Claude Lemieux

Claude Percy Lemieux (born July 16, 1965) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey player. He last played for the San Jose Sharks before announcing his retirement on July 8, 2009. He is one of only 11 players in Stanley Cup history to win the Cup with three or more different teams.[1] His 80 career playoff goals are the ninth-most in NHL history. Lemieux is also a former president of the ECHL's Phoenix RoadRunners. He is also the father of New York Rangers forward Brendan Lemieux.

Claude Lemieux
Born (1965-07-16) July 16, 1965
Buckingham, Quebec, Canada
Height 6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Weight 215 lb (98 kg; 15 st 5 lb)
Position Right Wing
Shot Right
Played for Montreal Canadiens
New Jersey Devils
Colorado Avalanche
Phoenix Coyotes
Dallas Stars
San Jose Sharks
NHL Draft 26th overall, 1983
Montreal Canadiens
Playing career 1983–2003
2008–2009

Lemieux was born in Buckingham, Quebec, but grew up in Mont-Laurier.

He is infamous for an incident on May 29, 1996, in which he checked Detroit Red Wings Kris Draper into the boards from behind, breaking Draper's orbital, cheek and jaw bones, and the resulting subsequent confrontations with Darren McCarty during the 1996–97 and 1997–98 seasons.

Playing career

NHL

Lemieux was drafted in the second round of the 1983 NHL Entry Draft by the Montreal Canadiens. He played with the Canadiens from 1983–1990, winning the Stanley Cup with the team in 1986.

In September 1990, Lemieux was traded to the New Jersey Devils for Sylvain Turgeon. Lemieux won his second Stanley Cup in 1995 as New Jersey defeated the Detroit Red Wings. Completing the post-season with 13 goals, he also won the Conn Smythe Trophy that year as the playoff MVP.

Shortly before the beginning of the 1995–96 season, Lemieux was traded to the Colorado Avalanche in a three-team deal that also involved Wendel Clark and Steve Thomas. When the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 1996, Lemieux became the tenth player to win back-to-back Stanley Cups with different teams.[2]

In November 1999, Lemieux was traded back to New Jersey in a deal that sent Brian Rolston to Colorado. He won his fourth and final Stanley Cup with the Devils in 2000. In that off-season, Lemieux signed as a free agent with the Phoenix Coyotes.

In January 2003, the Coyotes traded him to the Dallas Stars for Scott Pellerin and a conditional draft pick. Lemieux ended his NHL playing career with Dallas at the conclusion of the 2002–03 season. He played briefly the following season for EV Zug of the Swiss Nationalliga A.

Retirement

In 2005, Lemieux became president of the ECHL incarnation of the Phoenix RoadRunners until resigning in 2007. In 2007, Lemieux took part in the second season of the Spike TV television show Pros vs. Joes. In October 2009, Lemieux began competing as a pairs figure skater on the CBC Television reality show Battle of the Blades with Shae-Lynn Bourne. For one of their routines, the pair skated to Lemieux's recorded version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, which he sang as a duet with Kathryn Rose.

2008 comeback

In September 2008, on RDS, Lemieux expressed an interest in making a comeback to the NHL. He began the season with the China Sharks of the Asia League Ice Hockey before signing a contract with the Worcester Sharks on November 25.[3] After scoring 2 goals and 6 points in 14 games with Worcester, Lemieux signed a two-way contract with the San Jose Sharks on December 29, 2008.[4] The following day, he cleared waivers and continued to play for Worcester.[5] On January 19, 2009, the San Jose Sharks recalled Lemieux to the NHL and, on February 19, he recorded the first (and only) NHL point of his comeback, assisting on Milan Michalek's second-period goal against the Los Angeles Kings.

Playing style and criticism

Throughout his career, Lemieux was noted for playing his best games during the postseason. Once Lemieux was called up to the NHL for good during the 1985-86 season he played in 15 consecutive postseasons. In his career, starting with the 1986 playoffs, he played in the postseason 18 different years, missing only the 2001 playoffs while with the Phoenix Coyotes. Lemieux played in 234 playoff games, which is fourth all-time in the NHL.[6] On three occasions, he scored more goals during the playoffs than he did during the regular season (1985–86 with Montreal, 1994–95 with New Jersey, and 1996–97 with Colorado). Lemieux retired with 80 career playoff goals, ninth all-time in the NHL.

Despite his playoff success, Lemieux also had a reputation as one of the league's hated and dirtiest players; in fact, a recent TSN special entitled "The Top 10 Most Hated NHL Players of All Time" ranked him second, behind only Sean Avery. While playing for Montreal, during a playoff game against the Calgary Flames, Lemieux bit Calgary's Jim Peplinski on the finger during a scuffle, prompting the Calgary winger to say, "I didn't know they allowed cannibalism in the NHL."

Hit on Kris Draper

Lemieux's title of being a dirty player was solidified in a 1996 incident with the Avalanche when Lemieux checked Kris Draper of the Detroit Red Wings into the boards from behind during a playoff series. Draper suffered a concussion, broken jaw, broken nose and broken cheekbone, all of which all led to Draper having reconstructive surgery on his face and having his jaw wired shut for several weeks. This incident is generally believed to have sparked a bitter rivalry between the two teams. Unhappy with his actions, the NHL suspended him two games, despite outcry from some fans who felt that Lemieux deserved a harsher penalty. Red Wings player Dino Ciccarelli said after the series "I can't believe I shook this guy's friggin' hand after the game. That pisses me right off".

Tensions between the two teams would continue to rise, reaching a breaking point the next season. During a fight in the infamous Red Wings–Avalanche brawl, Wings forward Darren McCarty engaged Lemieux shortly after a fight started by Peter Forsberg with Igor Larionov had stopped play. McCarty came at Lemieux from the side while Lemieux was watching the Forsberg/Larionov fight. McCarty threw one punch to an unsuspecting Lemieux, who “turtled” on the ice, and was badly beaten before the officials could remove McCarty from him. McCarty was assessed a double minor for roughing. Several fights erupted around the two as both teams, including the goalies, fought. In the next regular season game between the teams, Lemieux switched sides on the opening face off to line up across from McCarty. He challenged him face to face, and the two had their second fight.

International play
Medal record
Representing  Canada
Ice hockey
World Cup
1996 Canada
Canada Cup
1987 Canada
World Junior Championships
1985 Canada

Lemieux represented Canada three times in international competitions over the course of his career. He made his first international appearance as a member of the Canadian national junior team at the 1985 World Junior Championships in Helsinki, Finland. Lemieux finished the tournament with 3 goals and 2 assist in 6 games to help Canada win its second World Junior gold medal. Lemieux was also a member of the 1987 Canada Cup winning team where he tallied 2 points in 6 games. His final appearance in international play came when he was selected to the Team Canada roster for the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. Lemieux picked up 19 penalty minutes in the eight games as Canada finished second.

Personal life

Lemieux was born in Buckingham, Quebec and resides in Huntington Beach, California.

Lemieux is the older brother of former NHL forward Jocelyn Lemieux. Lemieux has another brother, Serge, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Despite his surname, he is not related to hockey great Mario Lemieux.

Lemieux has four children between two marriages; three sons and a daughter. One of his sons, Brendan is a forward for the New York Rangers.

Lemieux became a naturalized U.S. citizen on 26 June 2009.[7]

Since his retirement from the NHL, Lemieux was often a guest of TSN's Off the Record with Michael Landsberg, sharing his personal insight of his playing days in the NHL.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs
Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1981–82Richelieu ÉclaireursQMAAA4824487296810132314
1982–83Trois-Rivières DraveursQMJHL62283866187410130
1983–84Montreal CanadiensNHL811212—————
1983–84Verdun JuniorsQMJHL5141458622598122063
1983–84Nova Scotia VoyageursAHL—————21016
1983–84Verdun JuniorsMC—————31342
1984–85Montreal CanadiensNHL10117—————
1984–85Verdun Junior CanadiensQMJHL5258661241521423174038
1985–86Sherbrooke CanadiensAHL58213253145—————
1985–86Montreal CanadiensNHL1012322201061668
1986–87Montreal CanadiensNHL7627265315617491341
1987–88Montreal CanadiensNHL783130611371132520
1988–89Montreal CanadiensNHL692922511361843758
1989–90Montreal CanadiensNHL39810181061113438
1990–91New Jersey DevilsNHL78301747105740434
1991–92New Jersey DevilsNHL74412768109743726
1992–93New Jersey DevilsNHL77305181155520219
1993–94New Jersey DevilsNHL7918264486207111844
1994–95New Jersey DevilsNHL456131986201331620
1995–96Colorado AvalancheNHL7939327111719571255
1996–97Colorado AvalancheNHL45111728431713102332
1997–98Colorado AvalancheNHL7826275311573368
1998–99Colorado AvalancheNHL82272451102193111426
1999–2000Colorado AvalancheNHL133694—————
1999–2000New Jersey DevilsNHL701721388623461028
2000–01Phoenix CoyotesNHL4610162658—————
2001–02Phoenix CoyotesNHL821625417050002
2002–03Phoenix CoyotesNHL36681430—————
2002–03Dallas StarsNHL3224614701110
2003–04EV ZugNLA7235451348
2008–09China SharksALH20114—————
2008–09Worcester SharksAHL23381124—————
2008–09San Jose SharksNHL180112110000
NHL totals 1215 379 407 786 1777 234 80 78 158 529

International
Year Team Event   GP G A Pts PIM
1985 Canada WJC 6 3 2 5 6
1987 Canada CC 6 1 1 2 4
1996 Canada WCH 8 1 1 2 19
Junior totals 6 3 2 5 6
Senior totals 14 2 2 4 23

Awards and achievements

Transactions
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gollark: Did someone already suggest a rolling average sort of thing?
gollark: Hmmm, that does sound like a hard problem.
gollark: But there may be a better approach for your particular problem, so what is it for exactly?
gollark: The Σ bits are just "sum of", which are really easy to implement with for loops.

See also
  • Notable families in the NHL

References
  1. "Players on Stanley-Cup Winning Teams". Retrieved 2010-04-13.
  2. http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=25429
  3. "Worcester Sharks sign Claude Lemieux to an AHL Contract". Worcester Sharks. 2008-11-25. Archived from the original on 2012-02-19. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-01-01. Retrieved 2008-12-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-01-08. Retrieved 2008-12-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. http://www.nhl.com/ice/careerstats.htm?fetchKey=00003ALLSAHAll&sort=gamesPlayed&viewName=careerLeadersAllSeasons
  7. "Lemieux becomes American citizen". The Modesto Bee. 2009-06-26. Archived from the original on June 28, 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-05.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Brian Leetch		 Winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy
1995		 Succeeded by
Joe Sakic
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