Mike Keane

Did You Know?

• Keane competed for Team Canada at the 1987 World Junior Championships in Czechoslovakia.
• During that tournament, both Canada and the Soviet Union were disqualified from the gold medal game as a result of the Punch-up in Piestany.

Playing career

Mike Keane started his junior hockey in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League with the Winnipeg South Blues before moving up to the Western Hockey League with the Moose Jaw Warriors. After going undrafted, he signed as a free agent with the Montreal Canadiens on September 25, 1985, and made his NHL debut in 1988. In his fifth season, he helped Montreal win the Stanley Cup in 1993. Keane spent eight years with the Canadiens and served as the team’s 24th captain from April 1995 to December 1995, taking over after Kirk Muller was traded. His time as captain stirred controversy when he told Mathias Brunet of La Presse that he had no plans to learn French, arguing it wasn’t necessary because most players spoke English.

During the 1995–96 season, Keane and Patrick Roy were traded to the Colorado Avalanche for Jocelyn Thibault, Andrei Kovalenko, and Martin Ručinský. That year, he won his second Stanley Cup as Colorado swept the Florida Panthers in the Final. After one more season with the Avalanche, he became a free agent in the summer of 1997 and signed with the New York Rangers. Halfway through that season, the Rangers sent Keane, Brian Skrudland, and a 1998 sixth-round pick to the Dallas Stars for Todd Harvey, Bob Errey, and a 1998 fourth-round pick. Keane played in Dallas until 2000–01, winning the Stanley Cup with the Stars in 1999 and returning to the finals the following year. He started the 2001–02 season with the St. Louis Blues but finished it back in Colorado, where he stayed until moving to the Vancouver Canucks at the start of the 2003–04 season.

Following the 2004–05 lockout, Keane joined his hometown Manitoba Moose of the AHL for the 2005–06 season and played five years there. He was named captain in 2005 and held that role until his contract was not renewed on July 20, 2010. In 2007, he captained the AHL All-Star Team Canada. On February 12, 2011, the Moose retired his number 12 jersey during a game against the San Antonio Rampage at Bell MTS Place, making it the first number retired in franchise history.