Stan Butler's 1000-Game Brigade
In the history of the NHL, 19 men have coached in 1000 games, with three of them reaching the milestone this hockey season.
A fourth man coached in his 1000th game late last week, but it wasn’t in the NHL. In fact, he’s never stepped behind an NHL bench in his life to coach a game, despite teaching the likes of Marc Savard, Zdeno Chara, Jason Spezza, Brent Burns and Matt Duchene. He’s also stood behind the same bench since the 1998-99 season.
On Thursday February 10, Stan Butler joined the likes of the legendary Brian Kilrea, Bert Templeton and Larry Mavety as the only OHL coaches to draw up plays in more than 1000 games.
After spending the first two years of his career behind the Oshawa Generals bench and then a year out West with the Prince George Cougars, Butler returned to the OHL for the 1998-99 season to an expansion franchise. He was actually hired by the organization the season before, and it was during that 1998-99 year that he guided the Brampton Battalion through their inaugural season, and has been with them for 11 more, coaching all but 132 of his now 1002 games in Brampton.
Fittingly, his win on Thursday was against the team he started with, the Oshawa Generals.
Like those greats that he’s joined, Butler hasn’t simply been able to achieve longevity thanks to being a good coach, or even for being well-known. He’s also had to be a good father figure, policeman, and teacher.
You see being a good coach in the CHL is very different than being any kind of coach at the professional level. As Brian Kilrea said in his book when he compared his time in the NHL to his time with the Ottawa 67’s: In the NHL you’re coaching more, while in the OHL you’re teaching.
In the NHL, coaching personalities of all kinds can survive, from your John Tortorellas and your Mike Keenans, to your Joel Quennevilles and Jacques Martins. No matter how many complaints, colorful quotes, or tasteless firings, NHL Head Coaches always seem to find their way back behind a bench eventually.
In the OHL, QMJHL and WHL however, it’s different. The players are at a key stage in their development when they enter the league, and are searching for the mentors who will help push them over the top and get them noticed by the NHL. Even as they grow into their final seasons in junior hockey (over-age years or otherwise), the players and their parents need a presence that they can trust to help them get to whatever the next step in their life is.
Along with that, the coach can be the mitigating factor as to whether or not a player will bring his talents to the CHL, or jettison the cause for the NCAA. He can also be the drawing factor for a player who is abandoning his other hockey plans and coming to the CHL.
In addition, the CHL isn’t just a proving ground for players as the spotlight has always found it’s way to the coaches who made an impact in the win column or on the national stage at the World Juniors (where Butler has been, twice). Countless coaches have honed their craft in the junior ranks and worked their way up to either a head coaching job in the NHL, or found themselves on an NHL staff. As of today,13 coaches in the NHL stood behind a CHL bench for at least one season.
But Butler has avoided the draw of the bigs (so far) and has pushed all the right buttons for players past and present in a market that’s dominated by blue and white headlines. Despite not getting the big crowds or headlines because the GTA is stained blue and white, Butler is known and respected in OHL circles. You don’t have 18 grads play in at least one NHL game by accident after all.
So to a coach who has probably had as many headlines written about him as the owner of his team has missed games, congratulations are deservedly extended.
Kilrea (who coached 2,156 games) told you the first 1000 are the toughest. Well, more than a few of us are looking forward to those “easy” next 1000.
