampa Bay Lightning in the NHL.

Career

Barry Melrose began his career in 1973 in the second-rate youth league SJHL with the Weyburn Red Wings , before joining the first-class WCHL to the Kamloops Chiefs the following year . After a solid first season, the defender showed his offensive qualities in his second year with twelve goals and 49 assists and thus attracted the attention of the professional teams of the National Hockey League and their rival league WHA . In the 1976 NHL Amateur Draft , the Montréal Canadiens selected him , while the Cincinnati Stingers secured the rights to him in the WHA Amateur Draft .

Melrose finally decided to go on the ice for the Stingers and while he was still part of the American Hockey League with the Springfield Indians in his debut season , he was a regular in Cincinnati in 1977/78 . In the following years he stood out in the league mainly because of his physically tough game and less because of goals and assists. In 1979 the WHA stopped their gaming operations and the Cincinnati Stingers were dissolved. The Montréal Canadiens, who had held the rights to Melrose within the NHL since 1976, sold them to the Winnipeg Jets , which had moved to the NHL after the WHA was dissolved. In addition, the jets had to hand over compensation to the Québec Nordiques , which had secured its services in the WHA Dispersal Draft.

He played for Winnipeg in the NHL for a year and a half before he was signed by the Toronto Maple Leafs on the waiver list , where he spent the rest of the season and another two seasons, and in the third year partly with their farm team , the St. Catharines Saints from the second rate AHL, was used.

In the summer of 1983 Melrose signed a contract with the Detroit Red Wings , but came in the following four years only to 35 NHL appearances and instead played mainly with the Adirondack Red Wings , the AHL farm team from Detroit. There won the Calder Cup in the 1985/86 season , but missed the entire playoffs due to a knee injury. The following year, in addition to his duties as a player, he also took on the position of assistant coach of the Adirondack Red Wings and ended his career at the end of the season.

Immediately afterwards he took over the post as head coach of the Medicine Hat Tigers from the Canadian Junior League WHL . With the then 17-year-old Trevor Linden in the squad, he won the President's Cup and the Memorial Cup , which the team had already won the previous year. After the successful season, however, there were disagreements between General Manager Russ Farwell and team owner George Maser , whereupon Farwell left the team. Melrose then expressed solidarity with Farwell and also resigned from his post. Both were then hired only a little later at league rival Seattle Thunderbirds .

Melrose only stayed in Seattle for a year and became the head coach of his former team as a player, the Adirondack Red Wings from the AHL. He succeeded his former coach Bill Dineen , who had resigned after another Calder Cup victory, and took over the post of General Manager from him in 1991. However, Melrose could not directly build on the successes of Dineen and failed in the playoffs in his first two years in the first round. In 1991/92 he led the Red Wings back on the road to success and won a fourth Calder Cup.

With this triumph, he also put an end to his involvement in Adirondack, as the Los Angeles Kings wanted him to train in the NHL. The team around stars like Wayne Gretzky , Luc Robitaille and Jari Kurri only played an average regular season, which they finished as the sixth-best team in the Clarence Campbell Conference , but made it through the playoffs to the Stanley Cup finals, where they reached the The Montréal Canadiens failed.

Although the Kings were able to keep their superstars for the 1993/94 season , they missed the playoffs with eleven points behind the eight-placed San Jose Sharks . Also in the following year they failed to qualify and Melrose was sacked as coach of the Los Angeles Kings.

For the 1995/96 season , the US television station ESPN hired him as an expert and he has been analyzing the NHL games for the station since then.

Melrose has only returned to the dugout for three games since leaving Los Angeles. In 1999, he and Emile Francis coached the Sunbelt Heroes of Hockey team at a former NHL player game that also featured ice hockey player Cammi Granato and actor Tim Robbins . The game was played under the name Heroes of Hockey Game as part of the NHL All-Star Game . He also looked after the UHL team from Adirondack for one game each in the 2003/04 and 2005/06 seasons .

On June 24, 2008, Melrose returned to the NHL after 13 years of abstinence and took over the post as head coach at the Tampa Bay Lightning . Already on November 14th of the same year - only 16 games into the 2008/09 season - the native Canadian had to vacate his post after winning only five games.

Achievements and Awards

As a player

As a trainer

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Melrose, Barry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Melrose, Barry James (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian ice hockey player, coach and general manager
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Kelvington , Saskatchewan