Clint Malarchuk

Clint Malarchuk
Date of birth	May 1, 1961
place of birth	Grande Prairie , Alberta , Canada
size	185 cm
Weight	84 kg
position	goalkeeper
number	# 30
Catch hand	Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	1981 , 4th lap, 74th position Québec Nordiques
Career stations
1978-1981	Portland Winter Hawks
1981-1987	Québec Nordiques
1987-1989	Washington Capitals
1989-1992	Buffalo Sabers
1992-1993	San Diego Gulls
1993-1997	Las Vegas Thunder

Clint Regan Malarchuk (born May 1, 1961 in Grande Prairie , Alberta ) is a former Canadian ice hockey goalkeeper who played for the Québec Nordiques , Washington Capitals and Buffalo Sabers in the National Hockey League from 1981 to 1992 . He is currently the goalkeeping coach of the Calgary Flames .

Career

Clint was drawn 74th by the Québec Nordiques in the 1981 NHL Entry Draft and played a solid role in the AHL with 51 games for the Fredericton Express in his first year as a professional . In the 1982/83 season he commuted between the National Hockey League and the Minors where he and Brian Ford received the Harry "Hap" Holmes Memorial Award for the best goalkeeper team in the American Hockey League.

The breakthrough in the National Hockey League came in 1986/87 when he played 54 games for the Québec Nordiques and was appointed as a replacement goal for the NHL Allstars for the Rendez-vous '87 series. Even though he was the first goalkeeper for the Nordiques during those years, he had his best seasons when he shared the number 1 post with another goalie . For example at the end of the 80s / beginning of the 90s with the Buffalo Sabers when he shared this job with Daren Puppa , but was gradually ousted by it.

1991/92 ended his NHL career and he spent the rest of his career in the Minors from the 1992/93 season . There he played in the IHL for the San Diego Gulls (where he booked the most wins (34) in his first IHL year) and Las Vegas Thunder . At the Thunder , after his career ended in 1997, his jersey number was the first in the team's history to not be awarded.

Throughout his career, he played nearly 700 professional games, including over 300 in the NHL . Since August 2, 2006, Clint Malarchuk was the goalkeeping coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL). He is currently employed by the Calgary Flames .

The accident

In one of the first games after his move from Washington to the Sabers, he achieved tragic fame. During the game against the St. Louis Blues on March 22, 1989, a scene occurred that actually seemed completely normal and occurs several times in each game: Steve Tuttle of the Blues stormed towards the goal guarded by Malarchuk and was defeated by the German defender of Sabers, Uwe Krupp , pressed. But Tuttle lost his balance and fell into the goal area with a stretched leg, where his skate hit Malarchuk on the unprotected neck, cutting open a jugular vein . Clint immediately took the mask off his head, while a large pool of blood was already forming as a result of the severe blood loss.

The blood loss was so severe that he would have died in a few minutes if one of the caregivers - a Vietnam War veteran - had not stopped the bleeding immediately by sticking his finger into his vein until the emergency doctor arrived. The wound was eventually stitched in the ambulance. Despite being told he would be out for the rest of the season, he was back in training four days later and back on the ice a week later.

This accident caused many goalies to wear neck protection and went down in history as one of the most terrible ice hockey accidents.

NHL statistics

	Seasons	Games	Victory cut	Conceded goal	Shutouts
Regular season	10	338	0.417	3.47	12
Playoffs	5	15th	0.133	4.30	0

Achievements and Awards

• 1983 Harry "Hap" Holmes Memorial Award (together with Brian Ford )
• 1993 James Norris Memorial Trophy (with Rick Knickle )

Career as a coach

In 2002 Malarchuk took over the post as goalkeeper coach of the Florida Panthers and coached Roberto Luongo for two years , who was nominated for the 2004 Vezina Trophy as the best goalkeeper in the NHL. He spent the 2004/05 season as an assistant coach in the AHL with the San Antonio Rampage , the Panthers' farm team. Since 2006 he has been the goalkeeping coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets . In June 2011 he was brought in by the Calgary Flames as goalkeeping coach.

Web links

• Clint Malarchuk at hockeydb.com (English)
• Clint Malarchuk at legendsofhockey.net (English)