Al MacNeil

NHL playing career

As a defenceman, MacNeil participated in parts of eleven seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), from 1956 to 1968. He played in a total of 524 NHL games with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Black Hawks, New York Rangers, and Pittsburgh Penguins. This was their final season in Houston, and the franchise moved to Montreal, and joined the American Hockey League (AHL) as the Montreal Voyageurs in June 1969. He continued as a player/coach in Montreal for the 1969–70 AHL season.

Montreal Canadiens During the beginning of the 1970–71 season, the Canadiens struggled to win, and were in danger of missing the playoffs for a second straight year. Head coach Ruel resigned 23 games into the season and MacNeil took over the helm on December 3, 1970. The appointment made him the first native of Atlantic Canada to serve as a head coach in the NHL. His first game as coach went well, as the Canadiens won over the St. Louis Blues, including beating his future Calgary Flames Stanley Cup winning coach, Terry Crisp, who was a Blues centre at the time.

1971 NHL playoffs run Canadiens general manager, Sam Pollock, bolstered the club when he swung a major trade to net top-scoring left-wing Frank Mahovlich from the Detroit Red Wings on January 13, 1971. The Canadiens rallied to qualify for the playoffs as the third seed in their division. The Canadiens stunned the heavily favoured, league-leading, Boston Bruins in the opening round of the playoffs by beating them four games to three in the quarter final round. They then defeated the Minnesota North Stars in the semifinals. Unexpectedly, they made it to the Stanley Cup Final, playing the Chicago Black Hawks, and then beating them four games to three after having been behind in this series 3–2. Game seven was in Chicago, and at the end of the second period, the score was tied at 2–2 after. MacNeil and Richard hugged at the end of the game, but that did little to patch up their differences. MacNeil was presumably impressed that Dryden won all these regular games, allowing only nine goals for a 1.65 goals against average (GAA). Another crucial choice was having rookie Réjean Houle shadow the Black Hawks' star goal scorer Bobby Hull. Houle held Hull to only one even-strength goal in the finals series.

Coaching decisions As a unilingual English-speaker, MacNeil had a challenging relationship with some of the team's francophone players, most notably Henri Richard. He was the first Canadiens coach in recent memory who could not speak French. When MacNeil benched Richard during the final series against the Black Hawks, Richard publicly criticized the coach, calling him incompetent. Because he benched fan-favourite Richard during the playoffs, he received death threats and had to get police protection. The death threats were taken seriously because of the politically volatile environment in Montreal only a few months after the October Crisis. Sports writers noted and praised MacNeil's calm coolness in the wake of Richard's comments.

After the Stanley Cup victory, there was a question of whether MacNeil would remain as the coach, especially after what seemed like a player revolt during the playoffs. He ended weeks of speculation from the press and the public when he resigned in early June as head coach of the Canadiens, with Sam Pollock replacing him with Scotty Bowman.

Nova Scotia (AHL) He stayed with the Canadiens' organization, moving to take over as general manager and head coach of their American Hockey League farm team, the Nova Scotia Voyageurs. MacNeil won three Calder Cup Championships (1972, 1976, 1977) in six years with the Voyageurs.

In 1971–72, he led the Voyageurs, also known as the Vees, to a 41–21–14 record and their first Calder Cup championship, earning the Louis A.R. Pieri Award as the league's outstanding coach. Nova Scotia returned to the Finals in 1973 and qualified for the playoffs again in 1974 and 1975 under MacNeil's direction.

MacNeil's Voyageurs posted two of the greatest back-to-back seasons in AHL history in 1975–76 and 1976–77, combining for 100 regular-season wins. MacNeil claimed it was his sweetest victory and this was the best team, on and off the ice, that he had had the honour of coaching. This squad's performance over the 1975–76 season allowed MacNeil win his second Pieri Award in 1976.

His Nova Scotia team had four 100-point campaigns in his six years as head coach. He was inducted into the Hall on February 12, 2014, at the AHL All-Star game festivities in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Canadiens executive After the 1976–77 AHL season, MacNeil's contract expired at the end of June, prompting interest from other NHL clubs to hire him as their coach. Punch Imlach, the general manager for the Buffalo Sabres made an offer of $100,000 for five years but MacNeil turned it down. On August 3, 1977, MacNeil signed a new contract with the Canadiens to stay in Halifax as general manager and coach, and play home games in the inaugural season of the new Halifax Metro Centre arena. Pollock then promoted MacNeil within the Canadiens organization, becoming the Director of Player Personnel in Montreal. He won two more Stanley Cups as a Canadiens executive in 1978 and 1979. A major change happened within the Canadiens' management when Pollock retired as general manager in September 1978, and was replaced by Irving Grundman, a Pollock protégé.

Atlanta/Calgary Flames On June 7, 1979, MacNeil resigned from his position with the Canadiens, and Flames general manager Cliff Fletcher introduced him to Atlanta's media as the successor to Fred Creighton as the third-ever head coach of the Atlanta Flames. He remained in that capacity through the franchise's move to Calgary. MacNeil won his fourth Stanley Cup in 1989 as Calgary's assistant general manager.

On December 10, 2001, the NHL suspended Greg Gilbert, the Flames head coach, for two games for his role in a brawl with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim on December 8, 2001. Gilbert was replaced by Al MacNeil, who then made his first appearance as an NHL head coach since April 1, 1982. The Flames played the Scotty Bowman-coached Detroit Red Wings in Calgary, and shut them out them 2–0. The game gave MacNeil his first victory in 19 years, eight months and nine days. The Flames took 25 days to replace Gilbert, and in that time they went 4–5–2 under MacNeil. That gave him a career NHL games coached win-loss-tie total record of 160–134–55, a figure that combines both regular season and playoff results.

MacNeil is a member of the American Hockey League Hall of Fame, the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame and the Cape Breton Sports Hall of Fame. MacNeil was honoured by his hometown when Cape Breton University bestowed him with an honorary Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) degree in 2011.

MacNeil died in Calgary on January 5, 2025, at the age of 89.

Career statistics Regular season and playoffs

Regular seasonPlayoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 1954–55 Toronto Marlboros OHA 47 3 16 19 0 — — — — — 1955–56 Toronto Marlboros OHA 48 9 12 21 0 — — — — — 1955–56 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 1 0 0 0 2 — — — — — 1956–57 Rochester Americans AHL 13 0 4 4 35 — — — — — 1956–57 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 53 4 8 12 84 — — — — — 1957–58 Rochester Americans AHL 54 3 18 21 91 — — — — — 1957–58 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 13 0 0 0 9 — — — — — 1958–59 Rochester Americans AHL 69 4 13 17 119 5 1 1 2 17 1959–60 Rochester Americans AHL 49 4 16 20 44 12 1 2 3 12 1959–60 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 4 0 0 0 2 — — — — — 1960–61 Hull-Ottawa Canadiens EPHL 60 6 20 26 101 14 2 4 6 21 1961–62 Montreal Canadiens NHL 61 1 7 8 74 5 0 0 0 2 1962–63 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 70 2 19 21 100 4 0 1 1 4 1963–64 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 70 5 19 24 91 7 0 2 2 25 1964–65 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 69 3 7 10 119 14 0 1 1 34 1965–66 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 51 0 1 1 34 3 0 0 0 0 1966–67 New York Rangers NHL 58 0 4 4 44 4 0 0 0 2 1967–68 Pittsburgh Penguins NHL 74 2 10 12 58 — — — — — 1968–69 Houston Apollos CHL 70 1 11 12 70 3 0 1 1 0 1969–70 Montreal Voyageurs AHL 66 0 10 10 14 8 0 1 1 0 NHL totals 524 17 75 92 617 37 0 4 4 67 Source: Hockey Reference