On Friday, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that Craig Berube would be the club’s new head coach after dismissing Sheldon Keefe following their first-round exit to the Boston Bruins:
Berube, who was fired by the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 14 during his sixth season with the club, helped the organization win their first Stanley Cup back in 2019.
But before Berube became a coach in the NHL, he was a player in the league.
And it wasn’t just a cup of coffee for Berube. It was a 17-year career spanning 1,054 games.
Points were not his cup of tea, with 61 goals and 98 assists for 159 points.
His 159 points are the fewest among players to have played in 1,000 games.
What was his cup of tea was racking up penalty minutes, with 3,149, averaging 2.98 per game.
That is the seventh-most penalty minutes in a career.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeKGuYo9AII[/embed]
His NHL career landing spots were a tad weird. He played his first seven ,seasons in Philadelphia, a quarter of a season in Toronto, two seasons in Calgary, and five in Washington, D.C.
Then Berube went back to Philadelphia for two years before returning to Washington, D.C.
But wait, there’s more.
Berube was traded three times in just over seven months following the 1990-91 season, the first sending him in a package to Edmonton for a package in return, which included Jari Kurri.
The fist-throwing forward's final two years in the league came as a member of the Flames, calling it a career following the 2002-03 season.
But there was one another team he played for in his career and that was the New York Islanders.
With Eric Cairns banged up from a previous fight, the Islanders needed an enforcer, so they acquired a 35-year-old Berube on Jan. 10, 2001, for the Canucks' 2021 ninth-round pick,
Do you know who his coach was on Long Island?
Butch Goring.
In 38 games donning the blue and orange, Berube recorded two assists with 54 penalty minutes.