Mike Keenan

Mike Keenan and Brett Hull in St. Louis

Keenan arrived in St. Louis in 1994 with the general manager title as well as the bench, and his relationship with captain Brett Hull became the defining conflict of that stretch. Keenan stripped Hull of the captaincy, questioned his conditioning in public and used him as the example in front of the room. St. Louis fired Keenan on 19 December 1996. Keenan never traded Hull: Hull left as an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 1998, after the club refused to give him a no trade clause. Hull's own account of Keenan's worst mind games is still worth reading.

How many Stanley Cups did Mike Keenan win?

Keenan won one Stanley Cup, with the New York Rangers in 1994. It was the franchise's first in 54 years and it took seven games against Vancouver. Keenan then left the Rangers within weeks of the parade in a contract dispute and signed with St. Louis, which made him the rare coach to walk away from a championship bench in a single summer. The second major trophy came twenty years later, in Russia.

Every NHL team Mike Keenan coached

Keenan coached eight NHL clubs: the Philadelphia Flyers from 1984 to 1988, the Chicago Blackhawks from 1988 to 1992, the New York Rangers in 1993-94, the St. Louis Blues from 1994 to 1996, the Vancouver Canucks from 1997 to 1999, the Boston Bruins in 2000-01, the Florida Panthers from 2001 to 2004 and the Calgary Flames from 2007 to 2009. In St. Louis he also held the general manager job, which is part of why that tenure ended the way it did.

Why was Mike Keenan called Iron Mike?

The nickname came from how Keenan treated his own players. He ran punishing practices, benched stars without warning, shortened his bench in big games and said out loud what most coaches keep behind a closed door. Players who won for Keenan often disliked working for him, and plenty have told it that way years afterwards. Adam Graves, part of the 1994 Rangers, once threatened to fight his own coach, and he was not the only one who thought about it.

Mike Keenan's NHL coaching record

When Keenan left the Calgary bench after the 2008-09 season, his NHL coaching record stood at 672 wins, 531 losses, 147 ties and 36 overtime losses in 1,386 regular season games. In the playoffs he went 96 and 77 across 173 games. Keenan won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year for 1984-85, his first season in Philadelphia, when the Flyers finished first overall in the league with a roster nobody had picked to do it.

The Stanley Cup Finals Mike Keenan reached

Keenan reached four Stanley Cup Finals with three clubs. Philadelphia lost to Edmonton in 1985 and again in 1987, Chicago lost to Pittsburgh in 1992, and the New York Rangers beat Vancouver in 1994. Three of those four runs ended against a dynasty at full strength, which is part of why the 1994 win reads differently. Keenan got there with a roster built around Mark Messier and a city that had been waiting since 1940.

Mike Keenan in Russia and the 2014 Gagarin Cup

Keenan took over Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the KHL in 2013 and won the Gagarin Cup in 2014, which made him the first coach in history to win both the Stanley Cup and the KHL title. He stayed in Magnitogorsk until 2016, coached Kunlun Red Star in 2017-18, and later took charge of Italy's national team. Chris Pronger, who came up under Keenan as a young defenceman in St. Louis, has told the story of how the coach reacted to his fitness test numbers.

Mike Keenan and the Canada Cup

Keenan coached Canada to the Canada Cup title in 1987 and again in 1991. The 1987 tournament, settled by a three game final against the Soviet Union in which every game finished 6-5, is still the reference point for best on best hockey, and Keenan's decision to put Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux on the same line is a large part of why. Gretzky did not always do what the coach asked in 1987, which tells you something about both men.