TIPPETT WELCOMES FORMER WHALERS TEAMMATE TO COACHING FRATERNITY
Team with slickest logo in sports produced inordinate number of NHL bench bosses
There was no meeting behind the benches prior to the national anthem where Dean Evason and Dave Tippett performed a secret Hartford Whalers handshake.
There was no ceremonial moment behind the scenes where Tippett and Evason flashed each other Whaler-logoed satin linings of their suit jackets.
But it was an occasion Friday at Rogers Place. Another Whaler had officially graduated to the fraternity.
No group of teammates has ever produced so many future NHL coaches, general managers, executives, scouts, TV colour commentators and other career hockey men as that former franchise.
Evason, who replaced Bruce Boudreau behind the bench of the Minnesota Wild, is the latest.
“It’s taken a little longer for Dean to get through the coaching ranks to the NHL, but it’s great to see him get a chance,” said Tippett.
It’s a long list the team with one of the greatest logos in pro sports produced.
Tippett. Evason. Joel Quenneville. Kevin Dineen. Ron Francis. John Stevens. Marc Bergevin. Todd Richards. Don Maloney. Mike Liut. Brent Peterson. Ray Ferraro. Pat Verbeek. Doug Jarvis. Dave Babych. John Anderson. Ulf Samuelsson. Brian Lawton. Doug Houda. Norm Maciver. Brad Shaw. Randy Cunneyworth. Randy Ladouceur.
Evason is the ninth of those Whalers to become an NHL head coach. In all, they’ve coached a combined 4,064 games in the show — Anderson 164, Cunneyworth 50, Dineen 146, Evason 3, Quenneville 1,698, Richards 424, Shaw 40, Stevens 362 and Tippett 1,177.
Born in Flin Flon, Man., Evason grew up in Brandon.
While he made stops in Washington, San Jose, Dallas and Calgary, he was most successful in Hartford, where he produced 87 goals and 261 points.
A former player with Spokane and Kamloops, Evason started his coaching career as an assistant with the Calgary Hitmen and became head coach of the Kamloops Blazers and Vancouver Giants before making it to the NHL as an assistant in Washington. He took the same job two years ago with Minnesota.
On the occasion of the two of them coaching in the same game (Tippett once beat the Chicago Blackhawks coach Quenneville in a Stanley Cup playoff series), the Oilers’ new head coach looked back and marvelled.
“There were a lot of guys from those mid-’80s Hartford teams that stayed close friends ever since. We go to all the kids’ weddings and stuff like that. It’s a real close group,” said Tippett.
“We always laugh about all the coaches’ meetings we have now. Our special teams meetings with the Whalers were three or four players standing by the chalkboard five minutes before the game deciding, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do about the Stastnys.’”
Tippett said in a way they all had a lot to do with creating coaches and hockey executives out of each other. But he credits two others, as well.
“Our first coach there was Jack Evans. He was a great guy. Not a real vocal guy, but he was a very honest coach. He wasn’t all about Xs and Os. The players talked a lot about strategy and things like that, but Jack was a real honest man and treated us with great respect,” said Tippett.
“I think the biggest factor of all was Emile Francis and his leadership. He was the general manager and he brought all of us there and really empowered our group. He was very supportive of our group and wanted to build something in a small market like Hartford but he wanted to build something special.
“He had a great relationship with the community and he wanted our team to play and act like a team. All of us look back with very fond memories of Emile and the focus he had. He was never just adding players. He was building a team . ... It was never a team motto or anything, but the way it worked out — ‘Once a Whaler, Always a Whaler.’
“When it comes to the Whalers, it’s like there’s a cult following out there that reach out to you,” said Tippett. “The amount of stuff you get sent to autograph, by far the most by any team I’ve ever been with, has been with the Hartford Whalers.”