John Ferguson Sr.

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CanadaCanada  John Ferguson Ice hockey player
John Ferguson
Date of birth September 5, 1938
place of birth Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada
date of death July 14, 2007
Place of death Windsor , Ontario , Canada
size 183 cm
Weight 81 kg
position Left wing
Shot hand Left
Career stations
1956-1959 Melville Millionaires
1959-1960 Fort Wayne Comet
1960-1963 Cleveland Barons
1963-1971 Canadiens de Montréal

John Bowie "Fergy" Ferguson senior (born September 5, 1938 in Vancouver , British Columbia , † July 14, 2007 in Windsor , Ontario ) was a Canadian ice hockey player , coach , scout and official who in the course of his active career between 1956 and 1971, among other things, has played 585 games for the Canadiens de Montréal in the National Hockey League on the position of the left winger . Ferguson won the Stanley Cup five times with the Canadiens during his eight seasons in the NHL between 1965 and 1971 and is considered one of the first enforcers in the modern era of the sport. Following his active career, he worked as a coach, scout and official in the league until his death. Among other things, Ferguson was head coach and general manager of the New York Rangers and Winnipeg Jets in the 1970s and 1980s , with which he committed the transfer from the World Hockey Association to the NHL after winning the Avco World Trophy in 1979 .

Career

Player career

Ferguson spent his junior years between 1956 and 1959 with the Melville Millionaires in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League . Over the period of three years, the winger played 145 games for the team and collected 138 points . Due to the fact that the National Hockey League at that time only consisted of the so-called Original Six and the attacker was not said to have the greatest talent, Ferguson initially found no employment in the NHL.

The striker finally switched to the professional field in the summer of 1959, where he joined the Fort Wayne Komets from the International Hockey League . With the Komets he reached the final series of the Turner Cup in his rookie season , where the team lost to the St. Paul Saints in a seven-game final series . With the recommendation of over 30 goals and 60 scorer points in his first year as a professional, Ferguson moved to the American Hockey League for the traditional Cleveland Barons in the 1960/61 season . With the Barons, Ferguson established himself in the professional field and increased in the course of three years by the summer of 1964 from initially 34, over 41 to 78 points. This gave him the election to the AHL First All-Star Team at the end of the 1962/63 season . In addition, he added the features of an enforcer and a plague to his style of play in the AHL .

Ferguson's combination of skills soon made the franchises of the National Hockey League aware of the winger, so that the Canadiens de Montréal Ferguson bought out of his existing contract in Cleveland in June 1963. At the beginning of the 1963/64 season , the Canadian came to Montréal to use and brought the success back to the team that had won the Stanley Cup last Stanley Cup playoffs in 1960 . With his robustness and aggressiveness Ferguson kept his backs free for his far more talented teammates, but was also able to set accents on the offensive - with usually over 15 goals and 30 scorer points. At the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1965 , he won his first Stanley Cup with the team. By 1971 he had another four title successes and also took part in the NHL All-Star Game in 1965 and 1966 as a member of the reigning defending champion .

After a total of eight years and 585 appearances, including the playoffs, the attacker finally ended his active career after winning the fifth title within seven seasons in the summer of 1971. At the time of his resignation, Ferguson was close to his 33rd birthday.

Trainer and functionary career

Even after his active career ended, Ferguson remained loyal to ice hockey. In the run-up to the Summit Series held in September 1972 , the Canadian was hired by the Canadian ice hockey association Hockey Canada as an assistant coach under head coach Harry Sinden . Due to the fact that his playing career ended only a year ago, Ferguson served as a link between coach and team. The comparison between the Canadian national team and the national team of the USSR over eight games decided the Canadians supervised by Sinden and Ferguson in the end for themselves.

CanadaCanada  John Ferguson Sr.
Coaching stations
1972 Hockey Canada
(assistant coach)
1976-1988 New York Rangers
(General Manager; 1976–1977: Trainer)
1978-1988 Winnipeg Jets
(General Manager; 1986: Trainer)
1992-1995 Ottawa Senators
(Director of Player Personnel)
1996-2007 San Jose Sharks
(1996-2001: Scout; 2001-2007: GM Assistant)

After a break of several years, Ferguson returned to the National Hockey League at the end of the 1975/76 season , when he replaced Ron Stewart as head coach and general manager Emile Francis at the New York Rangers in January 1976 mid-season . Ferguson managed with a record of 14 wins, 22 defeats and five draws in the remaining 41 games but also no longer steered the playing time in positive paths. The team missed the playoffs, as it did the following year significantly. Ferguson concentrated after the 1976/77 season exclusively on the post of general manager and replaced himself as head coach with Jean-Guy Talbot . After again clearly missing the playoffs in the 1977/78 season , the Canadian's tenure came to an end.

The Canadian then turned his back on the NHL and took over the post of General Manager of Rudy Pilous at the Winnipeg Jets from the World Hockey Association competing with the NHL at the beginning of the 1978/79 game year . Ferguson's time in Winnipeg was far more successful than that in New York. In his very first season he won the Avco World Trophy with the Jets and in the summer of 1979 steered the transfer of the franchise to the NHL. The Winnipeg Jets took part in their game operations at the beginning of the 1979/80 season, while Ferguson was general manager until the summer of 1988. In the course of the 1985/86 season he sat down as head coach towards the end of the year to replace the unsuccessful Barry Long . With seven wins in the remaining 14 games of the season, Ferguson managed to qualify for the playoffs. There the team failed in the first round at the Calgary Flames , whereupon Ferguson resigned his interim job and hired Dan Maloney as the new head coach.

After Ferguson's resignation in September 1988, the now 50-year-old was quiet. It was only after a five-year hiatus that he was hired by the newly formed Ottawa Senators for the 1992/93 season . There he was employed in the position of Director of Player Personnel for the following three years . For the 1995/96 season he left the Canadian capital club and moved within the league to the San Jose Sharks . With the Northern Californians, the Canadian acted as a scout . He worked in this position until the summer of 2001, before he was promoted to special advisor to General Manager Doug Wilson in the franchise . In this position he worked until his death in July 2007 in his adopted home Windsor in the province of Ontario . Ferguson died at the age of 68 of complications from prostate cancer .

His son John Ferguson Jr. followed in his father's footsteps while he was still alive and was general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NHL between 2003 and 2008 .

Achievements and Awards

  • 1968 Stanley Cup win with the Canadiens de Montréal
  • 1969 Stanley Cup win with the Canadiens de Montréal
  • 1971 Stanley Cup win with the Canadiens de Montréal
  • 1979 Avco World Trophy win with the Winnipeg Jets (as General Manager)

Career statistics

Regular season Play-offs
season team league Sp T V Pt SM Sp T V Pt SM
1956/57 Melville Millionaires SJHL 51 11 17th 28 49 - - - - -
1957/58 Melville Millionaires SJHL 50 14th 30th 44 100 - - - - -
1958/59 Melville Millionaires SJHL 44 32 34 66 83 - - - - -
1959/60 Fort Wayne Comet IHL 68 32 33 65 126 13 1 1 2 17th
1960/61 Cleveland Barons AHL 62 13 21st 34 126 - - - - -
1961/62 Cleveland Barons AHL 70 20th 21st 41 146 6th 2 2 4th 6th
1962/63 Cleveland Barons AHL 72 38 40 78 179 7th 3 3 6th 17th
1963/64 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 59 18th 27 45 125 7th 0 1 1 25th
1964/65 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 69 17th 27 44 156 13 3 1 4th 28
1965/66 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 65 11 14th 25th 153 10 2 0 2 44
1966/67 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 67 20th 22nd 42 177 10 4th 2 6th 22nd
1967/68 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 61 15th 18th 33 117 13 3 5 8th 25th
1968/69 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 71 29 23 52 185 14th 4th 3 7th 80
1969/70 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 48 19th 13 32 139 - - - - -
1970/71 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 60 16 14th 30th 162 18th 4th 6th 10 36
SJHL overall 145 57 81 138 232 - - - - -
AHL total 204 71 82 153 451 13 5 5 10 23
NHL overall 500 145 158 303 1214 85 20th 18th 38 260

( 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
1975/76 New York Rangers NHL 41 14th 22nd 5 (33) 4th, Patrick - - - not qualified
1976/77 New York Rangers NHL 80 29 37 14th 72 4th, Patrick - - - not qualified
1985/86 Winnipeg Jets NHL 14th 7th 6th 1 (15) 3rd, Smythe 3 0 3 Loss in the division semi-finals
NHL overall 135 50 65 20th 120 0 division title 3 0 3 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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Ferguson. Bio, pictures, stats and more | Historical Website of the Montreal Canadiens. Canadiens de Montréal , accessed December 16, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Joe Pelletier: Greatest Hockey Legends.com: John Ferguson. greatesthockeylegends.com, April 15, 2006, accessed December 16, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Ferguson, John senior
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ferguson, John Bowie senior (full name); Ferguson, Fergy (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian ice hockey player, coach, scout and official
DATE OF BIRTH September 5, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Vancouver , British Columbia
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 2007
Place of death Windsor , Ontario