Mike Keenan

Mike Keenan
Keenan in 2008
Born (1949-10-21) October 21, 1949 (age 75)
Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada
Coached for Philadelphia Flyers
Chicago Blackhawks
New York Rangers
St. Louis Blues
Vancouver Canucks
Boston Bruins
Florida Panthers
Calgary Flames
Metallurg Magnitogorsk
Kunlun Red Star
Coaching career 1984–2017

Michael Edward Keenan (born October 21, 1949) is a Canadian former professional hockey coach. Previously, he served as head coach and/or general manager with several NHL teams between 1984 and 2009. He currently ranks fifth in playoff wins with 96. He is noted for his early career success in coaching Team Canada to win the 1987 Canada Cup round-robin tournament in a thrilling best-of-three series finale against Viktor Tikhonov's Red Army team.[1] He is one of three coaches to coach in a playoff Game 7 ten times, for which he won five times.[2] Keenan was the third person to lead three different teams (Philadelphia, Chicago, New York) to the Stanley Cup Finals; only one coach has accomplished the feat since Keenan.[3][4]

Keenan won a Stanley Cup championship as coach of the New York Rangers in 1994. He also won the Gagarin Cup while coaching Metallurg Magnitogorsk in 2014, and he became the first head coach to have won championships in both the NHL and KHL, later to be joined by Bob Hartley after his win in 2020–21.[5]

Currently, he is 15th all time in National Hockey League wins as one of 23 head coaches with 600 wins in NHL history. In each of his first eleven seasons, Keenan led his team to the Stanley Cup playoffs; in the subsequent nine seasons that followed, his teams only made it to the playoffs twice. His tough coaching style and attitude towards his players have earned him the nickname "Iron Mike".

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference yte was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ @PR_NHL (May 14, 2023). "Peter DeBoer (6-0) is the only head coach in #StanleyCup Playoffs history to win each of his first 5+ career Game 7s" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. ^ https://www.cbc.ca/sports-content/hockey/opinion/2014/06/alain-vigneault-makes-history-with-second-trip-to-stanley-cup-final.html [bare URL]
  4. ^ "Predators coach Peter Laviolette joins an elite group with another trip to Stanley Cup Final". Los Angeles Times. 2017-05-23. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  5. ^ "Keenan first to win Stanley Cup, KHL title". CBC.ca. October 18, 2022.