Brian Sutter

Brian Sutter
Date of birth	October 7, 1956
place of birth	Viking , Alberta , Canada
size	180 cm
Weight	82 kg
position	Left wing
Shot hand	Left
Draft
NHL Amateur Draft	1976 , 2nd lap, 20th position St. Louis Blues
WHA Amateur Draft	1976 , 3rd lap, 36th position Edmonton Oilers
Career stations
1972-1974	Red Deer Rustlers
1974-1976	Lethbridge Broncos
1976-1988	St. Louis Blues

Brian Louis Allen Sutter (born October 7, 1956 in Viking , Alberta ) is a retired Canadian ice hockey striker and currently general manager of the Red Deer Rebels in the Western Hockey League .

Career

As a player

Brian Sutter began his career in 1972 in the second-rate Canadian junior league AJHL , before moving to the Lethbridge Broncos in the WCHL in 1974 . There he proved his talent as a solid scorer and his physical toughness, so that he was selected in the 1976 NHL Amateur Draft by the St. Louis Blues in the second round at position 20.

The 1976/77 season spent in both the CHL - farm team as well as with the Blues in the NHL. In 1977/78 he was finally able to prevail in the NHL squad of the Blues, even if he could not call up his qualities as a scorer and only scored 22 points. But in the next season he succeeded in a big leap in performance and he had the second best point yield of all players in St. Louis and was the team's top scorer with 41 goals. He was then named the youngest team captain in the history of the franchise at the age of 22 years and eleven months .

Sutter was an important pillar of the blues in the years that followed. He was a solid scorer who preferred the hard game and did not avoid fistfighting, but still showed leadership skills. He had one of his best years with the 1982/83 season , when he scored 46 goals and prepared 30 more and also had to serve 254 minutes in the penalty box. In 1982, 1983 and 1985 he was invited to the NHL All-Star Game because of his good performance .

In the mid-eighties, Sutter's injuries increased and he could only play 58 games from 1985 to 1987. However, he used the injury breaks to gain his first coaching experience and acted as an unofficial assistant coach. 1987/88 he was able to complete a full season in the NHL squad again, but then ended his career.

He had played twelve seasons for the St. Louis Blues, nine of them as team captain. After the end of his career, the Blues blocked his jersey number 11, which is no longer given to any player and hangs as a banner in the Scottrade Center .

Career statistics

				Regular season						Playoffs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM
1972/73	Red Deer Rustlers	AJHL		51	27	40	67	54		-	-	-	-	-
1973/74	Red Deer Rustlers	AJHL		59	42	54	96	139		-	-	-	-	-
1974/75	Lethbridge Broncos	WCHL		53	34	47	81	134		6th	0	1	1	39
1975/76	Lethbridge Broncos	WHL		72	36	56	92	233		7th	3	4th	7th	45
1976/77	Kansas City Blues	CHL		38	15th	23	38	47		-	-	-	-	-
1976/77	St. Louis Blues	NHL		35	4th	10	14th	82		4th	0	1	1	14th
1977/78	St. Louis Blues	NHL		79	9	13	22nd	123		-	-	-	-	-
1978/79	St. Louis Blues	NHL		77	41	39	80	165		-	-	-	-	-
1979/80	St. Louis Blues	NHL		71	23	35	58	156		3	0	0	0	4th
1980/81	St. Louis Blues	NHL		78	35	34	69	232		11	6th	3	9	77
1981/82	St. Louis Blues	NHL		74	39	36	75	239		10	8th	6th	14th	49
1982/83	St. Louis Blues	NHL		79	46	30th	76	254		4th	2	1	3	10
1983/84	St. Louis Blues	NHL		76	32	51	83	162		11	1	5	6th	22nd
1984/85	St. Louis Blues	NHL		77	37	37	74	121		3	2	1	3	2
1985/86	St. Louis Blues	NHL		44	19th	23	42	87		9	1	2	3	22nd
1986/87	St. Louis Blues	NHL		14th	3	3	6th	18th		-	-	-	-	-
1987/88	St. Louis Blues	NHL		76	15th	22nd	37	147		10	0	3	3	49
NHL overall				779	303	333	636	1786		65	21st	21st	42	249

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; ¹  play-downs / relegation )

As a trainer

Right after the end of his active career, Brian Sutter was named head coach of the St. Louis Blues in the summer of 1988. In the 1990/91 season he reached 105 points, the second best season result in the history of the franchise and the Blues took second place in the NHL. Nevertheless, as in the previous two seasons, they did not get past the second round of the playoffs . Even so, Sutter was honored with the Jack Adams Award for the NHL's best coach. In the same year he was also assistant coach for Team Canada , which won the Canada Cup .

In 1992 he left the team and became the coach of the Boston Bruins . There he was able to increase the season balance by 25 points compared to the previous season and took second place both with the Bruins in the NHL and in the vote for the Jack Adams Award. However, the Bruins could not hold out long in the playoffs. In the following two years, the Bruins were always one of the four best teams in the east of the league, but the great success failed.

In 1995, Sutter took a break from ice hockey and resigned from his coaching position in Boston. Two years later he returned to the NHL and coached the Calgary Flames from his home province of Alberta . The team had two disappointing seasons in which they missed the playoff qualification. But even under Sutter the sporting situation did not improve and in the summer of 2000 he left the team again.

In the summer of 2001, he took over as head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks , which had been in a sporting crisis for four years. The team was able to improve significantly in its first season in Chicago. Instead of the 29 wins of the previous season, the team won 41 games and qualified again for the playoffs. Sutter was then nominated again for the Jack Adams Award for his coaching performance. But the success was short-lived, because in the following two years the team fell back into its crisis and delivered in the 2003/04 season with only 20 wins, the worst result of the season in 47 years. After the loss of the 2004/05 season because of the lockout , the management of the Blackhawks decided not to extend Sutter's contract.

Sutter then trained the Bentley Generals in the Canadian amateur league Chinook Hockey League and won the joint amateur championship of Alberta and British Columbia .

In July 2007, his brother Brent Sutter was named head coach of the NHL team of the New Jersey Devils . Until then he was the team owner, trainer and general manager of the Red Deer Rebels from the Canadian Junior League WHL , but had to give up the trainer and management post with the Rebels due to his new engagement in the NHL. Brian Sutter took over as General Manager of the Rebels.

Achievements and Awards

As a player

• NHL All-Star Game 1982, 1983 and 1985

As a trainer

• Jack Adams Award 1991
• Canada Cup 1991 (as assistant coach)

family

Brian Sutter has six brothers, five of whom made it to the NHL , all younger than him. Brent Sutter played 1,111 games and scored 829 points. With the New York Islanders , of which he was captain for four years, he won the Stanley Cup twice. Brent was playing with his older brother Duane , who won the Stanley Cup four times. Duane played 731 times in the NHL and got 342 points. From 2000 to 2002 he trained the Florida Panthers and later worked as a functionary.

Darryl Sutter completed 406 games, scored 279 points and was the general manager and coach of several NHL teams. Another brother, Rich Sutter , played 874 games in the NHL and scored 315 points. For a little over a year he played in Chicago under the direction of his brother Darryl. After his active career, he worked as a talent scout for the Minnesota Wild and the Phoenix Coyotes , among others . His twin brother Ron Sutter was also trained by his brother Darryl in San Jose for a total of three years. Ron played 1,093 games in the NHL and was able to score 533 points. For a year he was team captain of the Philadelphia Flyers .

Brian's son Shaun Sutter was selected by the Calgary Flames in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft , but never made it to the NHL. Brett , Brandon and Brody Sutter, on the other hand, succeeded in doing this as representatives of the second generation of the family, while Luke Sutter was also active in the professional field.

Web links

• Brian Sutter at hockeydb.com (English)
• Brian Sutter at hockeydraftcentral.com