Eddie Johnston

Eddie Johnston
Date of birth	November 24, 1935
place of birth	Montréal , Québec , Canada
size	183 cm
Weight	86 kg
position	goalkeeper
Catch hand	Left
Career stations
1956-1957	Winnipeg Warriors
1957-1958	Shawinigan Falls Cataractes
1958-1959	Edmonton Flyers
1959-1960	Greensboro Generals Johnstown Jets
1960-1961	Hull-Ottawa Canadiens
1961–1962	Spokane Comets
1962-1973	Boston Bruins
1973-1974	Toronto Maple Leafs
1974-1988	St. Louis Blues
1978	Chicago Black Hawks

Edward Joseph "Eddie" Johnston (* 24. November 1935 in Montreal , Quebec ) is a retired Canadian ice hockey player , - coach , and - functionary . During his active career between 1962 and 1978 he played over 600 games for the Boston Bruins , Toronto Maple Leafs , St. Louis Blues and Chicago Black Hawks in the National Hockey League . Most of this time he spent with the Bruins, with whom he won the Stanley Cup in the 1970 and 1972 playoffs . After his active career, he worked as head coach of the Black Hawks and the Pittsburgh Penguins and as general manager of the Penguins and the Hartford Whalers .

Career

As a player

Beginnings

Eddie Johnston was born in Montréal and played there in his youth for the Montréal Jr. Royals and the Trois-Rivières Reds . For the 1956/57 season he was obliged by the Boston Bruins from the National Hockey League (NHL), but initially ran in various minor leagues . Of the following six years he spent three seasons in the Western Hockey League (WHL), where he guarded the gate for the Winnipeg Warriors , Edmonton Flyers and Spokane Comets , where he was appointed to the WHL Second All-Star Team in 1962 . The other three years he played in the east of the continent for the Shawinigan Falls Cataractes , the Greensboro Generals and Johnstown Jets and for the Hull-Ottawa Canadiens . There, too, the Eastern Hockey League and the Eastern Professional Hockey League each appointed him to their First All-Star Team .

Boston Bruins

For the 1962/63 season Johnston was finally promoted to the NHL squad of the Boston Bruins and was for the team in the sequence for eleven years on the ice. At the beginning of his career in the highest league in North America, the Bruins were hardly competitive and took the last place under the Original Six several times , while Johnston, as a regular goalkeeper, was one of the last goalkeepers to complete all 70 games of a regular NHL season. Over the years, Johnston's playing time has declined, on the one hand because the teams switched to the current system with a duo of goalkeepers, and on the other hand because the Bruins provided him with two future Hall of Fame members, Bernie Parent and Gerry Cheevers . Cheevers in particular acted as the undisputed regular goalkeeper in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with whom the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in the 1970 and 1972 playoffs . However, Johnston also played a major role in winning the second title by playing only one game less than Cheevers and leading the entire league in victories (6), catch rate (93.6%) and goals against (1.86). This performance was rewarded with the fact that he was part of the squad of the Canadian national team at the 1972 Summit Series , but remained there as the third goalkeeper behind Ken Dryden and Tony Esposito without use. Finally, his time in Boston ended when he was transferred to the Toronto Maple Leafs in May 1973 , making him part of a transfer with which the Bruins had signed Jacques Plante in March of the same year . At this point, only Tiny Thompson (468) had completed more games for Boston as a goalkeeper than Johnston (444; together with Frank Brimsek ).

Toronto, St. Louis and Chicago

For the Maple Leafs Johnston was only active one year before he was transferred to the St. Louis Blues in May 1974 in exchange for Gary Sabourin . In the Blues, he was regularly on the ice again in the following three and a half years, before he was given in January 1978 for financial consideration to the Chicago Black Hawks . There the goalkeeper played his last four NHL games and subsequently ended his active career at the end of the 1977/78 season. Overall, Johnston had played 592 games in the regular NHL season, making him one of the ten goalkeepers with the most appearances in league history at that time.

As a trainer and functionary

Johnston at the final game ceremony at Mellon Arena (2010)

Directly at the end of his active career, Johnston took over the position of head coach for the New Brunswick Hawks from the American Hockey League for the 1978/79 season . After just another year, the Canadian returned to the NHL by taking over from head coach Bob Pulford at his last employer, the Chicago Black Hawks . He led the Black Hawks to division victory and into the quarter-finals of the playoffs, but was still replaced by Keith Magnuson , so that he was active in the same role at the Pittsburgh Penguins . In his first tenure as head coach of the Penguins, he led the team to the playoffs twice in three years before taking over the position of general manager of Baz Bastien in 1983 . As "GM" of the Penguins, he was responsible for the engagement of Mario Lemieux in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft and, in his five years at the helm of the team, played a key role in putting together the squad that was to win the 1991 and 1992 Stanley Cups . Johnston himself did not share these successes, however, as he was general manager of the Hartford Whalers from 1989 to 1992 .

For the 1993/94 season he returned to Pittsburgh and began his second term as head coach of the team. In three and a half years he led the Penguins to two division titles and in 1996 the conference finals, but he did not succeed in winning a third Stanley Cup with the team, so he was dismissed towards the end of the 1996/97 season. To date, Johnston holds the record for most games as coach of the Penguins (516), while he was only overtaken by Dan Bylsma in victories (232) . However, he stayed with the Penguins by working as an assistant to General Manager Craig Patrick . He held this position until 2006, when he took on an advisory role and was immortalized on the trophy for a third time in 2009 when the Penguins won the Stanley Cup . He then retired from ice hockey.

Achievements and Awards

• 1960 EHL First All-Star Team
• 1961 EPHL First All-Star Team
• 1962 WHL Second All-Star Team
• 1970 Stanley Cup win with the Boston Bruins
• 1972 Stanley Cup win with the Boston Bruins

Career statistics

NHL player stats

				Regular season										Playoffs
season	team	league		Sp	S.	N	U	Min.	GT	SO	Sv%	GTS		Sp	S.	N	Min.	GT	SO	Sv%	GTS
1962/63	Boston Bruins	NHL		50	11	27	10	2910	193	1	89.3	3.98		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1963/64	Boston Bruins	NHL		70	18th	40	12	4200	211	6th	91.4	3.01		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1964/65	Boston Bruins	NHL		47	11	32	4th	2817	163	3	89.9	3.47		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1965/66	Boston Bruins	NHL		33	9	19th	2	1743	108	1	89.5	3.72		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1966/67	Boston Bruins	NHL		34	8th	21st	2	1876	116	0	88.0	3.71		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1967/68	Boston Bruins	NHL		28	13	7th	4th	1520	73	0	89.7	2.88		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1968/69	Boston Bruins	NHL		24	15th	6th	3	1439	74	2	89.8	3.09		1	0	1	65	4th	0	88.2	3.70
1969/70	Boston Bruins	NHL		37	16	9	11	2174	108	3	90.6	2.98		1	0	1	60	4th	0	89.7	4.03
1970/71	Boston Bruins	NHL		38	30th	6th	2	2277	96	4th	91.4	2.53		1	0	1	60	7th	0	81.1	7.03
1971/72	Boston Bruins	NHL		38	27	8th	3	2258	102	2	89.9	2.71		7th	6th	1	419	13	1	93.6	1.86
1972/73	Boston Bruins	NHL		45	24	17th	1	2505	137	5	88.6	3.28		3	1	2	160	9	0	89.7	3.38
1973/74	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		26th	12	9	4th	1513	78	1	89.4	3.09		1	0	1	60	6th	0	80.0	6.00
1974/75	St. Louis Blues	NHL		30th	12	13	5	1797	93	2	89.5	3.10		1	0	1	59	5	0	82.8	5.05
1975/76	St. Louis Blues	NHL		38	11	17th	9	2148	130	1	87.3	3.63		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1976/77	St. Louis Blues	NHL		38	13	16	5	2108	108	1	88.3	3.07		3	0	2	138	9	0	89.5	3.92
1977/78	St. Louis Blues	NHL		12	5	6th	1	649	45	0	85.0	4.16		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1977/78	Chicago Black Hawks	NHL		4th	1	3	0	240	17th	0	85.0	4.25		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
NHL overall				592	236	256	78	34175	1852	32	89.6	3.25		18th	7th	10	1021	57	1	89.6	3.35

( Legend for the goalkeeper statistics: GP or Sp = total games; W or S = wins; L or N = defeats; T or U or OT = draws or overtime or shootout defeats; min. = Minutes; SOG or SaT = shots on goal; GA or GT = goals conceded; SO = shutouts ; GAA or GTS = goals conceded ; Sv% or SVS% = catch quota ; EN = empty net goal ; ¹  play-downs / relegation ; italics : statistics not complete)

NHL coaching statistics

				Regular season								Playoffs
season	team	league		Sp	S.	N	U	Pt	Pt%	Place (division)		Sp	S.	N	result
1979/80	Chicago Black Hawks	NHL		80	34	27	19th	87	.544	1. ( Smythe )		7th	3	4th	Quarter finals
1980/81	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		80	30th	37	13	73	.456	3. ( Norris )		5	2	3	Round of 16
1981/82	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		80	31	36	13	75	.469	4. ( Patrick )		5	2	3	Round of 16
1982/83	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		80	18th	53	9	45	.281	6. (Patrick)		not qualified
1993/94	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		84	44	27	13	101	.601	1. ( Northeast )		6th	2	4th	Conference quarterfinals
1994/95	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		48	29	16	3	61	.635	2. (Northeast)		12	5	7th	Conference semifinals
1995/96	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		82	49	29	4th	102	.622	1. (Northeast)		18th	11	7th	Conference finals
1996/97	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		62	31	26th	5	67	.540	dismiss
NHL overall				596	266	251	79	611	.513	3 division titles	53	25th	28	0 Stanley Cups

( Legend for coach statistics: Sp or GC = total games; W or S = wins scored; L or N = losses scored; T or U = draws scored; OTL or OTN = losses scored after overtime or shootout ; Pts or Pkt = points scored ; Pts% or Pkt% = point rate; Win% = win rate; result = round reached in the play-offs )

Web links

• Eddie Johnston in the database of the National Hockey League (English)
• Eddie Johnston at eliteprospects.com (English)
• Eddie Johnston at legendsofhockey.net (English)