Scotty Bowman

Lore & Background

As head coach, Bowman has won a record nine Stanley Cup championships; five with the Canadiens, one with the Penguins and three with the Red Wings, making him the only head coach to lead three different teams to Stanley Cup victories. Bowman has also won the Stanley Cup five times as a member of an organization's front office. He was director of player development for the 1991 Penguins, consultant with the Detroit Red Wings, and senior advisor of hockey operations for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Bowman's teams also made it to the Stanley Cup Finals a record 13 times and the semifinals a record 16 times. Bowman won the Jack Adams Award in 1977 and 1996. In the 1976–77 season, he won a record 60 games, breaking his own record of 58 wins the year before. He broke his own record again in the 1995–1996 season, with 62 wins; overall, he held the record for 46 years. His eight losses in 1976–77 are a modern record for the fewest defeats incurred.

Reader's Guide

Bowman played junior league hockey with the Montreal Junior Canadiens until a fractured skull, resulting from an unintentional slash by Jean-Guy Talbot during the 1952 playoffs, ended his long term playing aspirations. Bowman started coaching, in 1956, as an assistant to head coach Sam Pollock with the Ottawa-Hull Canadiens in the Quebec Junior Hockey League. The following season, as head coach, Bowman's team won the 1958 Memorial Cup. Soon thereafter, he moved into a coaching job with the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League (OHA), the Montreal Canadiens' junior farm team.

He moved into the NHL in 1967 when he joined the expansion St. Louis Blues as an assistant coach under general manager and head coach Lynn Patrick. Patrick resigned as coach after a slow start, and Bowman took over at age 34. The Blues made it to the Stanley Cup finals in their first three years of existence as Western Conference (Expansion) champs. Bowman assumed general manager duties after Patrick gave up that job in the summer of 1968.

Bowman remained in St. Louis until the end of the 1970–71 season but left due to a dispute with team ownership. Bowman was hired as head coach of the Montreal Canadiens on June 10, 1971. His team lost in the first round of the playoffs in 1972 but won the Stanley Cup in 1973. From 1976 to 1979, Bowman won four consecutive Stanley Cups with a talented Canadiens squad.

Bowman stepped down after the 1978–79 season. For the 1979–80 season, Bowman moved to the Buffalo Sabres as coach and general manager. He served as the team's general manager until 1987, doubling as coach on three occasions. During this time, he missed the playoffs for the only time in his coaching career, in the 1985–86 season.

Bowman resigned during the 1986–87 season and was replaced by Gerry Meehan 12 games into the season. He became the director of player personnel of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1990 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1991 as a builder. Bowman took over as head coach of the Penguins where the Penguins repeated as Stanley Cup champions in a season dedicated to Bob Johnson. The next season, the Penguins had their first 100-point season in franchise history and finished with the league's best record. The 1992–93 Penguins under Bowman set the NHL record for consecutive wins in the regular season with 17.