The American Hockey League is remembering Al MacNeil, who handed away on Sunday on the age of 89.
MacNeil was inducted into the American Hockey League Corridor of Fame in 2014, in recognition of a profession that noticed him win three Calder Cup championships as head coach of the Nova Scotia Voyageurs.
MacNeil spent components of 4 seasons on the blue line with the Rochester People from 1956-60, incomes spot obligation with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He later performed for the Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Black Hawks, New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins within the NHL earlier than transferring into the teaching ranks in 1968.
Returning to the Canadiens group, MacNeil was participant/coach for the AHL’s Montreal Voyageurs in 1969-70, skating in 66 video games and guiding the first-year squad to a league-best 43-15-14 report. He was introduced as much as the mum or dad membership as an assistant coach in 1970-71 and was promoted to go coach mid-year, piloting the Canadiens to a Stanley Cup championship that spring.
After the Voyageurs moved to Halifax within the offseason, MacNeil, a Nova Scotia native, was appointed head coach of the AHL membership. In 1971-72, he led the Vees to a 41-21-14 report and their first Calder Cup championship, incomes the Louis A.R. Pieri Award because the league’s excellent coach. Nova Scotia returned to the Finals in 1973 and certified for the playoffs once more in 1974 and 1975 beneath MacNeil’s path.
MacNeil’s Voyageurs posted two of the best back-to-back seasons in AHL historical past in 1975-76 and 1976-77, combining for 100 regular-season wins and capturing consecutive Calder Cups. MacNeil, who received his second Pieri Award in 1976, returned to Montreal because the Canadiens’ director of participant personnel and received two extra Stanley Cups in 1978 and 1979 – giving him six league championships in 9 seasons. He joined the Atlanta Flames as head coach in 1979-80 and was assistant normal supervisor of Calgary’s Stanley Cup profitable staff in 1989.
With a 304-149-78 report in his seven seasons as an AHL head coach, MacNeil owns the very best profitable proportion (.646) in league historical past. He’s one in all solely seven coaches ever to win as many as three Calder Cups, and one in all 9 males ever to educate championship groups in each the AHL and the NHL. Gamers who skated beneath MacNeil’s tutelage within the AHL embody Hockey Corridor of Fame members Larry Robinson, Bob Gainey, Steve Shutt and Man Lapointe.
