Bill Stewart (ice hockey player)

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Flag of Canada and Italy.svg  Bill Stewart Ice hockey player
Date of birth October 6, 1957
place of birth Toronto , Ontario , Canada
size 185 cm
Weight 81 kg
position defender
Shot hand Right
Draft
NHL Amateur Draft 1977 , 4th round, 68th position
Buffalo Sabers
WHA Amateur Draft 1977 , 5th lap, 46th position
Winnipeg Jets
Career stations
1974-1975 Kitchener Rangers
1975-1976 St. Catharines Black Hawks
1976-1977 Niagara Falls Flyers
1977-1988 Hershey Bears
1978-1979 Buffalo Sabers
1979-1980 Rochester Americans
1980-1983 St. Louis Blues
1983-1985 Toronto Maple Leafs
1985-1986 Minnesota North Stars
1986-1988 HC Pustertal
1988-1992 HC Milano Saima
1982-1993 HC Devils Milano
1993-1994 HC Gherdëina
1994-1995 HC Courmaosta

William Donald "Bill" Stewart (born October 6, 1957 in Toronto , Ontario ) is a former Italo - Canadian ice hockey player and current coach. In his playing career, Stewart was on the ice from 1977 to 1986 for the Buffalo Sabers , St. Louis Blues , Toronto Maple Leafs and Minnesota North Stars in the National Hockey League . His son Jesse Stewart was also a hockey player.

Career

As a player

As a teenager, Stewart played for the Kitchener Rangers in the OHA . In this league he moved to the St. Catharines Black Hawks and later to the Niagara Falls Flyers . Here he was then selected by the Buffalo Sabers at the NHL Amateur Draft 1977 in the fourth round as 68th. He was also drafted in the World Hockey Association in 1977. The Winnipeg Jets picked him 46th in Round 5.

He moved to Buffalo for the 1977/78 season , but played most of the time with the Hershey Bears in the American Hockey League . The next year he played mostly in the NHL, but a year later he only played for the Rochester Americans in the AHL.

At the beginning of the 1980/81 season he moved to the St. Louis Blues . Even in the three years there he often had to join the farm team for the Salt Lake Golden Eagles in the Central Hockey League . This was followed by two years with the Toronto Maple Leafs with side trips to the St. Catharines Saints in the AHL.

The 1985/86 season was his last as a player in North America. Mostly he was used in the AHL with the Springfield Indians . He played only eight games in the NHL for the Minnesota North Stars .

He moved to Italy and worked there between 1987 and 1995 as a player but also as a coach. Stations included EV Bruneck , HC Milano Saima , HC Devils Milano , HC Gröden and HC Courmaosta .

International

For Italy , Stewart took part in the 1992 and 1993 World Championships , as well as the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville and 1994 in Lillehammer .

As a trainer

In the summer of 1996, Stewart was named Coach of the Year in the Colonial Hockey League where he was employed by the Muskegon Fury . In 1997 he won the championship with the junior team of the Oshawa Generals in the Ontario Hockey League . Then Stewart moved to the Saint John Flames in the AHL and was also coach of the year there. In the 1998/99 season he was the head coach of the New York Islanders ' NHL team for 37 games , but could not reach the play-offs with them. The following season Stewart won again the championship in the Canadian youth league OHL with the Barrie Colts . During this time he tried to smuggle the Ukrainian player Vladimir Schernenko , who was hidden in the team bus between pockets, across the US-Canadian border. However, this was noticed and so Stewart was temporarily banned from working in the USA.

Coach stations in Germany and Austria

In the 2000/01 season he moved to the Adler Mannheim in the DEL. The team took first place in the table after the preliminary round and became German champions . However, Stewart caused excitement and headlines during the championship season: In the third game of the playoff quarter-final series between Mannheim and the Berlin Capitals , there was a mass brawl in which Stewart and Pavel Gross , the then coach of the capital city, were also involved. The police had to intervene. The Berliners, who accused Stewart of having been the author of the incident and of having inflicted a laceration on Gross, called for the Italian-Canadian to be banned from working. Stewart also suffered facial injuries in the clashes. The Mannheimers, in turn, accused the Berliners of illegal methods and provocations and said that Stewart had been insulted, spat at and physically assaulted by those responsible for Capitals. Criminal charges and civil law suits were ultimately withdrawn. The DEL arbitration tribunal sentenced Stewart to a ban of two games (plus two more games on probation) and a fine of 15,000 DM.

In the last game of the final series in 2001 against the Munich Barons , Stewart collapsed in the first third. He was accused of simulating the attack of weakness in order to give the Mannheim top player Jan Alston time to sharpen his runners. The eagles contradicted this point of view and declared in a press release, referring to their physiotherapist, "a momentary circulatory weakness during the game in Munich" had forced Stewart to take a break in the team cabin. But Stewart admitted to having faked the collapse: “Sometimes you need an unconventional break. It was a spontaneous idea, it was necessary ”, the Canadian was quoted as saying, who ultimately led the Adler to win the title. Stewart tried other unusual and sometimes dubious methods to tease top performance from his players: According to Gordon Hynes , who played for Stewart in Mannheim, he locked himself with his team in the locker room and explained tactical moves to the players for hours, Stewart himself played In a conversation with the Hamburger Abendblatt in December 2006, "that I should have locked a team in the dressing room until three in the morning because it played badly." was not satisfied with her attitude on the ice. The fact that he threw a bottle through the team bus during Mannheim's time and smashed the front window was an accident, Stewart emphasized in retrospect.

In the 2001/02 season the Adler Mannheim failed to the Kölner Haien in the final after they had finished the preliminary round as second in the table. During this season his team won 15 games in a row between November 27, 2001 and January 18, 2002, which is a DEL record to this day. After two unsuccessful years, Stewart left Adler Mannheim in January 2004 with immediate effect when the club management told him not to extend his contract, which was running out at the end of the season. He switched to league rivals Krefeld Pinguine and saved them from possible relegation. After a brief interlude in Lausanne, he moved to the EC Graz 99ers in Austria during the 2005/06 season , where he replaced the unsuccessful Mike Zettel as coach. Although concrete verbal agreements about a collaboration for the following season already existed, Stewart left the 99ers and signed for the coming season with the Black Wings Linz as the new head coach.

Return to Germany

After the head coach Mike Schmidt was dismissed from the DEL Club Hamburg Freezers in November 2006 due to unsuccessfulness, the Freezers presented Stewart as his successor a day later, although Stewart still had an ongoing contract in Linz and had not informed the club management of his intentions. The trained lawyer and Linz President Wilfried Wetzl then filed a lawsuit for breach of contract in order to obtain a work ban for Stewart through an injunction. The regional court in Linz rejected Black Wings Linz's action on January 8, 2007, according to which the change was legally implemented. At the same time as Stewart's surprising move, there were allegations that Stewart allegedly made racist statements against Chris Hamilton, the mental trainer of the Vienna Capitals . In this matter, however, there was no official procedure, according to Stewart, he apologized to Hamilton, who accepted the apology. At the end of the season, Stewart led the Freezers through the play-off qualification to the quarter-finals.

After a series of defeats, Stewart was released on December 13, 2008 by the Hamburg Freezers. Almost a year later, on December 2, 2009, he replaced Igor Pawlow , who was on leave due to unsuccessfulness, as coach of the Kölner Haie and still led the KEC in 10th place. In the first play-off round, however, the Haie failed at ERC Ingolstadt . Due to continued unsuccessfulness with the team he had put together at the beginning of the 2010/11 season , he was dismissed on November 6, 2010 in his role as trainer and manager of the Kölner Haie. The Haie were last in the table.

Move to Canada

After his release he went back to North America and was hired during the current 2010/11 season as a consultant to the Guelph Storm in the Ontario Hockey League . From the 2011/12 season, he looked after the team as Scott Walker's assistant coach . After Walker's resignation in January 2015, Stewart took over the position of head coach, but also resigned in December 2015 after a streak of losses and only two wins in the current OHL season.

Return to Germany again

In January 2016, the controversial Stewart was hired by the Dresdner Eislöwen from the DEL2 as the new head coach. He led the Saxons to the playoff semi-finals in the spring of 2016 and to the quarter-finals in the 2016/17 season.

In April 2017 he was hired by the Straubing Tigers as head coach, so he made his DEL return. Regarding his reputation and his critics, Stewart said on the occasion of his move to Straubing: “I have already seen a lot in Europe, celebrated great successes, but I also have to admit that I sometimes overshot my mark. Said moments were already a few years ago and in the meantime I have learned something new and have calmed down. ”In mid-October 2017, Stewart in Straubing was dismissed because the sporting development that the club had hoped for did not occur, as the Straubinger announced on the occasion of the separation. At the time of dismissal, the team was in the last place in the DEL table.

On December 4, 2017, Stewart took over the post of head coach at the Adler Mannheim, so he returned to the team that he made the German champions in 2001. He led the Adler to the playoff semifinals in spring 2018. With the semi-final defeat against Munich, his coaching engagement in Mannheim ended, his successor was Pavel Gross . Stewart stayed with the club as a scout for the North American market.

Achievements and Awards

As a trainer

NHL statistics

Seasons Games Gates Assists Points Penalty minutes
Regular season 8th 260 7th 64 71 424
Playoffs 3 13 1 3 4th 11

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Bill Stewart Assistant Coach , Guelph Storm, accessed Jan. 4, 2016
  2. http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/2000/120032.shtml
  3. Klaus Wolf: Mannheimer Adler and Berlin Capitals accuse each other of gross unsportsmanlike conduct: the tactic of the broken nose . In: Berliner Zeitung . ( berliner-zeitung.de [accessed on April 13, 2017]).
  4. Ring free on Mannheim's ice: - WELT. Retrieved April 13, 2017 .
  5. Ice hockey: After a scandal game: Berlin calls for a professional ban for Adler coach . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . March 28, 2001, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed April 13, 2017]).
  6. Beep, beep, beep - we are all in love again now ... In: Berliner-Kurier.de . ( berliner-kurier.de [accessed on April 13, 2017]).
  7. RP ONLINE: 15,000 marks fine: Adler coaches two games banned. Retrieved April 13, 2017 .
  8. Eike Radszuhn: "Bill Stewart is a characterless liar". In: welt.de . November 30, 2006, accessed January 4, 2016 .
  9. ^ RP ONLINE: Adler Mannheim put it right: Ice hockey: Stewart did not pretend circulatory weakness. Retrieved April 13, 2017 .
  10. ^ RZ-Online GmbH: RZ-Online: Ice Hockey: "Sudden Death" triumph over Münch. Retrieved April 13, 2017 .
  11. Spy Hynes: This is how Mannheim can be cracked . ( bz-berlin.de [accessed December 5, 2017]).
  12. Dino Reisner: Master Mannheim benefits from trainer Stewart's psychotricks . In: THE WORLD . October 21, 2001 ( welt.de [accessed December 5, 2017]).
  13. a b Hamburger Abendblatt - Hamburg: "My image bothers me a lot" . ( Abendblatt.de [accessed December 5, 2017]).
  14. "Work, guys!": Coffee and cake as a motivational aid . ( Handelsblatt.com [accessed on December 5, 2017]).
  15. Escapades pave the "Kill Bills" Weg | Nordbayerischer Kurier. Accessed December 5, 2017 .
  16. Ice Hockey News Special Issue 17/18, page 201 (record book)
  17. http://www.hockeyweb.de/del/bill-stewart-verlaesst-die-adler-2800
  18. Serious allegations against Freezers leadership and the new coach: - WELT. Retrieved April 13, 2017 .
  19. Bill Stewart: A Characterless Liar , Die Welt , November 30, 2006, accessed January 3, 2016
  20. Kölner Haie fire trainer Bill Stewart , Rheinische Post , November 6, 2010, accessed January 4, 2016
  21. Guelph Coach resigns , Peterborough Examiner, December 9, 2015, accessed January 4, 2016
  22. Eislöwen get scandal trainer Bill Stewart ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Morgenpost , January 3, 2016, accessed January 4, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / mopo24.de
  23. Bill Stewart is the new head coach. Dresdner Eislöwen, January 3, 2016, accessed on January 3, 2016 .
  24. Straubing Tigers present coaching team - Bill Stewart becomes head coach, Rob Leask remains assistant coach. Retrieved April 13, 2017 .
  25. Straubing Tigers - Current information in detail. Retrieved October 18, 2017 .
  26. Ice hockey: DEL: Straubing fires coach Bill Stewart . In: The time . October 18, 2017, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed October 18, 2017]). Ice hockey: DEL: Straubing fires coach Bill Stewart ( memento of the original from October 19, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zeit.de
  27. ^ Adler split up with Teal Fowler, Sean Simpson and Colin Müller. Retrieved December 4, 2017 .
  28. https://www.mannheim24.de/sport/adler-mannheim/del-playoffs-adler-mannheim-verlieren-deutlich-ehc-red-bull-muenchen- sucht-finale- 9757934.html
  29. https://www.adler-mannheim.de/aktuelles/adler-erweitern-scoutingnetzwerk/