Craig Hartsburg

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CanadaCanada  Craig Hartsburg Ice hockey player
Craig Hartsburg
Date of birth June 29, 1959
place of birth Stratford , Ontario , Canada
size 185 cm
Weight 91 kg
position defender
Draft
NHL Entry Draft 1979 , 1st round, 6th position
Minnesota North Stars
Career stations
1975-1988 Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds
1978-1979 Birmingham Bulls
1979-1989 Minnesota North Stars

Craig William Hartsburg (born June 29, 1959 in Stratford , Ontario ) is a retired Canadian ice hockey defender . Since the 2012/13 season he has been active as an assistant coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets in the National Hockey League .

Career as a player

Craig Hartsburg began his career in 1974 with the Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters from the regional youth league SOJHL , before joining the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds moved to the top junior league OHA . After a solid first season, Hartsburg was named team captain of the greyhounds and developed significantly on the ice. In a sporting disappointing team, he was the team's best scorer with 29 goals and 64 assists in 61 league games and received the Max Kaminsky Trophy as the best defender of the OHA.

In the 1977/78 season, 16-year-old Wayne Gretzky came to the team, but the season result could only be improved insignificantly. In addition, Hartsburg suffered a knee injury at the beginning of the season, which is why he could only play 36 games.

Since until the summer of 1978 no NHL team had secured the rights to Hartsburg, he signed a contract with the Birmingham Bulls from the competing professional league World Hockey Association . The team, which was filled with very young players like Michel Goulet and Hartsburgh, finished penultimate in the league at the end of the 1978/79 season . However, Hartsburg personally had a good first professional season with nine goals and 40 assists.

After the WHA was dissolved in the summer of 1979, the Minnesota North Stars selected Craig Hartsburg in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft in the first round in sixth place. He also made his breakthrough in the NHL and was the team's top defender with 44 points in 79 games. In the following season he built on his good performances and was an important part of the team, especially in the playoffs , when they reached the Stanley Cup final against the New York Islanders .

Not only athletically, but also in the hierarchy of the North Stars, he then rose and was named one of the alternate captains for the 1981/82 season, in which he had his best year with 17 goals and 60 assists in 76 league games. In the fall of 1982 he finally received the "C" as the team captain.

In the 1982/83 season he kept his services at a high level and the North Stars qualified again for the playoffs, in which Hartsburg was next to Brad Maxwell the best scorer. However, as in the previous year, they failed relatively early. At the beginning of the 1983/84 season , Hartsburg had to undergo an operation because of osteophytes and thus missed several games. After returning to the game, he played 26 games, but tore his ligaments in January 1984 and was out for the remainder of the season.

In the 1984/85 season he was not spared injuries and was limited to 32 NHL appearances due to a fracture in his thigh. The following two seasons could play with the exception of minor injuries largely without physical problems, found back to his old form and scored on November 1, 1986 as the first defender of the North Stars a hat trick .

For the 1987/88 season , however, his bad luck with injuries returned and had to pause for a long time due to a hernia and a shoulder injury that led to an operation. He returned in the fall of 1988, but suffered an ankle infection at the beginning of the season. After the injury seemed over, he played 30 games and scored 18 points scorer. However, in January 1989 the same complaints occurred in the ankle, whereupon he announced his retirement a few days later.

Career as a coach

After the end of his active career, Hartsburg remained in the organization of the Minnesota North Stars and in the summer of 1989 he was assistant coach to Pierre Pagé . The team reached the playoffs, but failed in the first round and head coach Pagé was sacked. Hartsburg then moved to the Philadelphia Flyers in August 1990 , where he assisted Paul Holmgren , Bill Dineen and Terry Simpson for four years . However, all four seasons were unsuccessful and the team could not reach the playoffs in any year.

In 1994 he left the Flyers and received his first post as head coach with the Guelph Storm from the Canadian Junior League OHL . The team was only about to enter their fourth season and Hartsburg led them to their best year to date, when they won 47 of the 66 league games and thus took first place in the league. In the playoffs, the Storm moved into the final without a defeat, but failed there because of the Detroit Junior Red Wings . He also received the Matt Leyden Trophy as the league's best coach and the CHL Coach of the Year Award as the CHL's best coach .

Due to the success, the Chicago Blackhawks from the NHL had become aware of Hartsburg and signed him for the 1995/96 season as head coach. He led the team to third place in the Western Conference with 40 wins and reached the second round of the playoffs. But then the team's performance declined. In the following season, the Blackhawks could only qualify as eighth best team for the playoffs and the following year they missed the finals for the first time since 1969, whereupon Hartsburg was dismissed.

But only shortly afterwards the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim hired him as a new coach and he led the team to the second playoff participation in their six-year existence. But even in Anaheim, after a positive first season, the team under Hartsburg's leadership could no longer build on this performance in the following seasons and in December 2000 he was dismissed again.

In summer 2001 he returned to the OHL junior league and took over Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds as both coach and director of hockey operations. After the team had occupied last place in the Western Conference in the previous season, he led the Greyhounds in the 2001/02 season to third place. In the playoffs, however, the team lost in the first round. Nevertheless, Hartsburg received the Matt Leyden Trophy for the second time as the best coach of the OHL.

However, Hartsburg moved back to the NHL after the positive season with the greyhounds and he accepted the post as assistant coach of Ken Hitchcock with the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers played two very good seasons and reached the final of the NHL Eastern Conference in the 2003/04 season , where they were barely beaten by the Tampa Bay Lightning .

When the 2004/05 NHL season was canceled, Hartsburg decided to join the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds to return. After three average seasons in which the greyhounds failed twice in the first round and once in the second round of the playoffs, they finished third in the OHL in the 2007/08 season and were only defeated in the final round in the conference finals against the eventual title winner Kitchener Rangers .

On June 13, 2008, Craig Hartsburg was hired by the Ottawa Senators from the NHL as the new head coach. Hartsburg should lead the stumbling team back to the top of the league, but his plan failed. Due to the inconsistent game of the goalkeepers and the worst offensive in the league, the Senators ranked only 13th in the Eastern Conference with 17 wins after 48 games and were already 14 points behind a playoff place. In early February 2009, Hartsburg was then dismissed as a coach. On June 23, 2009, he was introduced as the coach of the Everett Silvertips . In the 2009/10 season he led the team to 46 wins in 72 regular season games , but did not get beyond the first round in the playoffs. In June 2011 he was hired by the Calgary Flames as an assistant coach.

International

Craig Hartsburg was first active for the Canadian national team in 1978 when he won the bronze medal at the Junior World Championship . This was followed in the next few years at the Senior World Championships in 1982 , 1983 and 1987 . He was able to win bronze medals twice and was named the best defender of the tournament in 1987. He had other missions for the national team in 1981 and 1987 at the Canada Cup , which he won once.

In 2006, Hartsburg was the assistant coach of Brent Sutter , whom he had coached ten years earlier in Chicago, at the U20 Junior World Championship , which the Canadian team finished with the title. At the tournaments in 2007 and 2008 he finally took over the responsibility as head coach and led the team to the world championship title both times.

Achievements and Awards

As a player

As a trainer

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hartsburg, Craig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hartsburg, Craig William (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian ice hockey player, coach and official
DATE OF BIRTH June 29, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Stratford , Ontario