Bryan Murray (ice hockey)

Bryan Clarence Murray (Born: December 5, 1942 in Shawville, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian ice hockey general manager,and is also a former coach.

He is currently the general manager of the National Hockey League's Ottawa Senators. He has previously been general manager of the NHL's Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Florida Panthers and Detroit Red Wings. He was also the head coach for Detroit and was the head coach for the Washington Capitals. In other leagues, he has been head coach of the American Hockey League's Hershey Bears and Western Hockey League's Regina Pats.

Murray, one of ten children of Clarence and Rhoda Murray, was born and raised in the small Ottawa Valley town of Shawville, Quebec, near Ottawa. He played hockey growing up, joining the Shawville Pontiacs intermediate club at age fourteen and later joined the Rockland Nats of the Central Junior Hockey League. He attended Macdonald College, a suburban campus of McGill University, which is located in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Que., and returned to Shawville and worked as a gym teacher. He then went into business buying a local motel.

Bryan began his hockey career as a part time coach with Pembroke of the CJHL. He earned a good reputation as a coach and was offered a job by the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League. He left his business interests in the hands of family members, and moved west. After taking Regina to the Memorial Cup, Murray moved to the Hershey Bears of the AHL, where he won coach of the year. The next year he became head coach of the Washington Capitals.

In seven seasons with Washington, Murray brought the team to the playoffs each year, and won the Jack Adams Award in 1984. In 1990, after being replaced by his brother in Washington, Bryan became coach and general manager of the Detroit Red Wings. The team had mixed results in his four seasons there, but Murray helped build the team that would be dominant in the later half of the 1990s.

Murray next was appointed the general manager of the expansion Florida Panthers. In 1996, the young Panthers made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, and Murray was selected as NHL Executive of the Year. From 2002–2004 Murray was general manager of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, and again saw his team quickly make a mark in the playoffs, reaching the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals. After a disappointing 2003–2004 season with the Mighty Ducks, Murray surprised many by deciding to resign from the GM post in Anaheim and move 'home' to become head coach of the Senators.

On February 20, 2007, he became the fifth NHL coach to achieve 600 victories, in a shootout win against the Edmonton Oilers. Despite this impressive number of victories (at the time the most among active NHL coaches), he has yet to win a Stanley Cup. In his most recent trip to the Finals as head coach, the Senators team that he coached lost to his former club, the Anaheim Ducks.

Murray was promoted to general manager of the Senators on June 18, 2007, and assistant coach John Paddock took over the head coach duties. However, on February 27, 2008, Murray fired Paddock as head coach of the Senators after the team struggled through January and February, despite a 15–2 start. Murray served as head coach for the remainder of the 2007–08 season, with the team finishing in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. His team was swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Craig Hartsburg was hired as the new coach of the team in June 2008.

Bryan and his wife, Geri, have two daughters, Heidi and Brittany. Bryan's brother, Terry Murray, is the new coach for the LA Kings.

Coaching record

Transaction Record as GM

Detroit

Florida

Anaheim

Ottawa

* February 11, 2008 - Traded Joe Corvo and Patrick Eaves to the Carolina Hurricanes for Mike Commodore and Cory Stillman.
* February 26, 2008 - Traded a sixth-round draft pick in 2008 (#169, Ben Smith) to the Chicago Blackhawks for Martin Lapointe
* August 29, 2008 - Traded Andrej Meszaros to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Filip Kuba, Alexandre Picard and San Jose's first-round draft pick (previously acquired) in 2009. [citeweb|title=Senators deal Meszaros to Tampa Bay|url=http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=247902&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_main|accessdate=2008-08-29|date=2008-08-29|publisher=TSN] [citeweb|title=Lightning cut six year deal with Meszaros|url=http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=451627|date=2008-09-30]
*September 2, 2008 - Traded Lawrence Nycholat to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Ryan Shannon

Education

Bryan Murray attended Pontiac High School.

External links

* [http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Ottawa/2005/03/06/952149-sun.html Ottawa Sun profile]

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