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Barry Melrose (born July 15, 1956 in Kelvington, Saskatchewan) has been a hockey player, coach, and is currently a commentator for ESPN and ABC.
Melrose began his hockey career as a defenseman in the WCHL with the Kamloops Chiefs in 1974, eventually working his way up to the Cincinnati Stingers of the WHA. Following the demise of the WHA and its subsequent absorption into the NHL, Melrose joined the Winnipeg Jets for the 1979-80 season.
The remainder of his playing career saw Melrose bounce from team to team, being sent to the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings and their assorted AHL affiliates. Melrose spent his final season playing with the Adirondack Red Wings of the AHL in 1986-87. During his playing career, Melrose scored a mere 65 points between his NHL and WHA teams, but amassed over 1,000 penalty minutes.
Following his playing career, however, Melrose took to coaching. His first coaching position saw him helming the Medicine Hat Tigers and then the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL. In 1989, Melrose was hired to coach his old team, the Adirondack Red Wings. He successfully led the minor league franchise to a Calder Cup victory over the St. John's Maple Leafs in the 1991-92 season.
Following that season, Melrose was hired to be the coach of the NHL's Los Angeles Kings. The team, which included stars like Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri and Paul Coffey, went to the Stanley Cup finals, but lost to the Montreal Canadiens. During that time, Melrose was called "the greatest coach I ever played for" by Gretzky. Eventually, Melrose fell out of favor with star Gretzky and some believe he was fired at Gretzky's behest.
After his coaching stint, Melrose was hired to be a hockey commentator with cable sports network ESPN (and later ABC when that network televised NHL games). Melrose formerly worked as a studio analyst along with John Saunders and currently does hockey analysis for SportsCenter and ESPNEWS.
Melrose is also a part owner of the Adirondack Frostbite (formerly the Adirondack Icehawks) of the UHL. Melrose currently resides in Queensbury, New York.
He is also known as one of hockey's foremost images of the 'mullet' hairstyle.
Detractors
It is common among those NHL fans who are skeptical of his expertise to refer to him as "Mary Belrose". This does not seem to affect his popularity as a commentator.
See also
External link
1956 births | The NHL on ABC | Adirondack Red Wings coaches | Adirondack Red Wings players | Canadian ice hockey players | Canadian sports announcers | Detroit Red Wings players | The NHL on ESPN | Living people | Los Angeles Kings coaches | National Hockey League broadcasters | Saskatchewan sportspeople | Springfield Indians players | Toronto Maple Leafs players | Winnipeg Jets players | Seattle Thunderbirds alumni | Kamloops Chiefs alumni | Weyburn Red Wings alumni
"Barry Melrose"