BY KEITH LACEY
Never in his wildest dreams did Randy Carlyle
imagine his life in hockey would take him from the bitterly
cold arenas of Sudbury to the endless
sunshine of southern California.
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Randy Carlyle grew up in Azilda and
played all his minor hockey here before joining the
Wolves. |
The former Sudbury Wolves defenceman was
named the new head coach of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks earlier
this week.
It had been rumoured for several months that
Carlyle, 49, was in line to land an NHL head coaching
job.
Those rumours kicked into high gear after
Brian Burke, the former highly successful and respected general
manager of the Vancouver Canucks, was named GM of the Mighty
Ducks a few weeks ago.
Carlyle worked as an assistant coach in
Vancouver for two years before returning as coach and general
manager of the Manitoba Moose this past season. The Moose are
the farm team of the Canucks.
Carlyle was head coach of the Moose for five
years before accepting the assistant coaching position with
Vancouver.
Landing a head coaching job in the world's
greatest hockey league is a dream come true, said Caryle.
"I now have the opportunity to provide hockey
fans across southern California with a team they can be very
proud of...and one that can hopefully compete for the Stanley
Cup," said Carlyle, in a phone interview from his Anaheim
office.
After a fantastic junior career with the
Wolves back in the early 1970s, Carlyle was selected 30th
overall in the second round by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the
1976 NHL amateur draft.
He wasn't given any kind of opportunity to
show off his skills as a member of the Maple Leafs and was
traded after playing in less than 100 games for the infamous
franchise.
The Pittsburgh Penguins made one of the
shrewdest and most lopsided trades in many years when they
landed Carlyle and George Ferguson in exchange for Dave Burrows
in the summer of 1978.
Carlyle blossomed into one of the NHL's best
defencemen during his six seasons in Pittsburgh.
Two years after arriving in Pittsburgh,
Carlyle won the Norris Trophy as the NHL's top defenceman-an
award no Maple Leaf has ever won.
His most productive years were with the
Penguins as he scored 83 points, 75 points and 56 points,
respectively, between the 1980-81 season and
1982-83 season.
During the 1984 NHL entry draft, Carlyle was
traded to the now-defunct Winnipeg Jets for future
considerations and he went on to enjoy nine solid seasons with
the Jets.
After retiring, Carlyle worked in the Jets
organization as a broadcaster and in public relations before
becoming an assistant coach. He's been a full-time coach ever
since.
Carlyle's career NHL numbers are impressive
as he scored 148 goals and added 499 assists in 1,055 regular
season games, while accumulating 1,400 penalty minutes.
He was named an NHL first-team all-star
during his Norris Trophy season in 1980-81 and played in the
NHL All-Star Game in 1981, 1982, 1985 and 1993.
Carlyle said he was "quite content" being the
coach and GM of the Moose, however, when Burke accepted the
GM's job in Anaheim he made a couple of inquiries and soon
found himself to be the leading candidate to be the new bench
boss with the Mighty Ducks.
He and Burke have a terrific relationship and
agree on the style of hockey and type of players needed to
provide fans with exciting hockey, while
producing teams that can compete for a
championship, said Carlyle.
It was fate that Burke landed the top job in
Anaheim and was searching for a coach, said Carlyle.
Carlyle, who was born and raised in Azilda,
played all his minor hockey here before joining the
Wolves.
The thrill of being named an NHL head coach
is much different to being drafted as a player into the world's
best league, but both are exciting.
"There's a lot of nervous tension involved
with both," he said. "Instead of worrying about who I was
playing against the next night, I've got to worry
about who my starting goaltender is going to
be...if we need to make a trade and stuff like that."
Carlyle considers himself blessed to have
made a wonderful living from the game he loves and been
fortunate enough to remain in the game as a coach.
"The game of hockey has provided me and my
family with so much and I am forever grateful to have been
fortunate enough to remain associated with the game after my
playing career ended," he said.
The Mighty Ducks have assembled one of the
best groups of young prospects in the NHL with the likes of
two-time OHL Player of the Year Corey Perry, Team Canada junior
standout Ryan Getzlaff and Saturday's second overall pick Bobby
Ryan.
Carlyle can't wait to work. Training camp
starts the second week of September. "We want to play an
up-tempo, aggressive style of hockey we feel the league has
made changes to allow," he said. "We do have an outstanding
group of talented young players and it's now my job to work
with
these guys and mold them into a team that can
compete for the Stanley Cup."
Carlyle will get a brief vacation at his
cottage on Manitoulin Island before returning to Winnipeg to
pack up his home and make the move to California.
Carlyle replaces Mike Babcock who joined the
Detroit Red Wings after rejecting a reported one-year offer
from the Mighty Ducks.
