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Does one size fit all? Ducks hire Bryan Murray as head coach
Updated: Friday May 25, 2001 6:50 PM
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Bryan Murray is heading back to an NHL bench, hired to coach the Anaheim Mighty Ducks on Friday after serving as a general manager for most of the past decade. Murray, who quickly turned young teams into playoff participants when he coached at Washington and Detroit, replaces Guy Charron with the Ducks. Charron took over from Craig Hartsburg in December, then himself was fired by last-place Anaheim in April after the team finished its second-worst season -- 25-41-11-5 and last in the Western Conference. Murray "is a perfect fit for us at this time," said Pierre Gauthier, the Ducks' president and general manager. "Bryan combines enormous experience, a winning background, and an eagerness to work with young players that should assure us of continued growth and immediate success." The 58-year-old Murray is tied for seventh on the NHL's career coaching wins list with Pat Quinn. Murray, the Ducks' fifth head coach since they came into the league in 1993, has a career record of 484-368-123. He is eager to return to the ice and the bench as a coach after his GM stints. "In my heart, I'm a coach," Murray said at a news conference. "When you're the manager, you have to please everybody. When you're the coach, you only have to please some 20 players, and not all the time -- and win. "Having been a teacher and coach at different levels, being a coach is fun. When you can't play any more, it's the closest you can get to it." Murray most recently was the Florida Panthers' vice president and general manager from 1994-2001. He was their coach during the 1997-98 season. He was fired as the Panthers' GM on Dec. 28, along with coach Terry Murray, his brother. The Ducks haven't made the playoffs since 1998-99, when they were swept by Detroit in the first round. "I think there's a good core here," Murray said. "What they have is a star player [Paul Kariya], some other [forwards] and defensemen who have a good opportunity to improve, and they improved their goaltending late in the season." Murray joined the Panthers in 1994 and assembled the team that reached the Stanley Cup finals in just the third year of the club's existence. He was general manager of the Detroit Red Wings from 1990-94 and was their coach for the first three seasons. Before that he coached the Washington Capitals for 8 1/2 seasons.
He previously was athletic director and coach at McGill
University and coach of the WHL's Regina Pats and the AHL's Hershey
Bears.
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