My next candidate to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame is Pat Quinn as builder. Inducting Mr. Quinn now might possibly create a controversy as he currently sits as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Hockey Hall of Fame. After reading the by-laws of the Selection Committee, however, there is nothing that states that an employee of the Hockey Hall of Fame cannot be nominated. Thus, I will continue to make a case for Coach Quinn .
John Brian Patrick "Pat" Quinn, who won a Memorial Cup championship with the Edmonton Oil Kings as a junior player in 1963, spent nine NHL seasons as a defenseman before he retired in 1977 and was hired by recently inducted builder, Fred Shero, to be his assistant coach with the Philadelphia Flyers. After starting the 1978-79 season as head coach of the Maine Mariners, the Flyers' then AHL affiliate, he took over as head coach of the Flyers midway through that campaign and in 1978-80, his first full season behind their bench, led them to a record that will likely never be broken known simply as “The Streak”. After splitting the first two games of the campaign the Flyers did not suffer another loss until their 38th contest in mid January while fashioning a 35-game unbeaten streak with 25 wins and 10 ties. Despite all this, the Flyers were upset in the 1980 Stanley Cup Final against an upstart dynasty New York Islander team in six games. Quinn remained with the Flyers organization for two more years before being replaced with just eight games to go in the 1981-82 season when the Flyers could not get over the hump.
After taking a break to get a law degree, Quinn took over the Los Angeles Kings in 1983 which he led them to a 23 point improvement in his first season. However his stint with the Kings is known how it ended than what the team was doing on the ice. Using a loophole in his contract, Quinn negotiated and signed a contract to take over as President and GM of the Vancouver Canucks for the 1987-88 season. The only problem with that is he signed this deal in December of 1986, where he was still under contract with and coaching the Kings. This led to NHL president John Ziegler to suspend Quinn for the rest of the season as it was a conflict of interest to be coach of one team and under contract to later become GM and President of another and also suspended him from coaching anywhere until the 1990-91 season.
Once with the Canucks, Quinn wasted no time putting his mark on the team. In his first couple of drafts, he selected future team captain and community leader Trevor Linden second overall in the 1988 draft and Pavel Bure, 113th overall in the 1989 draft. The drafting of Bure was a testament of how important doing research on players are because most of the league thought that Bure was not eligible for the NHL draft in that round. He could have been drafted in the first three rounds but he needed to have played at least two seasons for Bure’s Central Red Army team in order to be drafted later. Quinn discovered that Bure played a couple of extra games with his team that were not recorded properly, which enabled him to be drafted. Once selected, there were protesting amongst the league about the pick. The NHL at that point deemed the pick illegal. The Vancouver Canucks appealed the decision a year later, they won that appeal making Bure officially a Canuck.
When his coaching suspension was over, Quinn took over behind the Canucks’ bench in 1991. In his first two full seasons as coach the club finished 1st in the Smythe Division and in 1994, Quinn reached his peak with the Canucks making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals against the New York Rangers. However as in Philly the Canucks fell to the Rangers, this time in seven games, leaving Quinn empty handed. After this season, Quinn gave up his coaching role to focus on his GM duties. He did this until 1997 when the Canucks, under new ownership, decided to make a change in his department, him.
Quinn was not out of a job for long, however, as before the 1998-99 season he took over as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team with which he broke in as an NHL player twenty years earlier in 1968. After leading the Leafs to the Eastern Conference Finals in 1999 against Buffalo and winning their first division title in 37 years in 1999-2000, Quinn added the GM duties to go along with his coaching portfolio. The Leafs reached the Eastern Conference Finals once more in 2002 in a loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. In 2003, the Leafs were knocked out of the first round for the first time in Quinn’s tenure, after which he was stripped of his GM role, giving it to John Ferguson Jr. The Maple Leafs made the playoffs once more in 2004, losing to the Philadelphia Flyers in six games. After the 2005 lockout, the Leafs missed the playoffs for the first time during Quinn’s seven year tenure, and was promptly fired after the 2006 season. The Leafs did not make the playoffs again until last season (2013).
At the time of this firing, Quinn was the winningest active coach in the NHL.
Pat Quinn at the 2012 Winter Classic
Following the events in Toronto, Quinn was not part of the NHL for three years. During this time he coached the Canadian World Junior teams and the Canadian Spengler Cup team. After this he returned to the NHL for one more season with the Edmonton Oilers. Sadly this one did not have the same story as the other teams he joined. After the talent poor finished in last place in the league, Quinn was replaced by Tom Renney.
As mentioned earlier, Quinn spent a lot of time coaching internationally. This is where he gains the reputation as a “winner”. In the 2002 Olympics, Quinn took the reins of Team Canada, leading them to Olympic Gold for the first time in 50 years. Quinn continued his winning ways with Team Canada when he led the team to a perfect 6-0 record in the World Cup of Hockey in 2004, winning the trophy. Sadly, Quinn’s winning streak with NHL players ended there as the team had a disappointing finish in the 2006 Olympics, losing to Russia in the quarter-finals.
Quinn’s international coaching resume doesn’t end with the Olympics however. After being let go by the Leafs, Quinn was chosen to lead Team Canada in the 2006 Spengler Cup. That team ended up losing in the finals against HC Davos. After that, Quinn became the head coach of Team Canada’s entry at the U18 World Championships where he took the title against Russia with an 8-0 score. A year later, he was coach of Team Canada for the World Junior Championships in Ottawa where he led Canada to an undefeated record, despite a scare from Russia in the semi-finals (thank you Jordan Eberle).
In the end, Quinn has two Jack Adams Trophies in 1980 and 1992. He sits fifth all time in regular season games coached and coaching wins. He also sits fourth in playoff games coached (1,400) and 5th in playoff coaching wins (94). He has won championships at the highest international level and has gone as far as you can go in the NHL without winning a Stanley Cup. As an owner in the WHL, he has won at the highest level you can in Major Junior by winning a Memorial Cup with the Vancouver Giants. His legacy remains in the NHL as he was integral to training future General Managers like Brian Burke.
Quinn’s impact on the game has been felt both on the ice and off. It continues to grow for Quinn as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Hockey Hall of Fame. His legacy are the people who he’s helped make this game great and pass along that knowledge to others. Despite the fact that his teams didn’t win the Stanley Cup, his excellence in coaching, team building, and impact on the game meets the criteria of a Hall of Fame Builder. It may not happen this year, but sometime soon Mr. Quinn should be honoured for this in some form.
Feel free to leave a comment to suggest who you think should be in the Hall of Fame. You contact me through:
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