John Anderson (ice hockey player)

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CanadaCanada  John Anderson Ice hockey player
John Anderson
Date of birth March 28, 1957
place of birth Toronto , Ontario , Canada
size 180 cm
Weight 91 kg
position Right wing
Shot hand Left
Draft
NHL Amateur Draft 1977 , 1st round, 11th position
Toronto Maple Leafs
WHA Amateur Draft 1977 , 2nd lap, 14th position
Nordiques de Québec
Career stations
1973-1978 Toronto Marlboros
1978-1985 Toronto Maple Leafs
1985-1986 Nordiques de Québec
1986-1989 Hartford Whalers
1989-1990 Binghamton Whalers
HC Milano Saima
1990-1991 Fort Wayne Comet
1991-1992 New Haven Nighthawks
1992-1994 San Diego Gulls

John Murray Anderson (born March 28, 1957 in Toronto , Ontario ) is a former Canadian ice hockey striker and current coach. As head coach, he was in charge of the Atlanta Thrashers in the National Hockey League before he was last active as an assistant coach for the Minnesota Wild from 2016 to 2018 .

Career as a player

John Anderson began his career in 1973 with the Toronto Marlboros in the Canadian junior league Ontario Major Junior Hockey League , where he only played 38 games in his first season, but with 22 goals and 22 assists he was able to prove his scoring skills. In 1974/75 Anderson played a full season and was one of the main pillars of the Marlboros with 113 points in 70 games, but was only the fourth best scorer of the team, which had three strikers in their ranks with Bruce Boudreau , John Tonelli and Mark Napier dominated the league with. Due to the strong offensive presence, the team was only able to win the J. Ross Robertson Cup as OHL champion and shortly afterwards the Memorial Cup as the best Canadian junior team.

Anderson then ended his career in the juniors in the hope that he will receive a contract offer from the Toronto Toros from the professional league WHA . When this did not happen, he returned to the Marlboros and played there for another two years. In the 1976/77 season he led the team as captain on the ice and was 57 goals and 62 assists the best offensive force of the Marlboros. For his achievements he was elected to the First All-Star Team of the OMJHL and received the Jim Mahon Memorial Trophy as the best point right winger in the league.

Through his good performances in the juniors, he was finally able to convince the professional teams and was selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round in the NHL Amateur Draft in eleventh place and by the Québec Nordiques in the second round in the WHA Amateur Draft in position 14.

Anderson chose the Maple Leafs in the National Hockey League to play, but came in his first season primarily for their CHL - farm team , the Dallas Black Hawks , used. Especially in the playoffs he stood out and led the team as the best scorer and goalscorer to win the Adams Cup .

1978/79 Anderson was finally able to prevail in the regular squad of the Maple Leafs. After a solid first year, he improved significantly in his second season and was the team's third-best scorer and second-best goalscorer with 53 points and 25 goals. Anderson had his best year in the 1982/83 season , when he was the highest point player in the Maple Leafs with 31 goals and 49 assists. In the following two years he continued to show very good scorer performances, even set a new personal record with 37 goals, but could not celebrate any successes with the team and the playoffs in both seasons.

In the summer of 1985 Anderson was transferred to the Québec Nordiques in exchange for Brad Maxwell , who now played in the NHL, and was sent to the Hartford Whalers in the same season in an exchange deal . But this could not dampen his point yield and he ended the season with 74 points, the second best value of his career up to then. He also reached the second round of the playoffs with the Whalers, where he got six points in a game against the Québec Nordiques and thus set a new franchise record.

Anderson continued his good performance in the following season with 75 scorer points, but in the two years that followed he was repeatedly hampered by injuries and at the beginning of the 1988/89 season was only in the squad of the Binghamton Whalers , the farm team from Hartford from the second rate AHL , whereupon he decided to switch. Anderson went to Europe and played for the Italian club HC Milano Saima , but returned to North America in the summer of 1989.

The 1990/91 season he played in the lower class IHL with the Fort Wayne Komets , where he met his teammate from junior times, Bruce Boudreau. Together with Lonnie Loach , the two veterans led the team that made it to the final of the Turner Cup . However, Anderson missed most of the playoffs due to injury.

In the summer of 1991 he moved to the New Haven Nighthawks in the AHL and was also one of the leading players there. With 95 points he was the fifth best scorer in the league and was awarded the Les Cunningham Award as the most valuable player of the season. He also received the Fred T. Hunt Memorial Award for his fair play. The team broke up after the season and Anderson returned to the IHL, where he was active as a player and assistant coach for the San Diego Gulls , before ending his playing career in 1994 after two good seasons.

Career as a coach

Banner in honor of Anderson as the coach of the Chicago Wolves (1997-2008)

After the end of his playing career, John Anderson stayed for another year as an assistant coach with the San Diego Gulls. In 1995 he took over the position as head coach of the Winston-Salem Mammoths from the SHL for the first time and led them straight to the final of the playoffs. After only one season, however, the SHL was dissolved and Anderson was coach of the Quad City Mallards in the CoHL and his work was immediately crowned with success when he won the Colonial Cup with the Mallards in his first season .

After the successful season, Anderson managed another career step and he was appointed coach of the Chicago Wolves from the IHL. The team finished the 1997/98 regular season as the second best team and moved into the playoffs to the finals, where they met the Detroit Vipers . The Wolves took a 2-1 lead in the final series, but lost the following two games. They got two more wins in the remaining two games and so they won the Turner Cup.

After the Chicago Wolves failed in the third round in the following season, they won the IHL championship again in the 1999/2000 season and in 2001 they reached the final for the third time in four years under Anderson, but this time they were defeated. It was also the last season of the IHL, which then disbanded. The Wolves then moved to the AHL, where Anderson also led the team to the top of the league. The team reached the final of the playoffs in their first season and directly won the Calder Cup .

John Anderson at the 2015 AHL All-Star Classic

After two seasons, both of which ended in the second round of the playoffs, the Wolves were again in the 2004/05 final, where they lost to the Philadelphia Phantoms . It was followed by the weakest season of the team under the leadership of Anderson with 36 wins against 32 losses and for the first time they missed the qualification for the playoffs.

But the team returned stronger and reached the third round of the playoffs again in the 2006/07 season . In addition, the team provided Darren Haydar, the most valuable player of the season . Also in the 2007/08 season came with Jason Krog the MVP from Chicago and this time the team could also benefit from it, which was able to win the Calder Cup for the second time.

With this success, Anderson's engagement with the Wolves ended, who at the time served as the Atlanta Thrashers' farm team . In June 2008 he was introduced as the new trainer of the Thrashers and thus took up the post of an NHL trainer for the first time. After he failed to make it into the play-offs with the team in the 2008/09 and 2009/10 seasons , he was relieved of his office in April 2010. From 2011 to 2013, Anderson was an assistant coach with the Phoenix Coyotes behind the gang. For the 2013/14 season he was again appointed head coach of the Chicago Wolves.

He held this position until the end of the 2015/16 season when he was hired as assistant coach by the Minnesota Wild . He served in Minnesota through the end of the 2017/18 season.

Coaching stations

Years Number of seasons society league Post reached playoffs achieved titles
1995-1996 1 Winston-Salem Mammoths SHL Head coach 1 no
1996-1997 1 Quad City Mallards CoHL Head coach 1 Colonial Cup ( 1996/97 )
1997-2001 4th Chicago Wolves IHL Head coach 4th Colonial Cup ( 1997/98 , 1999/2000 )
2001-2008 7th Chicago Wolves AHL Head coach 7th Calder Cup ( 2001/02 , 2007/08 )
2008-2010 2 Atlanta Thrashers NHL Head coach no no
2011-2013 2 Phoenix Coyotes NHL Assistant coach 1 no
2013-2016 3 Chicago Wolves AHL Head coach 2 no
2016-2018 Minnesota Wild NHL Assistant coach

NHL statistics

Seasons Games Gates Assists Points Penalty minutes
Regular season 12 814 282 349 631 263
Playoffs 8th 37 9 18th 27 2

Achievements and Awards

As a player

As a trainer

  • 2002 Calder Cup win with the Chicago Wolves
  • 2008 Calder Cup win with the Chicago Wolves
  • 2019 induction into the AHL Hall of Fame

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anderson ousted as Thrashers head coach

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Anderson, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anderson, John Murray
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian ice hockey player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Toronto , Ontario