Paul Messier

Paul Messier
Date of birth	January 27, 1958
place of birth	Nottingham , England , UK
size	185 cm
Weight	73 kg
position	center
Shot hand	Right
Draft
NHL Amateur Draft	1978 , 3rd round, 41st position Colorado Rockies
Career stations
1973-1974	Edmonton Mets
1974-1976	Spruce Grove Mets
1976	Edmonton Oil Kings
1976-1988	University of Denver
1978-1979	Colorado Rockies Tulsa Oilers
1979-1980	Birmingham Bulls
1980-1981	Wichita wind
1981-1982	Binghamton Whalers
1982-1983	Moncton Alpines
1983-1984	ECD Iserlohn
1984-1990	Mannheim ERC
1990-1991	HC Bolzano

Paul Edmond Messier (born January 27, 1958 in Nottingham , England ) is a former Canadian - British ice hockey player . During his career he played in the National Hockey League for the Colorado Rockies and in the ice hockey Bundesliga for the ECD Iserlohn and Mannheimer ERC .

Childhood and youth

Born in England, Messier moved to Canada with his family as a child. Messier comes from a family who loves ice hockey. His father Doug Messier was a player, among other things, with the Portland Buckaroos , a team that was based in the Western Hockey League and later coach, including with the Moncton Alpines a team of the American Hockey League . His younger brother, Mark Messier, was one of the greatest ice hockey players of all time and had a very successful career in the NHL.

Career

Canada and USA

From the 1973/74 season, Paul Messier played ice hockey in Edmonton , but was initially not signed by any NHL club. Rather, he had to make the long way through the minor leagues and junior leagues before the NHL scouts noticed him. Until the 1978/79 season, he played in a total of six minor league and university teams, such as the Tulsa Oilers in the CHL or the Edmonton Oil Kings in the WCHL , before he was in the 1978 NHL Amateur Draft from the Colorado Rockies in the third round was drawn in 41st place. For the team from Colorado , however, he only made nine games in which he could not achieve a scorer point . Messier had to go back to the minor leagues, but always showed promising performances. By 1983 he was again active with six teams, including the Birmingham Bulls in the CHL and the Moncton Alpines in the AHL, for which he was able to score 27 goals. His father was the coach of this team at the time, and the legendary Grant Fuhr was in the gate .

Europe

Like many players from Canada, who were not accommodated by the frequent changes of the club, Messier decided to move to Germany and played from the 1983/84 season at ECD Iserlohn , where he attracted attention with his strong performances. He scored 50 points in 46 games for the team from Iserlohn and was therefore also of interest to the top teams in the league. A year later he was signed by the Mannheim ERC. Messier, who had already proven his skills in Iserlohn, developed under coach Ladislav Olejník into one of the top scorers for the Mannheim team and the entire league. His speed and ability to safely handle the puck made him difficult to stop by his opponents. In the 1984/85 season he was runner-up with the team, where he was repeatedly staged by his strike partner Ross Yates and scored the highest number of hits of all Mannheim players with 33 goals. The team was able to win the runner-up again in the 1987/88 season. Before Dave Silk , Messier was again the top scorer of his team this year with a total of 63 points. In the 1986/87 season he scored 42 goals, the most goals of all players in the league. After the 1989/90 season Messier moved to Italy for HC Bozen in Serie A , but ended his career after only two games.

After the career

Messier works as a sports agent today. One of his clients was the Canadian professional and star of the Calgary Flames Jarome Iginla .

Honors

Messier played in 1975 in the Centennial Cup , a selection game of the best Canadian junior players. In 1988 he played in the all-star game of the ice hockey Bundesliga in Düsseldorf . The German national team competed against the best foreign players in the league. The game ended after a penalty shootout 6-5 for Messier's team. He himself had scored two goals.

literature

• Matthias Fries: Time to say good bye ... . Mannheim 1998

Web links

• Paul Messier at hockeydb.com (English)
• Paul Messier at legendsofhockey.net (English)
• Paul Messier at hockeydraftcentral.com