John Stevens.
Stevens appeared in 53 NHL games as a defenseman for both the Philadelphia Flyers and the Hartford Whalers, racking up more than 800 games at the AHL level and winning a Calder Cup with the Phantoms in 1998. A year later his career was cut short by an eye injury, but he finished the season as an assistant coach for the Phantoms and would become the head coach a year later, winning a second Calder Cup in 2005.
His jump to the big time would come the following season when he was named assistant coach of the Flyers behind Ken Hitchcock; after starting the season 0-6-1, however, the Flyers fired Hitchcock and promoted Stevens to head coach where he would remain for the next four seasons, coaching the Flyers to a 120-109-0 record over that stretch. Stevens joined the Los Angeles Kings as an assistant coach in 2010, serving as interim head coach for four games following Terry Murray‘s dismissal in December 2011 before resuming his assistant coaching duties alongside new coach Brent Sutter.
Stevens is known for having teams with great power play production. The Flyers finished above 20% with the extra man in three of the four years (the exception being his first year behind the bench) and were among the League leaders in shorthanded goals as well – which is good, because one thing Stevens hasn’t been afraid of is dressing tough guys, with the Flyers among the top-five teams in majors and penalties per game in each of the four seasons he coached there.
After gaining a bit more experience – and some playoff savvy – as the Kings’ assistant coach, can Stevens make a second head coaching gig stick? You’d like to find out, and perhaps the rest of us will as well.
Stevens’ coaching history (via hockeydb.com):
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