Adam Deadmarsh

Adam Richard Deadmarsh (born May 10, 1975) is a Canadian-born American former professional ice hockey player who played in the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche, and Los Angeles Kings. Deadmarsh was later a video coordinator and assistant coach with the Avalanche, before concussion issues forced him to step down after the season, nine years after his playing career ended for the same reason.

Deadmarsh won the Stanley Cup in 1996 with the Colorado Avalanche — however his name was misspelled on the Cup as "Deadmarch". It was later corrected, marking the first correction on the Cup.

Playing career

Deadmarsh was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1993 NHL entry draft, first round, 14th overall, from the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League. After the lock-out shortened 1994-95 season, the Nordiques relocated to Denver and became the Colorado Avalanche. Deadmarsh helped the Avalanche upset the heavily-favored Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference Finals, and then won the Stanley Cup over the Florida Panthers in 1996. His name was initially misspelled "Deadmarch" on the Cup, but was later corrected; it was the first time a misspelling on the Stanley Cup had ever been corrected.

Deadmarsh was traded to the Los Angeles Kings on February 21, 2001, along with Aaron Miller, a player to be named later (Jared Aulin), and Colorado's first round pick in the 2001 NHL entry draft (Dave Steckel) for Rob Blake and Steve Reinprecht. While the Avalanche were doing well at the time, they leapt at the chance to land Blake who was a star defenseman; the Kings were forced to deal Blake who was a pending unrestricted free agent and had declined to sign a contract extension. The Kings had not won a postseason series since 1993, but the addition of Deadmarsh and Miller with their considerable postseason experience made the Kings competitive in the playoffs. Deadmarsh became a playoff hero for vaulting the Kings past the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings in round one of the 2001 Stanley Cup Playoffs, after trailing late in Game 4 by three goals while his team was already down two games to one. Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman has attributed his team's playoff eliminations to Deadmarsh, who was among the Red Wings' most frequent opponents from 1996-2001 while a member of the Avalanche. Los Angeles went on to lose in the conference semifinals to Deadmarsh's former team, the Avalanche, in seven games; the Avalanche would eventually win their second Stanley Cup.

A U.S. citizen by virtue of having an American mother, Deadmarsh played for Team USA in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, the 1998 Winter Olympics, and the 2002 Winter Olympics, winning a gold medal in 1996 and a silver medal in 2002.

After missing most of the 2002–03 NHL season and the entire 2003–04 NHL season due to two concussions (and the next season due to the NHL lockout), Deadmarsh (unofficially) announced his retirement on September 22, 2005, citing the previous concussion as an inability to play further. He was honored on March 20, 2006, before a game between the Avalanche and Kings at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, California, for his dedication to both teams.

He had previously played junior hockey for the Portland Winter Hawks in the Western Hockey League and was a 3 time member of the U.S. National Junior Team, where he shares the all-time U.S. record of 21 games played at the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. He resides in Idaho with his wife and twin daughters.

Adam is a second cousin of former NHL player Butch Deadmarsh.

International play

Deadmarsh was born in Canada but had dual US-Canadian citizenship, and could represent either country in International play. A U.S. citizen by virtue of having an American mother, Deadmarsh chose to play for Team USA in the 1993 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships and the 1994 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships where he failed to register any points in both tournaments. He again represented the USA at the 1995 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships where he ranked seventh in the tournament scoring with six goals and four assists. In 1996, Deadmarsh won a gold medal at the innagural 1996 World Cup of Hockey tournament.

He was selected for both the 1998 Winter Olympics, and the 2002 Winter Olympics teams, winning a silver medal at home at Salt Lake City in 2002.

Post-playing career After seven years away from hockey, the Colorado Avalanche hired Adam Deadmarsh as their Video/Development Coach On June 19, 2009, where he served in that role from 2009 to 2011. After spending 2 seasons as Video/Development Coach with the Colorado Avalanche, Deadmarsh was promoted to be an Assistant Coach for the team on June 16, 2011. After only serving 1 season as an Assistant Coach with Colorado, Adam ultimately resigned from his position behind the bench due to concussion issues on June 7, 2012, and took on a new role with the organization working in their player development office.

On August 22, 2017, it was announced that the Spokane Chiefs (WHL) had hired Deadmarsh as an assistant coach with their club, where he served from 2017 to 2020.

Career statistics Regular season and playoffs Regular season Playoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 1990–91 Beaver Valley Nitehawks KIJHL 35 28 44 72 95 — — — — — 1991–92 Portland Winter Hawks WHL 68 30 30 60 111 6 3 3 6 13 1992–93 Portland Winter Hawks WHL 58 33 36 69 126 16 7 8 15 29 1993–94 Portland Winter Hawks WHL 65 43 56 99 212 10 9 8 17 33 1994–95 Portland Winter Hawks WHL 29 28 20 48 129 — — — — — 1994–95 Quebec Nordiques NHL 48 9 8 17 56 6 0 1 1 0 1995–96 Colorado Avalanche NHL 78 21 27 48 142 22 5 12 17 25 1996–97 Colorado Avalanche NHL 78 33 27 60 136 17 3 6 9 24 1997–98 Colorado Avalanche NHL 73 22 21 43 125 7 2 0 2 4 1998–99 Colorado Avalanche NHL 66 22 27 49 99 19 8 4 12 20 1999–2000 Colorado Avalanche NHL 71 18 27 45 106 17 4 11 15 21 2000–01 Colorado Avalanche NHL 39 13 13 26 59 — — — — — 2000–01 Los Angeles Kings NHL 18 4 2 6 4 13 3 3 6 4 2001–02 Los Angeles Kings NHL 76 29 33 62 71 4 1 3 4 2 2002–03 Los Angeles Kings NHL 20 13 4 17 21 — — — — — NHL totals 567 184 189 373 819 105 26 40 66 100

International

Year Team Event Result GP G A Pts PIM 1993 United States WJC 4th 7 0 0 0 10 1994 United States WJC 6th 7 0 0 0 8 1995 United States WJC 5th 7 6 4 10 10 1996 United States WCH 7 2 2 4 8 1998 United States OG 6th 4 1 0 1 2 2002 United States OG 6 1 1 2 2 Junior totals 21 6 4 10 28 Senior totals 17 4 3 7 12

Awards and honors Award Year NHL Stanley Cup (Colorado Avalanche) 1996