2016 Stanley Cup Finals
The 2016 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's 2015–16 season, the culmination of the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs. The Eastern Conference champion Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Western Conference champion San Jose Sharks four games to two to win their fourth championship in franchise history. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs; the Penguins finished ahead of the Sharks during the regular season, giving them home ice advantage in the series. The series began on May 30 and concluded on June 12; this was the first Stanley Cup Finals since 2007 to feature a team making their Finals debut. This was the first playoff meeting between teams from Pittsburgh and the Bay Area since the Penguins swept the Oakland Seals in the 1970 Stanley Cup Quarterfinals; the Eastern Conference had home-ice advantage in consecutive seasons for the first time since the 2004 and 2006 Finals. For the first time since 2011, neither the Chicago Blackhawks nor the Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup.
This was Pittsburgh's fifth Finals appearance, first since winning the Cup in 2009. The Penguins had made the playoffs every year since their win in 2009, but hadn't won a single game in the conference finals in that span. After losing to the Rangers in the playoffs for the second consecutive year, the Penguins made waves during the 2015 offseason, trading for forwards Phil Kessel and Nick Bonino, re-signing defenceman Olli Maatta and forward Bryan Rust, signing centres Matt Cullen and Eric Fehr in free agency. General manager Jim Rutherford fired head coach Mike Johnston on December 12, 2015, after the team limped to a 15–10–3 start. Johnston was replaced with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins coach Mike Sullivan, who went 33–16–5 over the remainder of the season; the Penguins made three major trades before the trade deadline, acquiring defencemen Trevor Daley and Justin Schultz and forward Carl Hagelin. After goalie Marc-Andre Fleury suffered a concussion on April 2, the team turned to rookie Matt Murray for the final week of the regular season and the majority of the playoffs.
Pittsburgh finished with 104 points in the regular season to finish second in the Metropolitan Division. Centre and team captain Sidney Crosby led the club in scoring during the regular season and finished third in the league with 85 points. In the playoffs, the Penguins eliminated the New York Rangers in five games after losing to them in 2014 and 2015, the Presidents' Trophy-winning Washington Capitals in six games, the defending conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games; this was San Jose's first Finals appearance in their 25-year history. During the offseason the Sharks hired former New Jersey Devils head coach Peter DeBoer to replace Todd McLellan and traded for former Kings backup goalie Martin Jones. San Jose picked up defenceman Paul Martin and right wingers Joel Ward and Dainius Zubrus via free agency. Before the trade deadline, the Sharks acquired forward Nick Spaling, defenceman Roman Polak, goalie James Reimer. San Jose earned 98 points to finish third in the Pacific Division.
Centre Joe Thornton led the club in scoring with 82 points, finished tied for fourth in the league, followed by centre and team captain Joe Pavelski with 78 points and defenceman Brent Burns with 75 points. In the playoffs, San Jose avenged their 2014 loss to the Kings, a series in which they blew a 3–0 series lead, by defeating Los Angeles in five games. San Jose eliminated the Nashville Predators in seven games, winning every home game in the series, the St. Louis Blues in the Conference Final in six games. Number in parentheses represents the player's total goals or assists to that point of the entire four rounds of the playoffs Game one remained scoreless until Bryan Rust and Conor Sheary scored a minute apart for the Penguins midway through the first period. San Jose came back in the second period with a power play goal by Tomas Hertl at 3:02 and the tying goal by Patrick Marleau at 18:12. Despite 18 third-period Pittsburgh shots directed towards Martin Jones, the score remained tied at two until late in the game, when Kris Letang found Nick Bonino wide open in front of the net to give the Penguins the lead.
The Penguins held off the Sharks in the final minutes to take game one 3–2. Game 2 began with a scoreless first period which featured 11 Penguins shots and only six from the Sharks. Midway through the second period, a series of San Jose miscues led to a Pittsburgh goal. After Roman Polak nearly gave the puck away to Phil Kessel, Brenden Dillon was stripped by Carl Hagelin, who gave it to Nick Bonino for a tip-in by Kessel; the Sharks tied the game late in the third on a goal by Justin Braun, which sent the game into overtime. Early in overtime, a quick shot by Conor Sheary beat Martin Jones to give the Penguins a 2–1 win and 2–0 series lead. Ben Lovejoy started off the scoring in game three at 5:29 of the first period, when his point shot deflected in off Roman Polak; the Sharks tied it at 9:34 on a Justin Braun goal. Midway through the second period, the Penguins took the lead back when Patric Hornqvist tipped in another Lovejoy point shot. In the third period, Nick Bonino high-sticked Joe Thornton, in the dying seconds of the four-minute power play, Joel Ward fired a slap shot past Matt Murray to tie the game.
In overtime, Joonas Donskoi roofed a tough-angle shot over Murray's shoulder for the game winner. At 7:36 of the first period, Phil Kessel took advantage of a poor Sharks line change and fired a shot that rebounded off Martin Jones and directly to Ian Cole, who scored his first playoff goal; this marked the seventh consecutive game. In the second per
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. is a professional sports and commercial real estate company based in Toronto, Canada. With assets that include franchises in four of the six major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, it is the largest sports and entertainment company in Canada, one of the largest in North America; the primary holdings of the company are its major sports franchises, the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League, Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association, Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, Toronto FC of Major League Soccer, as well as their minor league farm teams, the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, Raptors 905 of the NBA G League and Toronto FC II of the USL League One, respectively. In addition, it owns the Scotiabank Arena, the home arena of the Maple Leafs and Raptors, the OVO Athletic Centre, the practice facility for the Raptors. MLSE manages or has invested in several other sports facilities including BMO Field, home of Toronto FC and the Toronto Argonauts.
MLSE was founded by Conn Smythe in 1931 as Maple Leaf Gardens Limited to act as a holding company for the Maple Leafs and their planned new arena Maple Leaf Gardens, from which the company got its name. Smythe transferred his ownership of the Leafs to the company in exchange for shares in MLGL and sold shares in the holding company to the public to help fund construction of the arena. While primarily a hockey company, with ownership stakes in a number of minor and junior hockey clubs including the Toronto Marlboros of the Ontario Hockey Association, the company branched out to own the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the CFL from the late 1970s to late 1980s, before merging with the Raptors, who were constructing the Air Canada Centre at the time, adopting their current name in 1998; the company launched Toronto FC in 2007. Most the company completed its purchase of the Argonauts in January 2018. Over most of its 80 plus years of existence MLSE was a public company. Following the death of majority owner Harold Ballard in 1990, Steve Stavro led a controversial bid to buy the company and take it private.
In 2012, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan sold their 79.53% share of the company for CA$1.32 billion to a joint venture between Rogers Communications and Bell Canada, two of Canada's largest media companies, giving the company an equity value of CA$1.66 billion and an enterprise value of CA$2 billion. The corporation's roots can be traced back to 1927, when Conn Smythe organized a group of investors to purchase Toronto's premier hockey franchise, the Toronto St. Patricks of the National Hockey League, which had won Stanley Cup championships in 1918 and 1922, from a group headed by Charles Querrie; the club was playing poorly and minority partner Jack Bickell contacted Smythe about becoming coach of the team. However, Smythe told Bickell. Not long after, with the team in trouble financially due to majority owner Querrie having lost a lawsuit to former Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone over ownership of the franchise, Querrie put the St. Pats up for sale and agreed in principle to sell them to C. C.
Pyle for $200,000, who planned to move the team to Philadelphia. After Bickell contacted Smythe to inform him of the sale, Smythe persuaded Querrie that civic pride was more important than money and put together a syndicate that bought the St. Pats. Smythe himself invested $10,000 of his own money and his group contributed $75,000 up front and a further $75,000 due 30 days with Bickell retaining his $40,000 share in the team; the deal was finalized on Valentine's Day, the new owners renamed the team the Toronto Maple Leafs, after the national symbol of Canada. Smythe attributed his choice of a maple Leaf for the logo to his experiences as a Canadian Army officer and prisoner of war during World War I; that year, Smythe bought the junior hockey Toronto Marlboros of the Ontario Hockey Association to serve as a developmental team for Maple Leafs. In 1929 Smythe decided, in the midst of the Great Depression, that the Maple Leafs needed a new arena; the Arena Gardens, their home which they shared with the Marlboros, had been built in 1912 and lacked modern amenities.
It seated just 8,000, which the Maple Leafs were filling. After considering various locations, the site at the corner of Carlton and Church was purchased from The T. Eaton Co. Ltd. for $350,000, a price said to be $150,000 below market value. A new 12,473 seat arena was designed by the architectural firm of Macdonald. To finance construction, Smythe got backing from Sun Life for half of the expected $1 million cost and launched Maple Leaf Gardens Limited, a management company that would own both the Maple Leafs and the new arena, named Maple Leaf Gardens. A public offering of shares in MLGL was made at $10 each, with a free common share for each five preferred shares purchased. Ownership of the hockey team was transferred to MLGL in return for shares. To fund construction of the building, workers were paid 20% of their salary in MLG stock. Construction started on June 1, 1931, MLG was opened five months and two weeks on November 12, 1931, at a cost of $1.5 million. The Marlboros moved to the new arena.
Bickell was named the first pres
Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League; the Oilers were founded in 1971 by W. D. "Wild Bill" Hunter and Dr. Chuck Allard; the team played its first season in 1972, as one of the twelve founding franchises of the major professional World Hockey Association. They were intended to be one of two WHA Alberta teams, along with the Calgary Broncos. However, when the Broncos relocated to Cleveland, before the WHA's first season began, the Oilers were renamed the Alberta Oilers, they returned to their current name in the following year, subsequently joined the NHL in 1979 as one of four franchises absorbed through the NHL merger with the WHA. After joining the NHL, the Oilers went on to win the Stanley Cup on five occasions: 1983–84, 1984–85, 1986–87, 1987–88 and 1989–90. Along with the Pittsburgh Penguins, they are tied for the most championships won by any team since the NHL-WHA merger and the most won by any team that joined the league in or after 1967.
Among all NHL teams, only the Montreal Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup more times since the League's 1967 expansion. For their success in the 1980s, the Oilers team of this era has been honoured with dynasty status by the Hockey Hall of Fame. However, the Oilers began to struggle shortly after the 2004–05 NHL lockout, having missed the playoffs every year since 2006, with the exception of 2016–17; the Oilers have drafted 12 first round selections since 2007, 10 of which were within the first 10 draft choices overall, 6 of those picks were within the first 4 picks overall, 4 of those 6 were first overall selections. In the NHL Entry Draft Edmonton Selected first overall Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Nail Yakupov and Connor McDavid with those picks, only two of those players remain with the Oilers today; the Oilers are one of two NHL franchises based in Alberta. Their close proximity to each other has led to a fierce rivalry known as the "Battle of Alberta". On November 1, 1971, the Edmonton Oilers became 1 of the 12 founding WHA franchises.
The original owners were "Wild Bill" Hunter and partner, Dr. Charles A. "Chuck" Allard who, a decade also brought the SCTV sketch comedy TV series to Edmonton. Hunter owned the Edmonton Oil Kings, a junior hockey franchise, founded the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League. Hunter's efforts to bring major professional hockey to Edmonton via an expansion NHL franchise had been rebuffed by the NHL. So, he looked to the upstart WHA instead, it was Hunter. This was a name, used as a nickname for the Edmonton Oil Kings in the 1950s and 1960s. Hunter served as head coach during the 1972–73, 1974–75, 1975–76 seasons, the Oilers' mascot, Hunter, is named in his honour. After the newly founded Calgary Broncos folded prior to commencement of the inaugural WHA season, the Oilers were renamed the Alberta Oilers as it was planned to split their home games between Edmonton and Calgary. For financial reasons or to allow for a less complicated return of the WHA to Calgary, the team played all of its home games in the Edmonton Gardens and changed its name back to the Edmonton Oilers the following year.
They won the first game in WHA history 7–4 over the Ottawa Nationals. The Oilers drew fans with players such as defenceman and team captain Al Hamilton, goaltender Dave Dryden and forwards Blair MacDonald and Bill Flett. However, a little-noticed move in 1976 would have an important impact on the history of the franchise; that year, journeyman forward Glen Sather was acquired by the Oilers. It turned out to be his final season as a player and was named player-coach late in the season, moving to the bench full-time after the season. Sather would be the coach or general manager of the Oilers for the next 23 years. Although the Oilers' on-ice performance for most of the WHA's history was mediocre, they remained well-supported and financially stable by WHA standards. In 1976, Hunter and Allard sold the franchise to Vancouver real estate tycoon Nelson Skalbania, who would become notorious for flipping property, both real and franchised. Skalbania soon made Peter Pocklington a full partner sold his shares to him the following year.
The team's fortunes improved in 1978 when Pocklington acquired underage player Wayne Gretzky, as well as goaltender Eddie Mio and forward Peter Driscoll, for cash, from Skalbania's folded Indianapolis Racers. His first year of WHA experience prevented Gretzky from being an official 1979–80 NHL rookie). However, Edmonton failed to win the championship, as they fell to the Winnipeg Jets in the Avco World Trophy Final. Dave Semenko of the Oilers scored the last goal in WHA history in the third period of the final game, which they lost 7–3; the Oilers joined the NHL for 1979–80, along with fellow WHA teams Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques and the Jets following a merger agreement between the two leagues. Of these four teams, only Edmonton has avoided renaming; the Oilers lost most of the players from 1978–79 when the NHL held a reclamation draft of players who had bolted to the upstart league as they were allowed to protect two goaltenders and two skill players. Gretzky was not el
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League; the team has been in existence since 1924, is the league's third-oldest team overall and the oldest in the United States. It is an Original Six franchise, along with the Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs; the Bruins have won six Stanley Cup championships, tied for fourth most of all-time with the Blackhawks and tied second-most of any American NHL team with the Blackhawks. The first facility to host the Bruins was the Boston Arena – the world's oldest indoor ice hockey facility still in use for the sport at any level of competition – and following the Bruins' departure from the Boston Arena, the team played its home games at the Boston Garden for 67 seasons, beginning in 1928 and concluding in 1995, when they moved to the TD Garden. In 1924, at the convincing of Boston grocery magnate Charles Adams, the National Hockey League decided to expand to the United States.
Adams had come to enjoy ice hockey while watching the 1924 Stanley Cup Finals between the NHL champion Montreal Canadiens and the WCHL champion Calgary Tigers. The previous year in 1923, Thomas Duggan received options on three NHL franchises for the United States, he sold one to Charles Adams, who in turn, persuaded the NHL to grant him a franchise for the city of Boston, which occurred on November 1, 1924. With the Montreal Maroons, the team was one of the NHL's first expansion teams, the first NHL team to be based in the United States. Adams' first act was to hire a former star player and innovator, as general manager. Ross was the face of the franchise for the next thirty years, including four separate stints as coach. Adams directed Ross to come up with a nickname that would portray an untamed animal displaying speed and cunning. Ross came up with "Bruins", an Old English word used for brown bears in classic folk tales; the team's bearlike nickname went along with the team's original uniform colors of brown and yellow, which came from Adams' grocery chain, First National Stores.
On December 1, 1924, the new Bruins team played their first NHL game against their expansion cousins the Maroons, at Boston Arena, with Canadian skater Smokey Harris scoring the first-ever Bruins goal, spurring the Bruins to a 2–1 win. This would be one of the few high points of the season, as the Bruins proved to be no match for the established NHL teams. At the time, the NHL did not conduct an expansion draft for new teams, there were few American-born hockey players and many Canadian players were skeptical of hockey's long-term prospects in the Eastern United States. Boston was therefore left with a team full of NHL castaways unable to land a spot on the roster of the more established Canadian teams; the Bruins only managed a 6–24–0 record and finished in last place in its first season – within this timeframe, only one week on December 8, 1924, what would become one of the NHL's all-time fiercest rivalries was initiated, as the Montreal Canadiens were the visiting team at the Boston Arena that night, defeating the hometown Bruins by a 4–3 score.
The Bruins played three more seasons at the Arena, after which they became the main tenant of the famous Boston Garden, while the old Boston Arena facility – the world's oldest existing indoor ice hockey venue still used for the sport at any level of competition, the only surviving rink where an Original Six NHL team began their career in the league – was taken over by Northeastern University, renamed Matthews Arena when the university renovated it in 1979. The Bruins' managed to improve in their second season to a winning record due to the presence of two more expansion teams. For Boston, the NHL did not expand the playoffs for the 1925–26 season and the Bruins missed out on the third and final playoff berth by one point to the expansion Pittsburgh Pirates. In their third season, 1926 -- 27, the organization made. Ross took advantage of the collapse of the Western Hockey League to purchase several western stars, including the team's first great star, a defenseman from Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan named Eddie Shore.
The Bruins' moves were counterbalanced by WHL player acquisitions on other NHL teams, the team's record was slightly worse than the previous season, but Boston qualified for the then-expanded playoffs by a comfortable margin. In their first-ever playoff run, the Bruins reached the Stanley Cup Final where they lost to the Ottawa Senators in the first Cup Final to be between NHL teams. In 1929 the Bruins defeated the New York Rangers to win their first Stanley Cup. Standout players on the first championship team included Shore, Harry Oliver, Dit Clapper, Dutch Gainor and goaltender Tiny Thompson; the 1928–29 season was the first played at Boston Garden, which Adams had built after guaranteeing his backers $500,000 in gate receipts over the next five years. The season after that, 1929–30, the Bruins posted the best-ever regular season winning percentage in the NHL and shattered numerous team scoring records, but lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the Cup Final; the 1930s Bruins teams included Shore, Clapper, Babe Siebert and Cooney Weiland.
The team led the league's standings five times in the decade. In 1939, the team changed its uniform colors from brown an
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoff winner. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise, the International Ice Hockey Federation considers it to be one of the "most important championships available to the sport"; the trophy was commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup and is named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada who donated it as an award to Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. The entire Stanley family supported the sport, the sons and daughters all playing and promoting the game; the first Cup was awarded in 1893 to Montreal Hockey Club, winners from 1893 to 1914 were determined by challenge games and league play. Professional teams first became eligible to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1906. In 1915, professional ice hockey organizations National Hockey Association and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association reached a gentlemen's agreement in which their respective champions would face each other annually for the Stanley Cup.
It was established as the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926 and the de jure NHL championship prize in 1947. There are three Stanley Cups: the original bowl of the "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup", the authenticated "Presentation Cup", the spelling-corrected "Permanent Cup" on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame; the NHL has maintained its associated trademarks. The NHL has registered trademarks associated with the name and likeness of the Stanley Cup, although there has been dispute as to whether the league has the right to own trademarks associated with a trophy that it does not own; the original bowl is 18.5 centimetres high and 29 centimetres wide. The current Stanley Cup is topped with a copy of the original bowl, made of a silver and nickel alloy, it weighs 15.5 kilograms. A new Stanley Cup is not made each year, unlike the trophies awarded by the other major professional sports leagues of North America; the winners kept it until a new champion was crowned, but winning teams get the Stanley Cup during the summer and a limited number of days during the season.
Every year since 1924, a select portion of the winning players, coaches and club staff names are engraved on its bands, unusual among trophies. However, there is not enough room to include all the players and non-players, so some names must be omitted. Between 1924 and 1940, a new band was added every year that the trophy was awarded, earning the nickname "Stovepipe Cup" due to the unnatural height of all the bands. In 1947, the cup size was reduced. In 1958, the modern one-piece Cup was designed with a five-band barrel which could contain 13 winning teams per band; the oldest band is removed when the bottom band is full and preserved in the Hockey Hall of Fame in order to prevent the Stanley Cup from growing, a new blank band added to the bottom. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug; the Stanley Cup is surrounded by numerous legends and traditions, the oldest of, the winning team drinking champagne from it. Since the 1914–15 season, the Cup has been won a combined 101 times by 18 current NHL teams and 5 defunct teams.
It was not awarded in 1919 because of a Spanish flu epidemic or in 2005 because of the 2004–05 NHL lockout. It was held by nine different teams between 1893 and 1914; the Montreal Canadiens have won it a record 24 times and are the most recent Canadian-based team to win it, doing so in 1993. After the Lord Stanley of Preston was appointed by Queen Victoria as Governor General of Canada on June 11, 1888, he and his family became enthusiastic about ice hockey. Stanley was first exposed to the game at Montreal's 1889 Winter Carnival, where he saw the Montreal Victorias play the Montreal Hockey Club; the Montreal Gazette reported that he "expressed his great delight with the game of hockey and the expertise of the players". During that time, organized ice hockey in Canada was still in its infancy and only Montreal and Ottawa had anything resembling leagues. Stanley's entire family became active in ice hockey. Two of his sons and Algernon, formed a new team called the Ottawa Rideau Hall Rebels. Arthur played a key role in the formation of what became known as the Ontario Hockey Association, became the founder of ice hockey in Great Britain.
Arthur and Algernon persuaded their father to donate a trophy to be "an outward and visible sign of the hockey championship". Stanley sent the following message to the victory celebration held on March 18, 1892, at Ottawa's Russell House Hotel for the three-time champion Ottawa Hockey Club: I have for some time been thinking that it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup which should be held from year to year by the champion hockey team in the Dominion. There does not appear to be any such outward sign of a championship at present, considering the general interest which matches now elicit, the importance of having the game played and under rules recognized, I am willing to give a cup which shall be held from year to year by the winning team. I am not quite certain that the present regulations governing the arrangement of matches give entire satisfaction, it would be worth consid
Bernie Parent
Bernard Marcel Parent is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey goaltender who played 13 National Hockey League seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, spent one season in the World Hockey Association with the Philadelphia Blazers. Parent is acknowledged as one of the greatest goaltenders of all time. During the 1973–74 and 1974–75 seasons, in what many consider the finest consecutive seasons by a goaltender, the Flyers won two Stanley Cups and Parent won the Vezina Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy both seasons. In that two-year run of dominance, Parent posted 30 shutouts in regular and post season play combined. A 1984 inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame, Parent was rated number 63 on The Hockey News' list of The Top 100 NHL Players of All-Time in 1998. Parent remains an iconic fan favorite in Philadelphia more than three decades after his retirement. In 2017 Parent was named one of the'100 Greatest NHL Players' in history. Parent is the youngest of seven siblings.
He grew up in a suburb of Montreal. Parent's hero as a young boy was Montreal Canadiens goalie Jacques Plante, whose sister lived in Parent's neighborhood. Many times Parent watched out for Plante's visits to her family. Plante became his teammate and mentor in 1971 for Toronto Maple Leafs, when Plante was 43; as a Québécois, Parent's use of English was a never ending source of locker room and bus trip humor when he was excited. During his early playing career, Parent did not conduct interviews in English for fear of saying the wrong things. Parent played for the Niagara Falls Flyers of the OHA Junior A league. A two-time winner of the Dave Pinkney trophy, he wrapped up his junior career on the team that won the OHA championship and the Memorial Cup championship in 1965. Parent began his career with the Boston Bruins in the 1965 -- 66 season; the following season was split between the Bruins' farm club in Oklahoma. Left unprotected for the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft, Parent was chosen by the Philadelphia Flyers where he and Doug Favell, another former Bruin prospect, split the netminding duties for the Flyers' first season.
Parent recorded a 2.48 GAA with four shutouts and the Flyers finished first in the NHL's West Division. Over the next two seasons, with Favell performing inconsistently or injured, Parent became the Flyers' #1 goalie and appeared in 58 and 62 games for the Flyers achieving impressive Save Percentages of.925 and.921, although due to the weakness of the Flyers who allowed a lot of shots, his GAA and win totals were not nearly as impressive. Looking for help up front to improve the club's offence, Philadelphia dealt Parent and a second-round pick in the 1971 NHL Amateur Draft to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Bruce Gamble and a first-round selection in the same draft in a three-way transaction that involved Boston on January 31, 1971; the Flyers acquired Rick MacLeish and Danny Schock from the Bruins who received Mike Walton from the Maple Leafs. The trade turned out to be a positive turn for Parent. In Toronto, Parent joined Jacques Plante, who at 42 was having an all-star season. Under Plante's tutelage, Parent became a technically proficient goalie.
Parent played well for the Leafs through the 1971–72 season, gaining valuable regular season and playoff experience. Without a contract with the Leafs for the 1972–73 season, Parent signed a large contract with the Miami Screaming Eagles of the newly forming World Hockey Association, he was the first NHL player to jump to the new league. The Eagles did not materialize as planned, Parent signed with the Philadelphia Blazers. Parent faced a barrage of shots in 63 regular season games for the Blazers in the defensively weak league. After leaving the team over a contract dispute during the 1973 WHA playoffs, he sought a return to the NHL but did not wish to return to the Leafs. Toronto traded Parent's NHL rights back to the Flyers for Favell and a first round pick in that summer's amateur draft; the next two seasons were the greatest of his career and would see Parent record a combined 30 regular and post-season shutout victories. Hockey scribes have cited Parent's play between 1973 and 1975 as some of the best by a goaltender.
Playing 73 games in a 78-game schedule, Parent sparkled in leading the league with a 1.89 GAA, a.933 Save Percentage and 12 shutouts. He began the 1973–74 season with two shutouts besting Favell 2–0 in the season opener against Toronto in Philadelphia, he shared the Vezina Trophy with Chicago's Tony Esposito, was named the first-team all-star goaltender and finished second in the voting for the Hart Trophy as the league's Most Valuable Player as the Flyers skated to a first-place finish in the West Division. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Flyers won the first of consecutive Stanley Cup Championships against the Boston Bruins. In the 6th and deciding game of the finals, Parent stopped a savage slapshot blast from Ken Hodge with a classic kick save move with less than 3 minutes to play on what turned out to be the Bruins' 30th and last shot; the spectacular save preserved the shutout and the championship deciding win and became an used highlight during advertising for NBC's coverage of the NHL the next season.
The following year, he again posted 12 shutouts while having a. 918 Save Percentage. He won another Vezina Trophy, another first-team all-star s
NHL commissioner
The National Hockey League commissioner is the highest-ranking executive officer in the National Hockey League. The position was created in 1993 with Gary Bettman as the first commissioner. Among other duties, the commissioner leads collective bargaining negotiations on behalf of the league and appoints officials for all NHL games; until 1993, the NHL's top executive was the league president, for five months in 1993 the league had a commissioner and a president. The roles were amalgamated on July 1, 1993; the presidency originated in the National Hockey Association, which Frank Calder presided over jointly as NHA and NHL president in the period of the NHL's founding and the NHA's suspension. According to the NHL Constitution, Article VI, section 6.1: ”6.1 Office of Commissioner and Term of Office The League shall employ a Commissioner selected by the Board of Governors. The Commissioner shall serve as the Chief Executive Officer of the League and is charged with protecting the integrity of the game of professional hockey and preserving public confidence in the League.
The Board of Governors shall determine the term of compensation of the Commissioner. The Commissioner shall be elected a majority of the Governors present and voting at a League meeting at which a quorum was present when it was convened.“ In Section 6.3, the commissioner's duties are spelled out as having "responsibility for the general supervision and direction of all business and affairs of the league", co-ordinates matters between member clubs and serves as the principal public spokesman for the league. The commissioner has authority over dispute resolution, league committees, interpretation of league rules, appointment of league staff, NHL financial matters, contracting authority, scheduling and disciplinary powers; the commissioner determines the date and places of board of governors meetings. On February 1, 1993, Gary Bettman's tenure as the first commissioner of the National Hockey League began, replacing Gil Stein, who served as the NHL's final president; the owners hired Bettman with the mandate of selling the game in the U.
S. markets, ending labour unrest, completing expansion plans, modernizing the views of the "old-guard" within the ownership ranks. When Bettman started as commissioner, the league had expanded by three teams to 24 since 1991, two more were set to be announced by the expansion committee: the Florida Panthers and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, who would begin play in 1993–94. Similar to the previous expansion cycles, the focus was on placing teams in the southern United States; the Nashville Predators, Atlanta Thrashers, Minnesota Wild, Columbus Blue Jackets, the Vegas Golden Knights have been added during Bettman's tenure. In addition, five franchises have relocated during Bettman's tenure: the Minnesota North Stars to Dallas, the Quebec Nordiques to Denver, the original Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix, the Hartford Whalers to North Carolina and the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg. Led by Bettman, the league focused expansion and relocation efforts on the American South, working to expand the league's footprint across the country.
As a result, there has been significant growth in the sport of hockey at the grassroots level with children in the U. S. South playing the game in increasing numbers; the move towards Southern markets has been criticized as well, with fans in Canada and the Northern United States lamenting the move away from "traditional hockey markets."Bettman has been accused of having an "anti-Canadian" agenda, with critics citing the relocation of the franchises in Quebec City and Winnipeg and his apparent refusal to help stop it, along with the aborted sale of the Nashville Predators in 2007 to interests that would have moved the team to Hamilton, Ontario. Jim Balsillie accused Bettman of forcing the Predators to end negotiations with him to purchase the team. Bettman was satirized in this vein as the character "Harry Buttman" in the 2006 Canadian movie Bon Cop, Bad Cop. Although Bettman was tasked with putting an end to the NHL's labour problems, the league has nonetheless locked out its players three times during Bettman's tenure.
The 1994–95 lockout lasted 104 days, causing the season to be shortened from 84 to 48 games. A key issue during the lockout was the desire to aid small market teams. Led by Bettman, the owners insisted on a salary cap, changes to free agency and arbitration in the hopes of limiting escalating salaries, the union instead proposed a luxury tax system; the negotiations were at times bitter, with Chris Chelios famously issuing a veiled threat against Bettman, suggesting that Bettman should be "worried about family and well-being", because "Some crazed fans, or a player might take matters into their own hands and figure they get Bettman out of the way."By the end of the deal in 2004, the owners were claiming that player salaries had grown far faster than revenues, that the league as a whole lost over US$300 million in 2002–03. As a result, on September 15, 2004, Bettman announced that the owners again locked the players out prior to the start of the 2004–05 season. Three months Bettman announced the cancellation of the entire season with the words "It is my sad duty to announce that because a solution has not yet been attained, it is no longer practical to conduct an abbreviated season.
Accordingly, I have no choice but to announce the formal cancellation of play for 2004–2005." The NHL became the first North American league to cancel an entire season because of a labour stoppage. As in 1994, the owners' position was predicated around the need for a salary cap. In an effort to ensure solidarity amongst the owners, the league's governors voted to give Bettman the right
