John Cunniff

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United StatesUnited States  John Cunniff Ice hockey player
Date of birth July 9, 1944
place of birth South Boston , Massachusetts , USA
date of death May 9, 2002
Place of death Albany , New York , USA
size 175 cm
Weight 79 kg
position Left wing
Shot hand Left
Career stations
1963-1966 Boston College
1966-1968 Team USA
1968-1969 Fort Worth Wings
1969-1970 Cleveland Barons
1970-1971 Baltimore Clippers
1971-1972 Rochester Americans
1972-1974 New England Whalers
Jacksonville Barons
1974-1976 Cape Cod Codders
1976-1977 Nordiques de Québec
Maine Nordiques
1978-1979 Cape Cod Freedom
1979-1980 Springfield Indians
Richmond Rifles

John Paul Cunniff (born July 9, 1944 in South Boston , Massachusetts , † May 9, 2002 in Albany , New York ) was an American ice hockey player and coach . During his active career, the left winger played 83 games for the New England Whalers and Nordiques de Québec in the World Hockey Association , winning the playoffs for the Avco World Trophy with the Whalers in 1973 . Mostly, however, he was on the ice in minor leagues and represented the US national team at the 1968 Winter Olympics .

As head coach, he briefly supervised the Hartford Whalers and New Jersey Devils in the National Hockey League , but was mainly active for the senior national team of the United States and took part in three other Olympic Games as their assistant coach. In 2002 he and the team won the silver medal before he died a little later of cancer. In 2003 he was posthumously honored with the admission to the United States Hockey Hall of Fame .

Career

As a player

John Cunniff began his career in his home at Boston College , where he played for the Eagles in the ECAC , a league in the game operations of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). After being honored as rookie of the year as a freshman , he increased his personal statistics in the following year to over two scorer points per game and was therefore also honored as player of the year. He was also considered in both seasons in the ECAC First All-Star Team . His achievements in college meant that the winger was appointed to the US national team and ran regularly for the team between 1966 and 1968. After he had finished fifth with her at the World Cup in 1967 , he was also part of the Olympic selection, which reached sixth place at the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France .

Then Cunniff switched to the professional field by joining the Fort Worth Wings from the Central (Professional) Hockey League . From there he moved to the 1969/70 season in the American Hockey League (AHL), another minor league , in which he played for the Cleveland Barons , Baltimore Clippers and Rochester Americans in the following three seasons . After the attacker had proven his scorer skills there with over 40 points each, the New England Whalers signed him from the newly founded World Hockey Association (WHA). With the Whalers, he promptly won the playoffs for the Avco World Trophy in the league's debut season, which was to be established as a competitor to the traditional National Hockey League (NHL) . In the following year, however, the American was again used mainly in the AHL with the Jacksonville Barons .

In 1974 Cunniff moved to the also recently launched North American Hockey League (NAHL), in which he played over 200 games for the Cape Cod Codders and Maine Nordiques over the next three years . In addition, returned during this period for the 1975 World Cup back to the national team, with which he lost all ten games and thus finished sixth and last, and was in two more games for the Nordiques de Québec in the WHA on the ice. He then let his career end with the Cape Cod Freedom and Richmond Rifles in the Northeastern / Eastern Hockey League and with the Springfield Indians in the AHL.

As a trainer and functionary

After Cunniff was already active as a player-coach in the seasons 1975/76 and 1978/79 with the Cape Cod Codders and Cape Cod Freedom, he took part in the 1981 Canada Cup after the end of his active career as assistant coach of the US national team . He then returned to the New England Whalers franchise for the 1981/82 season, which had been known as Hartford Whalers since 1979 . With this he was employed as an assistant to head coach Larry Pleau , while he was connected for the first time the jump into the NHL. For the following season 1982/83 the American took over their farm team , the Binghamton Whalers from the AHL, as head coach, but replaced Larry Kish as head coach in Hartford during the year . His first NHL head coach position was only held by Cunniff until the end of the season before he returned to Binghamton, where he was active until the end of the 1983/84 season.

After a hiatus, he moved to the Boston Bruins for the 1986/87 season , where he acted as an assistant to Butch Goring and, subsequently, Terry O'Reilly . In 1989 he was dismissed along with O'Reilly and joined the New Jersey Devils in the same capacity , where he was to hold his second NHL head coach position a little later when he inherited Jim Schoenfeld . He led the Devils into the playoffs, but failed in the first round and was replaced by Tom McVie in the course of the subsequent season .

Subsequently, Cunniff returned to the ranks of the US national team for several years and during this time accompanied the men's as well as the U20 selection in numerous international tournaments. He won the bronze medal at the Junior World Championship in 1992 and the gold medal with the senior national team at the World Cup of Hockey 1996 , with which he also took part in the 1994 Winter Olympics. A little later he returned to the organization of the New Jersey Devils, led their farm team, the Albany Devils , as head coach in 2001/02 acted briefly as a scout and assistant coach of the Devils in the NHL. At the same time, he looked after the USA team in 1998 and 2002 as assistant coach at two other Olympic Games, with the team winning the silver medal in 2002. He then retired from professional ice hockey.

John Cunniff died on May 9, 2002 at the age of 57 years pharyngeal cancer (throat cancer) . The following year he was posthumously honored with the admission to the United States Hockey Hall of Fame .

Achievements and Awards

As a player
As a trainer

Career statistics

As a player

Regular season Playoffs
season team league Sp T V Pt SM Sp T V Pt SM
1963/64 Boston College NCAA 28 27 25th 52 0
1964/65 Boston College NCAA 27 31 36 67 0
1965/66 Boston College NCAA 15th 13 21st 34 8th
1966/67 Team USA no statistics available
1967/68 Fort Worth Wings CPHL 8th 2 1 3 9 - - - - -
1968/69 Fort Worth Wings CHL 69 16 26th 42 30th - - - - -
1969/70 Cleveland Barons AHL 63 26th 17th 43 36 - - - - -
1970/71 Baltimore Clippers AHL 67 31 25th 56 33 6th 0 0 0 0
1971/72 Rochester Americans AHL 66 16 29 45 57 - - - - -
1972/73 New England Whalers WHA 33 3 5 8th 16 13 1 1 2 2
1973/74 Jacksonville Barons AHL 52 18th 20th 38 18th - - - - -
1973/74 New England Whalers WHA 30th 7th 5 12 14th 5 1 1 2 0
1974/75 Cape Cod Codders NEAR 70 46 44 90 18th 3 3 0 3 14th
1975/76 Cape Cod Codders NEAR 50 24 35 59 25th - - - - -
1975/76 Maine Nordiques NEAR 14th 6th 23 29 0 4th 2 2 4th 9
1975/76 Nordiques de Québec WHA 2 0 0 0 5 - - - - -
1976/77 Maine Nordiques NEAR 74 29 65 94 23 12 10 7th 17th 9
1978/79 Cape Cod Freedom NEHL 67 40 78 118 17th - - - - -
1979/80 Springfield Indians AHL 11 2 2 4th 5 - - - - -
1979/80 Richmond Rifles EHL - - - - - 2 0 2 2 0
NCAA overall 70 71 82 153 8th
C (P) HL total 77 18th 27 45 39 - - - - -
NAHL total 208 105 167 272 66 19th 15th 9 24 32
AHL total 259 93 93 186 149 6th 0 0 0 0
WHA total 65 10 10 20th 35 18th 2 2 4th 2

International

Represented the USA at:

year team event result Sp T V Pt SM
1967 United States WM 5th place no statistics available
1968 United States Olympia 6th place 7th 1 4th 5 2
1975 United States WM 6th place 10 1 1 2 13
Men overall 17th 2 5 7th 15th

( 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 )

NHL coaching statistics

Regular season Playoffs
season team league Sp S. N U Pt space Sp S. N result
1982/83 Hartford Whalers NHL 13 3 9 1 7th 5th, Adams does not qualify
1989/90 New Jersey Devils NHL 66 31 28 7th 69 2nd, Patrick 6th 2 4th Division semi-finals
1990/91 New Jersey Devils NHL 67 28 28 11 67 dismiss
NHL overall 146 62 65 19th 143 0 division title 6th 2 4th 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 )

family

His son David Cunniff was or is also active as a player and coach in ice hockey.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Cunniff, 57; NHL, Olympic Coach. latimes.com, May 11, 2002, accessed August 10, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Cunniff, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cunniff, John Paul (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ice hockey player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH July 9, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH South Boston , Massachusetts , United States
DATE OF DEATH May 9, 2002
Place of death Albany , New York , United States