ECAC Players / NHL Coaches

[jkahn]

A previous thread discussed ECAC players who had successful NHL careers.  Watching the NHL playoffs, it occurred to me that four NHL coaches are former ECAC players, albeit all from current Hockey East schools.  They are:
Ron Wilson (Sharks/ Providence)
John Tortorella (Lightning/ Maine)
Steve Stirling (Islanders/ BU)
Craig MacTavish (Oilers/ Lowell (then Div. II))

Mike Sullivan of the Bruins is also from BU, but he'd be after the split from the ECAC.  I don't know if I'm missing any.  And if we went to assistant coaches, we'd have Cornell's Brian McCutcheon with the Sabres.

[RichS]

Don't forget the recently fired Jacques Martin who was a sieve at SLU in the early to mid 70s.

Among GMs...Clarkson's Dave Taylor at LA and the Icelanders' Milbury from Colgate.

[Tub(a)]

[Q]RichS Wrote:

 and the Icelanders' Milbury from Colgate.[/q]

I knew there was a reason I didn't like that guy

[billhoward]

[Q]RichS Wrote:

 Don't forget the recently fired Jacques Martin who was a sieve at SLU in the early to mid 70s.

Among GMs...Clarkson's Dave Taylor at LA and the Icelanders' Milbury from Colgate.[/q]

I could swear there's at least one more ECAC player with a ranking role in hockey management. Goes back to the '60s, though. Ken, ah, Ken somebody.

[billhoward]

There's a longer, sadder list of ECAC players who tried to manage and didn't make it. Ditto for coaches. And for coaches whose career topped out coaching in the ECAC. Where are Cornell's former coaches, for instance? What about the poor guys who were cannon fodder at Princeton (okay, Don Cahoon did just fine); where will Len Quesnelle be in five years? (Maybe still internal at Princeton.)

The pyramid is pretty steep.

[adamw]

The pyramid is steep for coaches and managers from any college conference, or anywhere at all, for that matter. The ECAC certainly is not sad.

ECAC folks are arguably more successful than anyone else.  Here is a list from 4 years ago - which was not comprehensive then (Bill Torrey and Mike Keenan, SLU, are not listed, for example) - and is slightly outdated now - but may give a decent idea:

http://www.uscho.com/news/2000/06/29_000173.php

Others I can think of since then ... Ron Ryan, former Colby player and Colgate coach is the VP at the Flyers. ... Former BU coach Jack Kelley still works for the Penguins.

[ursusminor]

Former NHL coach Kevin Constantine was a goalie for RPI. Let's say that he left RPI under less than optimal conditions after his Junior year.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Then there's Lou Lamoriello.  An asshole of a coach at Providence in the 70's, but a hell of GM with jersey.