Gary Leeman

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CanadaCanada  Gary Leeman Ice hockey player
Date of birth 19th February 1964
place of birth Wilcox , Saskatchewan , Canada
size 182 cm
position Right wing
Shot hand Right
Draft
NHL Entry Draft 1982 , 2nd round, 24th position
Toronto Maple Leafs
Career stations
1981-1983 Regina Pats
1983-1992 Toronto Maple Leafs
1992-1994 Calgary Flames
1994-1995 Vancouver Canucks
1995-1996 HC Gherdëina
1996-1997 Worcester IceCats
1997-1999 Hanover Scorpions

Gary Spencer Leeman (born February 19, 1964 in Wilcox , Saskatchewan ) is a former Canadian ice hockey player who was active during his career for the Toronto Maple Leafs , Calgary Flames , Montréal Canadiens , Vancouver Canucks and St. Louis Blues , among others . In the 1992/93 season he won the Stanley Cup with the Montréal Canadiens . In addition, he completed 14 games for the Canadian junior national team .

Career

Leeman began his career with the Regina Pats in the Canadian Junior Western Hockey League . There he was able to convince in his first season and thus attracted the interest of the talent scouts from the National Hockey League. The native Canadian scored 64 points in the 75 games in which he was used. Even then, he was playing physically contoured ice hockey and was penalized for 112 minutes. During the NHL Entry Draft in 1982 , it was those responsible for the Toronto Maple Leafs who selected him in the second round in a total of 24th position. Leeman then stayed for another season in the WHL before moving to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the summer of 1983 in the NHL. In his last season with the Pats he was able to increase his points yield again, he scored 92 points in 68 games. He was then nominated for the Canadian junior national team, with which he took part in the 1983 Junior World Championship . There he reached third place with Team Canada.

The then 19-year-old spent his first season in the NHL completely with the Maple Leafs, who used him in a total of 53 games in which he was able to score twelve points. Only one season later he was briefly handed over to the then farm team , the St. Catharines Saints from the American Hockey League . Nevertheless, he came back to 53 games. He was able to more than double his points and scored 31 points scorer. A year later, the left-shooter was represented with his team for the first time in the play-offs . There you reached, after a first-round win against the Chicago Black Hawks , the Conference semifinals, in which you failed in a best-of-seven series with 3: 4 games against the St. Louis Blues. Leeman was one of the best scorers of his team during the play-offs, so he completed ten games and scored twelve points. In the following years he established himself with the Maple Leafs and formed the notorious "Hound Line" with his then teammates Wendel Clark and Russ Courtnall , which at that time represented the parade series of the Maple Leafs.

Gary Leeman played for the Canadiens Legends in the 2008 Legends Classic

In the 1986/87 season he was able to reach the conference semifinals again with his team, where the team retired after a 1: 3 lead after games in the end with 4: 3 games against the Detroit Red Wings . Leeman was used in five games and scored an assist . His best years in the National Hockey League he completed between 1988 and 1990. During this time he could not record any play-off successes with the Maple Leafs, but he was one of the strikers with the highest points in the league. After he was able to achieve more points than he completed games for the first time in the 1988/89 season (75 points in 61 games) and was then even nominated for the NHL All-Star Game in 1989 , he was able to accomplish this feat again a season later and scored 101 times in 85 games. At the time, he scored 54 goals, making it only the second player in the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, after Rick Vaive , to score more than 50 goals in one season. The following season was less successful due to a shoulder injury.

During the 1991/92 season he was transferred to the Calgary Flames in what was then a sensational exchange. So he was transferred to Calgary on January 2, 1992 together with Craig Berube , Oleksandr Hodynjuk , Michel Petit and Jeff Reese , who gave him in return the players Doug Gilmour , Jamie Macoun , Ric Nattress , Rick Wamsley and Kent Manderville . With the Flames Leeman could not build on his achievements with the Maple Leafs and was again given two years later, on January 28, 1993, in an exchange deal to the Montréal Canadiens, with which he was able to win the Stanley Cup. Those in charge of the Canadiens put him a little later in their farm team at that time , the Fredericton Canadiens in the AHL, and did not extend his contract at the end of the 1993/94 season . He then signed a contract as a free agent with the Vancouver Canucks, for which he only completed ten games, since the 1994/95 season was reduced to 48 main round games due to the lockout in the NHL. His contract was not renewed in the summer of 1995 and so he left the club after only one year. This was followed by a one-year interlude at HC Gherdëina , with whom he was active in the top Italian division, Serie A1 . In 1996 he returned to North America and was consequently in the squad of the St. Louis Blues, for which he was only used in two games and to the then farm teams, the Worcester IceCats from the American Hockey League and the Utah Grizzlies from the International Hockey League .

Since he figured out hardly any chances of a renewed permanent engagement in the NHL after his contract with the Blues expired, he forced a move to Europe. There those responsible for the Hannover Scorpions became aware of the striker and transferred him to the German Ice Hockey League for the 1997/98 season . There he was a member of the regular squad and, at 34 years of age, was one of the league's top players. In 48 games he scored 52 points scorer. In the following season he completed only ten games for the Scorpions and moved to the second highest Swiss ice hockey league, the National League B to EHC Biel , for which he also played only eight appearances. In the end, he ended his career in 1999 at the age of 35 with the Swiss club HC Sierre .

Achievements and Awards

statistics

Seasons Games Gates Assists Points Penalty minutes
NHL Regular Season 14th 667 199 267 466 531
NHL playoffs 7th 36 8th 16 24 36
DEL main round 2 54 15th 41 56 47
DEL playoffs 1 4th 2 0 2 12

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Leeman, Gary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leeman, Gary Spencer (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian ice hockey player
DATE OF BIRTH 19th February 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Wilcox , Saskatchewan, Canada