John Muckler

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John "Mucks" Muckler (born April 13, 1934) was most recently the General Manager of the Ottawa Senators NHL ice hockey Club. Muckler has over 50 years of professional hockey experience as a part owner, general manager, director of player personnel, director of hockey operations, head coach, assistant coach and player. He has won five Stanley Cups.

[edit] Early Years

Born in Midland, Ontario, and raised in Paris, Ontario, Muckler was a defenceman in the minor leagues for 13 seasons, playing the bulk of his career in the old Eastern Hockey League (EHL).

Muckler began his professional coaching career as a player/coach in 1959 with the EHL's New York Rovers. He then spent the next 20 years with the New York Rangers, Minnesota North Stars and Vancouver Canucks before joining the Edmonton Oilers organization in 1981. During those 20 years, Muckler served briefly as head coach of the Minnesota North Stars in 1968-69 and won multiple regular-season titles, playoff championships and league coach-of-the-year honours in the minor leagues. For his successes, The Sporting News named him the top coach in all of minor-league hockey in 1979.

While with the Oilers, Muckler served as an assistant coach with the Stanley Cup winners in 1984 and 1985 and was designated co-coach during the 1987 and 1988 championship seasons. Muckler became the team's head coach in 1989 and led the club to its fifth Stanley Cup in seven years in 1990.

In 1991, Muckler left the Oilers for the Buffalo Sabres. Initially the club's director of hockey operations, he quickly stepped behind the bench and coached the Sabres for the next four seasons. He also assumed the role of general manager in 1993. A finalist for NHL coach of the year in 1994, Muckler stepped down from coaching in 1995 to focus on his front-office duties and was named NHL executive of the year by The Sporting News for the 1996-97 season.

Prior to joining the Senators on June 12, 2002, Muckler last worked in the NHL as head coach of the New York Rangers from 1997-98 to 1999-2000.The last NHL game he coached, a home game in NY, fans chanted, "Fi-re, Muck-ler!" He has a 276–288–84 career record as an NHL head coach, a 233–167–53–7 career record as an NHL general manager and has been a head coach or general manager for more than 2,000 professional games. His résumé also includes three appearances at the NHL all-star game and two stints (1984 and '87) with Canada Cup-winning coaching staffs for Team Canada.

The Ottawa Senators announced that Muckler was relieved from his general manager duties with the organization on June 18, 2007 in a news conference, after being with the team for six years. They also announced that head coach Bryan Murray would be his successor. [1]

[edit] Major trades and signings

[edit] Buffalo

• Acquired Charlie Huddy, Robb Stauber and Alexei Zhitnik from Los Angeles Kings for Grant Fuhr, Philippe Boucher and Denis Tsygurov in 1995.
• Acquired Michael Peca and Mike Wilson from Vancouver Canucks for Alexander Mogilny in 1995.

[edit] Ottawa

• Acquired Brian Pothier from Atlanta Thrashers for Shawn McEachern and 6th round pick in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft on June 29, 2002
• Acquired Peter Schaefer from Vancouver Canucks for Sami Salo on September 12, 2002
• Acquired Vaclav Varada from Buffalo Sabres for Jakub Klepis on February 25, 2003
• Acquired Peter Bondra from Washington Capitals for Brooks Laich and 2nd round pick in 2005 NHL Entry Draft on February 18, 2004
• Acquired Greg De Vries from New York Rangers for Karel Rachunek and Alexandre Giroux on March 9, 2004
• Signed Dominik Hašek in 2004
• Acquired Dany Heatley from Atlanta Thrashers for Marian Hossa and Greg De Vries in 2005
• Acquired 4th round pick (Ilya Zubov) in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft from St. Louis for Patrick Lalime
• Acquired Tyler Arnason from Chicago Blackhawks for Brandon Bochenski and a 2nd round pick in 2006 NHL Entry Draft on March 9, 2006.
• Acquired Tom Preissing, Josh Hennessy, Michal Barinka and a 2nd round pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft from Chicago Blackhawks for Martin Havlat and Bryan Smolinski on July 10, 2006.
• Signed Martin Gerber in 2006.
• Signed Joe Corvo in 2006
• Acquired Mike Comrie from Phoenix Coyotes for Alexei Kaigorodov on January 3, 2007
• Acquired Oleg Saprykin and a 7th round draft pick in the 2008 NHL entry draft for a 2nd round draft pick in the 2008 NHL entry draft.

[edit] Personal

• John is married to wife Audrey and they have 5 children.

[edit] External links

• statistics - hockeydb.com