Don Lever

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CanadaCanada  Don Lever Ice hockey player
Date of birth November 14, 1952
place of birth South Porcupine , Ontario , Canada
size 180 cm
Weight 84 kg
position Left wing
Shot hand Left
Draft
NHL Amateur Draft 1972 , 1st round, 3rd position
Vancouver Canucks
Career stations
1970-1972 Niagara Falls Flyers
1972-1980 Vancouver Canucks
1980 Atlanta Flames
1980-1981 Calgary Flames
1981-1982 Colorado Rockies
1982-1985 New Jersey Devils
1985-1987 Buffalo Sabers
Rochester Americans
CanadaCanada  Don Lever
Coaching stations
1987-1989 Buffalo Sabers (assistant coach)
1989-1991 Rochester Americans
1991-2002 Buffalo Sabers (assistant coach)
2002-2004 St. Louis Blues (assistant coach)
2005-2009 Hamilton Bulldogs
2008-2009 Canadiens de Montréal (assistant coach)
2009-2011 Chicago Wolves
since 2009 Chicago Blackhawks (Scout)

Donald Richard Lever (born November 14, 1952 in South Porcupine , Ontario ) is a former Canadian ice hockey player and coach and current scout , who played 1050 games for the Vancouver Canucks , Atlanta Flames , Calgary during his playing career between 1969 and 1987 Flames , Colorado Rockies , New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabers played in the National Hockey League on the left winger position . In addition, after his active career ended, he worked as a coach in the National and American Hockey League between 1987 and 2011 . Lever won the Calder Cup as both a player and a coach . Since the beginning of the 2009/10 season he has been working as a scout for the Chicago Blackhawks from the NHL. His brother-in-law Rick Ley was also active as a player and coach in the NHL.

Career

Lever spent his junior years with the Niagara Falls Flyers in the Ontario Hockey Association between 1970 and 1972 . The 71 points scorer in 59 games in his second and final year with the Flyers meant that he was awarded the Red Tilson Trophy as the most valuable player of the season and was appointed to the league's First All-Star team. After the election in the NHL Amateur Draft 1972 by the Vancouver Canucks in third overall position, the striker was immediately committed by the Western Canadians.

Right at the beginning, Lever got a regular place in the Canucks squad for the 1972/73 season and stayed with the team for almost eight years. During this time he reached the mark of 20 goals per season six times and served as the franchise's fourth team captain between 1977 and 1979 . During the 1979/80 season , the attacker was given to the Atlanta Flames in February 1980 together with Brad Smith and in exchange for Ivan Boldirev and Darcy Rota . With the move to the Flames, the previous consistency in Lever's NHL career ended abruptly. The Canadian ended the season in Atlanta and then moved the franchise across the border to Calgary, Canada in the summer of 1980 . There the team played from then on under the name Calgary Flames . The winger stayed with the club until November 1981 when a transfer deal with Bob MacMillan took him to the Colorado Rockies . In return, Lanny McDonald and a four-round suffrage in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft moved to Calgary.

In the Colorado jersey Lever only played 59 missions, as the Rockies franchise also fell victim to relocation after the end of the 1981/82 season . At the beginning of the 1982/83 season he was therefore with the New Jersey Devils for the following three years in an employment relationship. The Devils named Lever the first team captain in their history. A position he filled in the first two years of play before he was replaced by Mel Bridgman . In September 1985, the striker was finally transferred to the Buffalo Sabers for no consideration . There he commuted in the last two years of his career between the squad of the NHL team and that of the farm team , the Rochester Americans , in the American Hockey League . With the Amerks he won the Calder Cup at the end of the 1986/87 season , after which he ended his career at the age of 34.

As a result, Lever hit a career as a coach and scout . He remained in the Sabers franchise and worked as an assistant coach for Buffalo from the beginning of the 1987/88 season until the end of the 2001/02 season . The 15 years in which he worked with Ted Sator , Rick Dudley , John Muckler , Ted Nolan and Lindy Ruff were only interrupted by a two-year engagement as head coach of the AHL farm team in Rochester between 1989 and 1991. There he was awarded the Louis AR Pieri Memorial Award in 1991 as the best coach in the league. After the time in Buffalo, the ex-player hired for the 2002/03 season as an assistant coach at the St. Louis Blues to work under head coach Joel Quenneville for the next two years .

Lever finally paused a year and returned for the 2005-06 season as head coach in the American Hockey League. There he looked after the Hamilton Bulldogs , the farm team of the Canadiens de Montréal, for four seasons . He led the Bulldogs in 2007 to win the Calder Cup for the first time, which Lever was able to win the trophy both as a player and as the main coach. In the 2008/09 season , the Canadian was not only head coach but also worked as an assistant coach for Montréal. For the 2009/10 season Lever was obliged by the Chicago Wolves from the AHL, but he could not help the team there in the two years until 2011 to success. In parallel to his coaching post, he also began working as a scout for the Chicago Blackhawks from the NHL in 2009 .

International

Lever played for his home country at the 1978 World Cup in the Czechoslovak capital, Prague . There he won the bronze medal with the Canadians, to which he contributed seven scorer points in ten tournament appearances. There were four gates below.

Achievements and Awards

As a player

As a trainer

Career statistics

Regular season Play-offs
season team league Sp T V Pt SM Sp T V Pt SM
1969/70 Niagara Falls Flyers OHA Jr. 2 0 1 1 4th - - - - -
1970/71 Niagara Falls Flyers OHA Jr. 59 35 36 71 112 - - - - -
1971/72 Niagara Falls Flyers OHA Jr. 69 61 65 126 69 - - - - -
1972/73 Vancouver Canucks NHL 78 12 26th 38 49 - - - - -
1973/74 Vancouver Canucks NHL 78 23 25th 48 28 - - - - -
1974/75 Vancouver Canucks NHL 80 38 30th 68 49 5 0 1 1 4th
1975/76 Vancouver Canucks NHL 80 25th 40 65 93 2 0 0 0 0
1976/77 Vancouver Canucks NHL 80 27 30th 57 28 - - - - -
1977/78 Vancouver Canucks NHL 75 17th 32 49 58 - - - - -
1978/79 Vancouver Canucks NHL 71 23 21st 44 17th 3 2 1 3 2
1979/80 Vancouver Canucks NHL 51 21st 17th 38 32 - - - - -
1979/80 Atlanta Flames NHL 28 14th 16 30th 4th 4th 1 1 2 0
1980/81 Calgary Flames NHL 62 26th 31 57 56 16 4th 7th 11 20th
1981/82 Calgary Flames NHL 23 8th 11 19th 6th - - - - -
1981/82 Colorado Rockies NHL 59 22nd 28 50 20th - - - - -
1982/83 New Jersey Devils NHL 79 23 30th 53 68 - - - - -
1983/84 New Jersey Devils NHL 70 14th 19th 33 44 - - - - -
1984/85 New Jersey Devils NHL 67 10 8th 18th 31 - - - - -
1985/86 Rochester Americans AHL 29 6th 11 17th 16 - - - - -
1985/86 Buffalo Sabers NHL 29 7th 1 8th 6th - - - - -
1986/87 Rochester Americans AHL 57 29 25th 54 69 18th 4th 3 7th 14th
1986/87 Buffalo Sabers NHL 10 3 2 5 4th - - - - -
OHA Jr. total 130 96 102 198 185 - - - - -
AHL total 86 35 36 71 85 18th 4th 3 7th 14th
NHL overall 1020 313 367 680 593 30th 7th 10 17th 26th

International

Represented Canada to:

year team event result Sp T V Pt SM
1978 Canada WM 3rd place, bronze 10 4th 3 7th 4th
Men overall 10 4th 3 7th 4th

( 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 )

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lever, Don
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lever, Donald Richard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian ice hockey player, coach and scout
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH South Porcupine , Ontario