89 Champs: Where Are They Now: Brad McCrimmon

Brad McCrimmon was already a successful, veteran hockey player by the time his wagon was hitched to the Calgary Flames. McCrimmon played in 5 minor league hockey seasons and 8 NHL seasons with the Bruins and Flyers before coming to the Flames in 1987. In 72 games for the Flames in 89, McCrimmon had 22 points and was an other worldly +43. He played in 22 games for Calgary in the playoffs that season and contributed 3 points en route to the Stanley Cup.

After the 1990 season McCrimmon moved on from Calgary and played 7 more seasons, spending time with the Detroit Red Wings, Hartford Whalers and Phoenix Coyotes. 1988-89 would be the only season he would be on a Stanley Cup Championship team. McCrimmon does, however, own the distinction of being 11th all time in the NHL in Plus/Minus at 444.

After retiring from the game in 1997 Brad McCrimmon held many coaching positions. For two seasons starting in 1997 he was an assistant coach for the NY Islanders. He left that position and took over as the head coach for the Saskatoon Blades for the 1999-2000 season and left at the end to return to the NHL as an assistant with the Flames. From there he took positions with the Atlanta Thrashers and Detroit Red Wings until 2011.

In 2011 McCrimmon signed on to be the head coach of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL in Russia. As the team was preparing to leave for it’s first game of the 2011 season, the plane the team was on crashed while taking off, killing McCrimmon and almost the entire team. The Calgary Flames wore special jerseys to honor McCrimmon during the 2011-12 season. Brad is survived by his wife and 2 children.

by Mark Parkinson