Harry Sinden

Harry James Sinden (born September 14, 1932) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and executive. He served as a coach, general manager, and team president for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL), and was the coach of Team Canada during the 1972 Summit Series. He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame in the builders category. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in its inaugural class of 1997.

Playing career Sinden played defence for the Toronto Marlboros bantams before moving up to the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey Association for junior hockey. He played in Oshawa from 1949 to 1953, and then for six seasons in the OHA senior division with the Whitby Dunlops. He was team captain when the Dunlops won the Allan Cup in 1957, and then the 1958 Ice Hockey World Championships for Canada in Oslo, Norway. He led Dunlops to another Allan Cup in 1959 also winning a silver medal as a member of the Canadian national men's hockey team at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California. The core of the team was the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen, with Sinden one of four players from the Dunlops added to the lineup to strengthen the team for the Olympics.

Near the end of the season, the Montreal Canadiens placed Sinden on their negotiation list but didn't reach an agreement with him. After playing some games with the Hull-Ottawa Canadiens in the Eastern Professional Hockey League he met Lynn Patrick, general manager of the Boston Bruins, who signed him as a player – assistant coach for the Kingston Frontenacs, the Bruins' EPHL affiliate, starting in 1960–61. He was named a first-team all-star and In 1962 he was named the league’s top defenseman (an honor shared with Jean Gauthier) for the 1961–62 season. The next season he kept up his great play repeating as the leagues top defensive player along with being named league MVP for 1962–63. Sinden also helped lead the team to the league title that year. After the league folded, the team became the Minneapolis Bruins of the Central Hockey League for the 1963–64 season with Sinden as player-coach. After two seasons the team moved again, becoming the Oklahoma City Blazers, where Sinden finished his playing career in 1965–66 after six seasons with the franchise. In that final season, he coached the team to the league championship.

Coaching in the NHL In May 1966, Sinden moved up to the NHL as head coach of the Boston Bruins. At 33

Sinden maintained a tape-recorded diary throughout the series which was turned into a book, Hockey Showdown, published in 1972.

In 2012 Sinden’s name was inshrined on the Canada walk of fame as a member of the 1972 Summit series team.

Returns to the Bruins

Within days after the Summit Series, he signed a five-year deal to return to the Bruins as their general manager, His 28-year tenure almost equalled the 30-year reign (1924–54) of Art Ross, the team's founding manager. Sinden, who had added the title of club president in December 1988, remained as the chief executive of the Bruins until the summer of 2006 when he retired to a consulting role.

As general manager of the Bruins, Sinden presided over the team's long years of consistent success, setting the North American major professional record for most consecutive seasons in the playoffs with 29, which included making the finals five times (1974, 1977, 1978, 1988, 1990 — losing the finals each time) and two regular-season first-place finishes (1983, 1990). With the Bruins, he became the first NHL general manager to reach 1,000 wins, setting the milestone on October 17, 1995. He finished with a impressive all time record of 1170-763-301, with a .591 winning percentage.

He was named executive of the year by Sporting News twice in 1977 and 1990.

Notwithstanding this longstanding success, he was the subject of controversies ranging from video replays to salary arbitration and was under frequent fire from Bruin fans. In the 1996–97 season, the NHL fined him $5,000 USD for verbal abuse of a video-replay official who had disallowed a goal in the second period of a game between the Bruins and the Ottawa Senators. He also refused to honor a salary-arbitration award and let Dmitri Khristich, a 29-goal scorer, leave the team without compensation. He had been highly critical of Khristich's performance in the playoffs and was angered when an arbitrator awarded him a salary of $2.8 million.

He was inducted into the Canada sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

Sinden is currently the Bruins' Senior Advisor to the Owner, as well as a former member of the selection committee for the Hockey Hall of Fame. He is also a "Hockey GM & Scouting" instructor for the online sports-career training school Sports Management Worldwide, founded and run by Dr. Lynn Lashbrook. In 2011, his name was inscribed on the Stanley Cup for a second time, 41 years after his first Stanley Cup title as a coach.

Sinden has served as an integral member of the Bruins organization for over 60 years. He still regularly appears at alumni events, Bruins ceremonies, and charity causes. In 2024, he was honored during the teams centennial festivities as a team legend.

Awards and achievements As a player

Allan Cup champion 2x (1957 and 1959) Gold Medal at the 1958 Ice Hockey World Championships Silver medal as a member of the Canadian national men's hockey team at the 1960 Winter Olympics EPHL Defensive player of the year 2x (1962 and 1963) EPHL League MVP (1963) EPHL League championship (1963) Adams Cup champion (1966) (Sinden served as a player coach role during the season)

As a coach/executive

Stanley Cup champion 2x (1970 as a coach) (2011 as a executive) Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983 Inducted as a inaugural member of IIHF Hall of Fame in 1997 Inducted in the Whitby sports Hall of Fame in 1998. Lester Patrick Trophy 1999 Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame 2005 Inducted into the Canada sports Hall of Fame in 2005

Career coaching record Team Year Regular season Postseason G W L T Pts Finish W L Win % Result BOS 1966–67 70 17 43 10 44 6th in NHL Missed playoffs BOS 1967–68 74 37 27 10 84 3rd in East 0 4 Lost in quarterfinals (MTL) BOS 1968–69 76 42 18 16 100 2nd in East 6 4 Lost in semifinals (MTL) BOS 1969–70 76 40 17 19 99 2nd in East 12 2 Won Stanley Cup (STL) BOS 1979–80 7 6 0 1 (13) 2nd in Adams 4 6 Lost in quarterfinals (NYI) BOS 1984–85 24 11 10 3 (25) 4th in Adams 23 Lost in quarterfinals (MTL) Total 327 153 116 58 24 19 5 playoff appearances1 Stanley Cup title

Playing career statistics

Personal life Sinden and his wife, Eleanor, have four daughters and reside in Winchester, Massachusetts. He was the godfather of Canadian rock musician Gord Downie, the late lead singer of The Tragically Hip. Sinden was played by Ian Tracy in "Keep Your Head Up, Kid: The Don Cherry Story", a television special by CBC based on the life of coach and sports commentator Don Cherry.