Jeff Reese

Jeffrey K. Reese (born March 24, 1966) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played eleven seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, Hartford Whalers, Tampa Bay Lightning and New Jersey Devils. He has been the Dallas Stars' goaltending coach since 2015 and was the goaltending coach for the Lightning from 2001 to 2009 and for the Philadelphia Flyers from 2009 to March 2015.

Playing career The Toronto Maple Leafs drafted Reese in the fourth round, 67th overall, of the 1984 NHL entry draft from the London Knights. He spent four seasons with the Knights before turning pro with the Maple Leafs' American Hockey League farm team, the Newmarket Saints, in 1986.

Toronto Maple Leafs During his second season as a pro he made his NHL debut when he was called up to Toronto and appeared in five games. The following year he doubled his totals playing ten games with the Leafs and 37 more with Newmarket. In 1989–90 he logged 21 games with the Maple Leafs sharing duties with Allan Bester and Mark Laforest. The following season he upped his totals to 30 games backing up rookie Peter Ing who won the starting job in Toronto. A year later, the Maple Leafs made a blockbuster trade to bring in Hall of Famer Grant Fuhr to handle the goaltending duties (with Ing part of the package leaving town) allowing Reese to apprentice in the crease behind Fuhr but it was a short lived arrangement because Reese himself was soon part of an enormous trade. On January 2, 1992, Reese was included in a ten-player trade that also sent Craig Berube, Alexander Godynyuk, Gary Leeman and Michel Petit to the Calgary Flames in exchange for Doug Gilmour, Jamie Macoun, Kent Manderville, Ric Nattress and Rick Wamsley.

Calgary Flames With the Flames, Reese became the backup to incumbent Mike Vernon and parts of three seasons in Calgary and played 26 games in 1992–93 posting an impressive 14-4-1 record. The highlight of his time in Calgary came on February 10, 1993, when he entered the NHL record book by posting three assists in a 13-1 Flames victory. With the emergence of first round draft pick Trevor Kidd in the Flames net, Reese was out of a job and found himself on the move early in the 1993–94 season when Calgary traded him to the Hartford Whalers in exchange for defenseman Dan Keczmer.

Hartford Whalers In Hartford, he was acquired to back up Sean Burke. When Burke struggled with back issues, Reese and goaltender Frank Pietrangelo each logged 19 games in the Hartford crease. Much like in Calgary before, the emergence of a younger netminder - this time Jason Muzzatti - pushed him out and led to a trade to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Tampa Bay Lightning Tampa Bay had a solid starting goalie in Daren Puppa but his backup, Jean-Claude Bergeron was struggling for the Lightning so the veteran Reese took over the duties and acquitted himself well with a 7-7-1 record in 19 appearances. During the off-season, he was on the move again when he was sent to New Jersey in a swap for goaltender Corey Schwab.

New Jersey Devils With the Devils, Reese was slotted behind Martin Brodeur but quickly lost his backup job to rookie Mike Dunham and instead spent the majority of the 1996–97 season with the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League, splitting time with starting goaltender Rich Parent. The duo combined to win the James Norris Memorial Trophy, allowing the fewest goals in the league. The Vipers went on to win the 1997 Turner Cup. Reese was the starting goaltender for the Vipers during the 1997–98 season. He was named to the All-IHL Second Team in both 1997 and 1998.

Return to the Toronto Maple Leafs As an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 1998, Reese's career went full-circle when he signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs organization. The Maple Leafs signed goaltender Curtis Joseph that summer as well and had planned to deal incumbent Felix Potvin away, but when that trade did not transpire, that started the season with both Joseph and Potvin on the roster pushing Reese down to the minors. He would play his final two NHL games with the Maple Leafs while also playing 27 games with the St. John's Maple Leafs of the American Hockey League. He was traded back to Tampa Bay in the off-season so they would have a veteran goalie to expose in the 1999 NHL Expansion Draft. He was not selected by the Atlanta Thrashers and retired that summer.

Coaching career After retiring Reese worked as a goalie coach with the Lightning organization and won the Stanley Cup with them in 2004. On June 25, 2009, he was hired by the Philadelphia Flyers as their goalie coach, replacing Réjean Lemelin. On March 6, 2015, Reese and the Flyers management mutually agreed to part ways. On June 15, 2015, he joined the Dallas Stars as their goaltending coach.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs Regular season Playoffs Season Team League GP W L T MIN GA SO GAA SV% GP W L MIN GA SO GAA SV% 1983–84 London Knights OHL 43 18 19 1 2038 173 0 4.50 — 6 3 3 327 27 0 4.95 — 1984–85 London Knights OHL 50 31 51 1 2878 186 1 3.88 — 8 5 2 440 25 1 2.73 — 1985–86 London Knights OHL 57 25 26 3 3281 215 0 3.93 .891 5 0 4 299 25 0 5.02 — 1986–87 Newmarket Saints AHL 50 11 29 0 2822 193 1 4.10 .833 — — — — — — — — 1987–88 Newmarket Saints AHL 28 10 14 3 1587 103 0 3.89 .880 — — — — — — — — 1987–88 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 5 1 2 1 249 17 0 4.10 .867 — — — — — — — — 1988–89 Newmarket Saints AHL 37 17 14 3 2072 132 0 3.82 .882 — — — — — — — — 1988–89 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 10 2 6 1 487 40 0 4.94 .860 — — — — — — — — 1989–90 Newmarket Saints AHL 7 3 2 2 431 29 0 4.04 .888 — — — — — — — — 1989–90 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 21 9 6 3 1102 81 0 4.41 .871 2 1 1 109 6 0 3.33 .880 1990–91 Newmarket Saints AHL 3 2 1 0 180 7 0 2.33 .922 — — — — — — — — 1990–91 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 30 6 13 3 1430 92 1 3.86 .868 — — — — — — — — 1991–92 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 8 1 5 1 414 20 1 2.90 .905 — — — — — — — — 1991–92 Calgary Flames NHL 26 14 4 1 1311 70 1 3.20 .889 — — — — — — — — 1992–93 Calgary Flames NHL 12 3 2 2 588 37 0 3.78 .872 4 1 3 209 17 0 4.88 .813 1993–94 Calgary Flames NHL 1 0 0 0 14 1 0 4.52 .800 — — — — — — — — 1993–94 Hartford Whalers NHL 19 5 9 3 1086 56 1 3.09 .893 — — — — — — — — 1994–95 Hartford Whalers NHL 11 2 5 1 478 26 1 3.27 .889 — — — — — — — — 1995–96 Hartford Whalers NHL 7 2 3 0 275 14 1 3.06 .918 — — — — — — — — 1995–96 Tampa Bay Lightning NHL 19 7 7 1 994 54 0 3.26 .884 5 1 1 198 12 0 3.64 .880 1996–97 Detroit Vipers IHL 32 23 4 3 1763 14 4 1.87 .926 11 7 3 518 22 0 2.55 .926 1996–97 New Jersey Devils NHL 3 0 2 0 275 13 0 5.62 .800 — — — — — — — — 1997–98 Detroit Vipers IHL 46 27 9 8 2570 95 4 2.22 .917 22 13 9 1276 52 2 2.44 .913 1998–99 St. John's Maple Leafs AHL 27 17 7 3 1555 66 0 2.55 .921 3 1 1 142 8 0 3.39 .884 1998–99 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 2 1 1 0 107 8 0 4.51 .843 — — — — — — — — NHL totals 174 53 65 17 4380 529 5 3.66 .879 11 3 5 516 35 0 4.08 .855