Binghamton Hockey Hall of Fame Articles: Leader role a natural fit for Laviolette
March 18, 2004

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Scott Lauber of Press Connects.com

Leader role a natural fit for Laviolette

Career in minors led to NHL coaching jobs, place in Binghamton Hall

BY SCOTT LAUBER

Press & Sun-Bulletin

BINGHAMTON -- As a 25-year-old playing with the Binghamton Rangers, Peter Laviolette's mind rarely strayed from the NHL and how best to get there.

He hardly considered coaching.

"I was still young enough that I was hanging on to the hope of becoming an NHL defenseman and making a career out of playing in the National Hockey League," said Laviolette, who skated here from 1990-92. "When you're hanging on to that hope, you're not really thinking of anything else.

"But when I got to Providence (in 1992-93), I'd more or less conceded that I was going to play in the minors. I had been around a few years, and not that I'd given up hope, but I wanted to go out and have fun. That's really when I started thinking seriously about coaching."

After more than a decade of kicking around the minors, coaching finally took Laviolette to the NHL in 2001 when the New York Islanders hired him to run their bench. Since then, he's moved on to the Carolina Hurricanes and developed a reputation as one of the league's best young coaches.

It's for that, as much as for his season as AHL Rangers' captain and his career as a steady minor-league defenseman, that Laviolette will be inducted Friday night into the Binghamton Hockey Hall of Fame with former Binghamton Whalers forward Bob Sullivan and former Whalers/Rangers medical trainer Jon Smith.

Binghamton Senators executive vice president Tom Mitchell will accept the honor for Laviolette while Sullivan's daughter, Jade, will do the same for her father.

Laviolette, 39, played in 115 games over two seasons in Binghamton and amassed 16 goals and 34 assists. But the Rangers never expected big offense from Laviolette, who played 12 games in New York in 1988-89 but never returned.

His greatest asset was an ability to lead, both by example and with his words.

"He was a real competitive guy and a team guy," said Binghamton Senators coach John Paddock, who guided the Rangers in 1990-91, Laviolette's first season here. "He was one to rally the team in the dressing room. He cared about the team, and he was a leader of our hockey club."

Added Smith, Laviolette's trainer with the Rangers, "You could tell that once he was finished as a player, he was going to be a coach. He knew the game so well. He had all the traits."

His first coaching experience came with the Boston Bruins' AHL affiliate. After signing with Boston before the 1992-93 season, Laviolette was sent down to Providence, less than 20 miles from his hometown of Franklin, Mass. He spent four seasons there, and in 1996-97, was named a player-assistant coach under bench boss Bob Francis.

"I had an injury that year, and I found myself in the coach's office a lot," Laviolette said. "That was really where the transition took place. I couldn't play, so I starting to learn a lot about coaching just by watching Bobby Francis."

Two years later, at age 34, he took over as Providence's coach and led the Bruins to a 56-16-4-4 regular-season record and an 11-3 march through the playoffs to the Calder Cup.

And it was hardly just beginner's luck.

"He was probably one of the better coaches I've had," said Senators defenseman Steve Bancroft, a member of that Providence team who has had many coaches in a 14-year career spent with 21 teams. "Peter was so well-prepared about everything that we knew exactly what other teams were going to do before they did it.

"We had one of the best teams to ever play in this league, and he had a lot to do with that."

Islanders general manager Mike Milbury concurred. Milbury, familiar with the Bruins' organization from his playing and coaching days, hired Laviolette, and the Islanders promptly made the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons.

Laviolette's two-year record on Long Island was 77-68-19 with back-to-back playoff appearances, but demands on NHL coaches are greater than that. And after the Isles limped into the playoffs last spring and were bounced in the first round by top-seeded Ottawa, Milbury replaced Laviolette with 54-year-old Steve Stirling, who had been coaching AHL Bridgeport.

Some in the hockey world were surprised by the dismissal. Laviolette wasn't among them.

"If you're a coach in the NHL, and you're fired, and you're shocked, you should have your head checked," Laviolette said. "Was I disappointed? Sure. We were somewhat successful in Long Island, but we didn't have the playoff run we were looking for, so they made a move."

It didn't take long for another club to move on Laviolette, who was hired in December by Carolina to replace coach Paul Maurice. The Hurricanes aren't going to make the playoffs, but entering the week, they were an improved 16-18-5-2 for Laviolette, a former defenseman whom everyone in Binghamton 14 years ago felt would make a good coach.

Even if he didn't feel the same way.

"I had lots of laughs and lots of good times in Binghamton," Laviolette said. "It's a privilege to have people look back and think of me in that kind of light that they'd put me in a hall of fame. Any time somebody acknowledges something you've done, it's special."