John Stevens (ice hockey player)

John Stevens
Date of birth	May 4th 1966
place of birth	Campbellton , New Brunswick , Canada
size	185 cm
Weight	88 kg
position	defender
Shot hand	Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	1984 , 3rd round, 47th position Philadelphia Flyers
Career stations
1983-1986	Oshawa Generals
1986-1990	Hershey Bears
1990-1994	Hartford Whalers
1994-1996	Springfield Falcons
1996-1999	Philadelphia Phantoms

John A. Stevens (born May 4, 1966 in Campbellton , New Brunswick ) is a former Canadian ice hockey defender and current coach . Since the 2019/20 season he has been the assistant coach of the Dallas Stars from the National Hockey League and has already acted as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers and the Los Angeles Kings .

Career as a player

John Stevens was selected as the 47th player by the Philadelphia Flyers in the third round of the 1984 NHL Entry Draft . The talented defender began his career as a hockey player in 1983 with the Oshawa Generals in the Ontario Hockey League . For a total of four years he played for the former Flyers farm team , the Hershey Bears in the American Hockey League . He won the Calder Cup for the first time with the Hershey Bears in 1988 . Stevens made his debut in the National Hockey League for the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1986/87 season , in which he achieved two assists in six appearances . In 1990 Stevens was given to the Hartford Whalers , but shortly afterwards passed on to their farm team, the Springfield Indians . With the Indians he won the Calder Cup for the second time. After the breakup of the Indians, Stevens stayed in Springfield for another two years and played for the successor team Springfield Falcons . In his last of the total of six years in Springfield, Stevens was elected to the AHL All-Star Team in 1996.

In 1996, Stevens signed a contract with the newly formed Philadelphia Phantoms , the farm team of his ex-club Philadelphia Flyers . As captain , he led the team to their first Calder Cup win in 1998.

Although he scored only 21 goals in 834 American Hockey League games, Stevens scored the first goal each in the history of the Springfield Falcons and the Philadelphia Phantoms .

Player statistics

	Seasons	Games	Gates	Assists	Points	Penalty minutes
NHL Regular Season	5	53	0	10	10	48
NHL playoffs	-	-	-	-	-	-
AHL regular season	14th	834	21st	167	188	1339
AHL playoffs	9	102	2	20th	22nd	199

Career as a coach

Due to an eye injury, Stevens had to end his career in 1999, but remained as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Phantoms . After Bill Barber was named head coach of the Flyers, Stevens was named the second head coach in the history of the Phantoms. In his six years as a Phantoms coach, he reached the playoffs four times with his team and won the Calder Cup with the team for the first time as a coach in 2005 , after having won the title three times as a player. After the 2005-06 season , Stevens was named assistant coach for the Philadelphia Flyers . Only a little later, on October 22, 2006, he was Ken Hitchcock's successor as head coach with the Flyers. On October 26, 2006 Stevens won with the Flyers by a 3-2 overtime win against the Atlanta Thrashers for the first time in the National Hockey League . On November 20, the Flyers announced that Stevens would get a new two-year contract.

In his first season with the Flyers, he set an internal team record with ten defeats in a row. He and his team hired him in 2008. In addition, Stevens and his team suffered the greatest loss of points from one season to the other in NHL history . After his predecessor was able to get 101 points, Stevens had to be content with 56 points.

After John Stevens and his team were only defeated by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the final of the Eastern Conference play- offs in 2008 , he was awarded the Coach of the Year award by The Hockey News . During the 2009/10 season he was fired from the Flyers and replaced by Peter Laviolette . In June 2010, the Los Angeles Kings signed him as an assistant coach. In December 2011, Stevens worked for three NHL games as the interim coach of the Los Angeles Kings after the sacking of Terry Murray .

In 2012 the American Hockey League honored him for his services as a player and coach with his induction into the AHL Hall of Fame .

After a total of seven years as assistant coach and the dismissal of Darryl Sutter after the 2016/17 season, Stevens was permanently hired as the Kings head coach in April 2017. However, he only held this position for a little more than one season when he was dismissed in November 2018 after only four wins from 13 games at the beginning of the 2018/19 season. He was succeeded by Willie Desjardins .

For the 2019/20 season he was introduced as the new assistant coach for the Dallas Stars .

Achievements and Awards

As a player

1988 Calder Cup win with the Hershey Bears 1991 Calder Cup win with the Springfield Indians 1996 AHL All-Star Classic

1997 AHL All-Star Classic 1998 Calder Cup win with the Philadelphia Phantoms

As a trainer

• 2005 Calder Cup win with the Philadelphia Phantoms
• 2008 The Hockey News Coach of the Year

Records

• 1994 First goal in Springfield Falcons history
• 1996 First goal in Philadelphia Phantoms history
• 2006 Most straight defeats (10) in Philadelphia Flyers history (as coach)
• 2007 Largest point loss in NHL history (from 101 points in 2005/2006 to 56 points in 2006/2007) (as a trainer)
• 2008 Another 10 defeats in a row with the Philadelphia Flyers (as coach)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ flyers.nhl.com, Stevens Honored by The Hockey News
2. ↑ kings.nhl.com, Stevens Named Assistant Coach

Web links

• John Stevens at hockeydb.com (English)
• John Stevens at legendsofhockey.net (English)