"Good" North American players with long post-NHL careers in the minor-pro Leagues

[brachyrynchos]

John Anderson (814-282-349-631), played 12 seasons in the NHL from 1978-1989 mostly with Toronto and Hartford, had a brief stop with Quebec. Played in Milan for a season and returned to North America where he played another 4 seasons in the minors for Fort Wayne, New Haven, and San Diego. Got into coaching, currently an Assistant in Minnesota I think.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Tony Tanti was a 1st round pick for the Blackhawks and played in around 700 NHL games. Was a point per game /40 goal scorer for the Canucks for 5 years in the 80s.

In the 90s he was a star for Berlin in the German league. Him and John Chabot (500+ NHL games, best season 57 pts with the Wings in 87/88) were a lethal duo at this level.

 

[Ralph Spoilsport]

Fred Glover and Guyle Fielder come to mind. Two Red Wings prospects in the 50s who were apparently fed up with Jack Adams management style and decided to pursue their careers elsewhere--it's a free country. They owned the AHL and WHL respectively in the 60s.

 

[brachyrynchos]

Defenseman Gord Dineen played over 500 games in his 13 year NHL career (1982/83- 94/95), played 7 more seasons in the IHL (Detroit/Utah and Chicago).
Scott Arniel played 8 years in the minors, 1 in the AHL the other 7 in the IHL after 730 NHL games over 11 seasons (149-189-338). Had a decent stretch for a while with Winnipeg and Buffalo.

 

[crobro]

Allan Bester

 

[Charlestown Chiefs]

This happens with a lot of European players in the NHL for obvious reasons, which is that they want to go home, or closer to home, to finish off their playing days. But what about North Americans?

I noticed today that Mike Keane, who had a great NHL career from 1988 to 2004, played in the AHL from 2005 to 2010. That really surprises me. He played with the Manitoba Moose, in his hometown, until he was nearly 43 years old, as a pro player. I'm not sure why, other than he loved playing.

What about other North American players who had long post-NHL careers in minor-pro?

(I'm not looking for borderline NHL-ers here, but legit NHL players, or stars, who had long and successful NHL careers.)

 

[wetcoast]

Jacques Lemaire in Switzerland and Bob Gainey in France

Gary Unger in Britain

Al Secord

Rick Vaive

It was really weird that Lemaire finishes his NHL career by leading the NHL playoffs in goals and points and wins his 8th SC with Montreal then heads to the Swiss league.

It's also no coincidence that the habs begin to falter in the playoffs after Lemaire leaves as well.

 

[wetcoast]

Tony Tanti was a 1st round pick for the Blackhawks and played in around 700 NHL games. Was a point per game /40 goal scorer for the Canucks for 5 years in the 80s.

In the 90s he was a star for Berlin in the German league. Him and John Chabot (500+ NHL games, best season 57 pts with the Wings in 87/88) were a lethal duo at this level.

John Chabot is another good answer as is Mark Napier.

 

[wetcoast]

Fred Glover and Guyle Fielder come to mind. Two Red Wings prospects in the 50s who were apparently fed up with Jack Adams management style and decided to pursue their careers elsewhere--it's a free country. They owned the AHL and WHL respectively in the 60s.

Sure they were solid minor league stars but were they ever considered "good" NHLers?

 

[Staniowski]

It was really weird that Lemaire finishes his NHL career by leading the NHL playoffs in goals and points and wins his 8th SC with Montreal then heads to the Swiss league.

It's also no coincidence that the habs begin to falter in the playoffs after Lemaire leaves as well.

Lemaire wanted to go into coaching, so he went to Europe to be a player-coach. The Habs offered him a big increase in salary, but he wanted to leave. He definitely could've played longer.
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I agree they missed Lemaire but there were a lot of player changes by the '80 playoffs.

Cournoyer and Dryden also retired in the summer of '79 (Cournoyer was basically done in '78), and Lafleur, Savard, and Lapointe barely played in the '80 playoffs due to injuries.

 

[crobro]

Dale McCourt

 

[wetcoast]

Lemaire wanted to go into coaching, so he went to Europe to be a player-coach. The Habs offered him a big increase in salary, but he wanted to leave. He definitely could've played longer.
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I agree they missed Lemaire but there were a lot of player changes by the '80 playoffs.

Cournoyer and Dryden also retired in the summer of '79 (Cournoyer was basically done in '78), and Lafleur, Savard, and Lapointe barely played in the '80 playoffs due to injuries.

True enough but Robinson was in his prime at age 28, Gainey was 26, Shutt was 27 , Langway was 22, Engblom was 25 and there were a host of support forwards who were still quite good.

They probably missed Dryden the most followed a close 2nd by Lemaire IMO.

Almost a 1A and 1B situation although a clear edge to Dryden as the Habs had years of goaltending problems, well 5 years until they got some guy named Roy in net.

Savard was pretty much done and had fallen off a cliff in 79-80.