Eric Cairns

Eric Cairns
Date of birth	June 27, 1974
place of birth	Oakville , Ontario , Canada
size	197 cm
Weight	110 kg
position	defender
Shot hand	Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	1992 , 3rd lap, 72nd position New York Rangers
Career stations
1991-1992	Detroit Compuware Ambassadors
1992-1994	Detroit Junior Red Wings
1994-1996	Binghamton Rangers
1996-1998	New York Rangers
1998-2004	New York Islanders
2004-2005	London Racers
2005-2006	Florida panthers
2006	Pittsburgh Penguins

Eric Cairns (born June 27, 1974 in Oakville , Ontario ) is a former Canadian ice hockey player and current official who played 473 games for the New York Rangers , New York Islanders , Florida Panthers and between 1991 and 2007 Pittsburgh Penguins has played in the National Hockey League (NHL) on the position of defender . Since the 2013/14 season, Cairns, who embodied the Enforcer player type during his playing days , has been Director of Player Development at the New York Islanders, for which he has held other positions since 2008.

Career

Cairns spent his junior years between 1991 and 1994 with the Detroit Compuware Ambassadors and Detroit Junior Red Wings , the predecessor franchises of the later Plymouth Whalers , in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). With the two Detroit junior teams, the defender quickly made a name for himself as an enforcer due to his toughness . Cairns increased his offensive production from 16 scorer points to 42 in the course of the three game years . Nevertheless, there were also around 200 or more penalty minutes in each of the three seasons. Since his player type was in great demand in the National Hockey League (NHL) at that time, however, he had already been selected after his rookie season in the NHL Entry Draft in 1992 in the third round in 72nd place by the New York Rangers .

The defensive player made the arduous path into the NHL from the 1994/95 season on the North American minor leagues . Under contract with the New York Rangers, he worked for their farm teams over the next two years . Between 1994 and 1996 he played mainly for the Binghamton Rangers in the American Hockey League (AHL) and at times the Birmingham Bulls and Charlotte Checkers in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL). It was not until the 1996/97 season that the Canadian managed to join the Broadway Blueshirts ' NHL squad , where he was used 46 times during the season, but also often sat in the stands due to his limited talent. This was also the case in the following year and the beginning of the year after next, before his transfer rights were secured by city rival New York Islanders on the waiver list at the end of December 1998 . In the service of the Islanders, Cairns also had a hard time establishing itself in the NHL and was initially on the ice most of the time for cooperation partner Lowell Lock Monsters in the AHL. At the beginning of the 1999/2000 millennium season, the defender was loaned to the Providence Bruins from the AHL. After four missions, he was brought back just a week after the start of the loan deal by the Islanders and was henceforth for the following five years until the lockout of the 2004/05 NHL season in the Isles' squad . In only one of the five seasons, he completed fewer than 60 games.

Before the start of the 2004/05 season, Cairns signed a contract with the Florida Panthers as a free agent , bringing his time with the New York Islanders to an end after almost six years in the organization. However, before he played his first game for the Panthers, the season fell victim to a strike. In order to have more match practice, Cairns was committed in November 2004 by the English club London Racers from the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL). There he met with Scott Nichol on another NHL player. Ultimately, Cairns completed 35 games for the capital club, including all cup competitions, before returning to North America for the 2005/06 season . With the new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and the team owners, the entertainment of a limited game player like Cairns had become unprofitable, and by January 2006 it was only used in 23 games. He was then given in exchange for a six- round suffrage in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft to the Pittsburgh Penguins . There the defensive player ended the season. In the 2006/07 season Cairns first played two games for Pittsburgh's AHL farm team Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins , before making his season debut for Pittsburgh on November 10. He suffered a severe concussion , the aftermath of which led to the fact that he was no longer fit for the rest of the season and the entire 2007/08 season and he had to end his active career at the age of 34.

After retiring from his career, Cairns was hired as a scout for the 2008/09 season by his former New York Islanders team . From 2009 he worked for four years as a so-called development coach in the organization before he was promoted to Director of Player Development in the 2013/14 season .

Career statistics

				Regular season						Playoffs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM
1991/92	Detroit Compuware Ambassadors	OHL		64	1	11	12	237		7th	0	0	0	31
1992/93	Detroit Junior Red Wings	OHL		64	3	13	16	194		15th	0	3	3	24
1993/94	Detroit Junior Red Wings	OHL		59	7th	35	42	204		17th	0	4th	4th	46
1994/95	Binghamton Rangers	AHL		27	0	3	3	134		9	1	1	2	28
1994/95	Birmingham Bulls	ECHL		11	1	3	4th	49		-	-	-	-	-
1995/96	Binghamton Rangers	AHL		46	1	13	14th	192		4th	0	0	0	37
1995/96	Charlotte Checkers	ECHL		6th	0	1	1	34		-	-	-	-	-
1996/97	New York Rangers	NHL		40	0	1	1	147		3	0	0	0	0
1996/97	Binghamton Rangers	AHL		10	1	1	2	96		-	-	-	-	-
1997/98	New York Rangers	NHL		39	0	3	3	92		-	-	-	-	-
1997/98	Hartford Wolf Pack	AHL		7th	1	2	3	43		-	-	-	-	-
1998/99	Hartford Wolf Pack	AHL		11	0	2	2	49		-	-	-	-	-
1998/99	New York Islanders	NHL		9	0	3	3	23		-	-	-	-	-
1998/99	Lowell Lock Monsters	AHL		24	0	0	0	91		3	1	0	1	32
1999/00	Providence Bruins	AHL		4th	1	1	2	14th		-	-	-	-	-
1999/00	New York Islanders	NHL		67	2	7th	9	196		-	-	-	-	-
2000/01	New York Islanders	NHL		45	2	2	4th	106		-	-	-	-	-
2001/02	New York Islanders	NHL		74	2	5	7th	176		7th	0	0	0	15th
2002/03	New York Islanders	NHL		60	1	4th	5	124		5	0	0	0	13
2003/04	New York Islanders	NHL		72	2	6th	8th	189		1	0	0	0	0
2004/05	London Racers	EIHL		22nd	2	6th	8th	85		2	0	0	0	27
2005/06	Florida panthers	NHL		23	0	1	1	37		-	-	-	-	-
2005/06	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		27	1	0	1	87		-	-	-	-	-
2006/07	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL		1	0	0	0	5		-	-	-	-	-
2006/07	Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins	AHL		2	0	0	0	10		-	-	-	-	-
OHL total				187	11	59	70	535		39	0	7th	7th	101
ECHL total				17th	1	4th	5	83		-	-	-	-	-
AHL total				131	4th	22nd	26th	629		16	2	1	3	97
NHL overall				457	10	32	42	1182		16	0	0	0	28

( 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

• Eric Cairns at legendsofhockey.net ( Memento from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
• Eric Cairns at eliteprospects.com (English)