I’ve been remiss over the last couple of months in writing my Ice Chips columns. With the Connecticut Whale PR staff doing a wonderful job of covering the team on and off the ice I think it’s time we change Ice Chips basically to a look at the past history of our beloved Hartford/New England Whalers.
In the past we closed the columns out with a look at a few former players who were on the team at some point in their career. In this column we’re going to take a look at not only some former Whalers players but current NHL coaches. In fact we are going to look at possibly the largest contingent of Hartford alumni known to man masquerading as the coaching staff for the Phoenix Coyotes.
The head coach in Phoenix is the one and only Dave Tippett. In addition he is joined on his staff by two other members of the SOX & Dawgs All-Whalers team in Ulf Samuelsson and Sean Burke as well as Doug Sulliman.
Tippett, a left wing played with the Whalers from 1983-84 to 1989-90 scoring 75 goals and 120 assists for 195 points in 483 games. Tippett, one of the most liked and respected players to ever wear the Whale tail, also played for Washington, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in addition to the Canadian Olympic team in 1984 and 1992.
After he finished playing he went on to coach the Dallas Stars for six seasons and shortly after being removed as head coach he was hired in Phoenix to succeed Wayne Gretzky behind the bench where he is now in his second year leading the Coyotes.
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Burke was one of the best net minders in Whalers history. He played 256 games for the club after coming over in a trade from New Jersey with Eric Weinrich for Bobby Holik and a 1993 2nd round draft pick on August 28, 1992. As a Whaler Burke registered 10 shutouts for the club and posed a 3.21 GAA while recording his 100th Hartford win in the teams last game against Tampa Bay. Burke also played for Carolina, Vancouver, Philadelphia, Florida, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles and Phoenix as well as the Canadian Olympic and National teams prior to retiring. He is now the Coyotes goalie coach.
Samuelsson, a native of Sweden, was a Whalers 4th round draft pick in 1982 and was with the team until the blockbuster trade that sent the defenseman and captain Ron Francis along with two Stanley Cup Championships to Pittsburgh in 1991. After playing in Sweden he made his Whalers debut in 1984-85 playing in 41 games. Overall he played in 441 games for Hartford scoring 31 goals and 144 assists for 175 total points. In addition to Pittsburgh and Hartford, Ulfie played for the New York Rangers, Philadelphia and Detroit before retiring. He is probably best known as the man who ruined Cam Neely’s career with what some thing was a premeditated vicious knee on knee hit.
Sulliman, probably the least known of the Coyote coaching quartet, was a first round (13th overall) pick of the New York Rangers in 1979. Sulliman, a rightwing who never really caught on with New York came to Hartford for the 1981-82 season and played three seasons with the club. In 321 games he scored 57 goals and 72 assists for 129 points. Sulliman’s best NHL season came in his first year in Hartford when he notched 29 goals and 40 assists for 69 points in 77 games. After that his production dropped off and he was dealt in the summer of 1984 to New Jersey. He finished his career with Philadelphia in 1990.
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