Last night in St. Louis, longtime NHL head coach Ken Hitchcock joined some very, very rare company. The Blues bench boss earned his 700th career coaching victory. He is currently fourth all time in wins and one of only four head coaches in NHL history to hit the 700 mark.
Hitchcock got his start as an assistant with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1990. He would stay with the team for three years before taking over the Dallas Stars IHL franchise the Kalamazoo Wings. On January 8, 2006 he was named head coach of the Stars.
He would lead them to a division title and playoff berth in his first full season. The 1997-98 season saw Dallas win another division title before losing to Detroit in the Conference Finals.
1998-99 was the pinnacle for Hitchcock. He lead the stars to 51-19-12 record, still a franchise best and a Stanley Cup victory over Buffalo. Dallas would return to the finals the following season falling to the New Jersey Devils.
The Flyers hired him as their head coach at the start of the 2002-03 season. The team finished second in the Atlantic division and were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs. The following year he lead Philly to within one one win of the Finals losing to Tampa in game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals.
From Philly he went to Columbus leading the Jackets to the the franchise's first ever playoff appearance. He was relieved of his coaching duties after parts of four seasons with the team.
In November of 2011 he was hired by the Blues to replace Davis Payne. He would win another division title in 2011-12 season before exiting in the second round of the playoffs.
2012-13 saw Hitchcock win the Jack Adams trophy as coach of the year following a 111 point regular season. The Blues would lose in the first round of the playoffs following the season and again last year.
Through parts of 19 seasons as a head coach, Hitchcock has seven division titles and another four second place finishes. He has one Cup, one other Finals appearance and two other trips to the conference finals.
His career record is 700-424-88-95. Only Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour and Joel Quenneville have more wins then Hitchcock.
Boychuk Extended
The New York Islanders have extended defenseman Johnny Boychuk. The deal is reported to be seven years and 42 million dollars for an average cap hit of six million per season.
Boychuk came to New York just before the start of the season from Boston. He leads the Islanders defense corps in points (32) and plus/minus (+17). He is averaging just over 21 and a half minutes a game.
Boychuk would have been an unrestricted free agent come July 1st.
League Leaders through 3/12/2015
Goals – Ovechkin (45)
Assists – Backstrom (51)
Points – Tavares (72)
Plus/Minus – Pacioretty (+37)
Wins – Price (37)
Bill Minchin is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow Bill on Twitter @wtfd103074
