Congrats Kelly McCrimmon (former hockey captain) 2023 Stanley Cup Champ
Was watching the Stanley Cup Finals last night when late in the 3rd period the announcers started talking about the Vegas Golden Knights General Manager, Kelly McCrimmon. They mentioned he had played college hockey at Michigan. He was the 1983-84 team co-captain his senior season (year before Red took over) where he graduated with a business degree. After Michigan he returned to Saskatchewan and ended up as an assistant coach with his former WHL (major junior) team the Brandon Wheat Kings. He quickly became GM and spent 26 seasons there also spending time as head coach and eventually sole owner of the team. The Wheat Kings have been one of the most successful CHL programs over this time. In 2016, he joined the expansion Vegas Golden Knights as assistant GM and then moved up to GM in 2019. He's now a Stanley Cup champion and one of the main architects of arguably the greatest expansion team in pro sports history. Congrats and Go Blue!
Wanted to add for Red Wings fans, Kelly is the younger brother of former Red Wings D-man and assistant coach Brad McCrimmon. As many know, Brad tragically passed away back in 2011 when the plane carrying the KHL Lokomotiv hockey team (Brad was head coach) crashed shortly after takeoff.
He was the 1983-84 team co-captain his senior season (year before Red took over) where he graduated with a business degree.
Would have played with XM then, right?
yes. nickname (not overly original, as with most) is/was 'krimmer'. good guy. we had some b-school classes together, too. barrel chest, no arms. yes, we teased him. his brother brad was an all-star. he was going to coach a russian team but died in a plane crash over there. tragic.
I just love that his captains picture on Bentley looks just like the man you see today… still has all that lettuce.
I feel bad as I did a double take when they mentioned him during the SCF broadcast as I didn’t recognize the name. But I was just a 3 year old kid from Ypsi when he was captain… it wasn’t until the 1987 season or so when my dad started taking me to games.
He was in Michigauma the year after me. Nickname was Tripod. LOL.
He did a heck of a job building that Cup-winning team. Solid, top to bottom. I believe there was one game they scored 7 goals and 13 different players had points.
Kind of reminds me of our football team this year. You look for the position group that could be trouble, that another team could exploit...can't find it. The only real question mark might be punter?
We should have great competition at every position all the way through fall camp, possibly into the first few games of the season.
Just got to stay healthy...
Thanks for posting. Go, Blue!
John Giordano’s last team. We had been in decline for a while, so we brought in Red. What people forget is it took Red 4 seasons to get the team above .500.
XM - long time reader. I hardly post. We may know each other. Kelly was a good friend at the B school, in addition to several others on the team at that time ( Demar in particular).
would be great to touch base