Jim Montgomery (ice hockey)

James Peter Montgomery (born June 30, 1969) is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player. He currently serves as an assistant coach for the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL). During his playing career he played in the NHL with the St. Louis Blues, Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks, and Dallas Stars.

Jim Montgomery
Born	June 30, 1969 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Height	5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Weight	170 lb (77 kg; 12 st 2 lb)
Position	Centre
Shot	Right
Played for	St. Louis Blues Montreal Canadiens Philadelphia Flyers San Jose Sharks Dallas Stars
NHL Draft	Undrafted
Playing career	1993–2005

Biographical details
Alma mater	Maine
Playing career
1989–1993	Maine
Position(s)	Center
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2005–2006	Notre Dame (assistant)
2006–2010	Rensselaer (assistant)
2010–2013	Dubuque Fighting Saints
2013–2018	Denver
2018–2019	Dallas Stars
2020-Present	St. Louis Blues (assistant)
Head coaching record
Overall	125–57–26 (.663)
Tournaments	8–5
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
2011 Clark Cup 2013 Anderson Cup 2013 Clark Cup 2014 NCHC Tournament Champion 2017 NCHC Regular Season Champion 2017 NCAA National Champion 2018 NCHC Tournament Champion

Playing career

Montgomery was undrafted out of high school, therefore he joined the University of Maine and played 4 years with the team, winning numerous awards and establishing himself as one of the best prospects in hockey. Most notably he was named an All-Star 3 years (1991, 1992, 1993) and was named NCAA Tournament Championship MVP when he captained Maine to a record of 42–1–2 and the 1993 National Championship. His three third-period goals lifted the Black Bears to a 5-4 comeback win over Lake Superior State in the title game. Montgomery finished his career at Maine as the school's all-time leading scoring with 301 points on 103 goals and 198 assists. His number 19 was retired by Maine, one of three players who have that honour,[1] the others being Hobey Baker Award winners Scott Pellerin (#8), and Paul Kariya (#9).

Following college, Montgomery was signed by the St. Louis Blues. For the 1993–94 season he skated in 67 contests and scored 20 points, both NHL career highs. Following the season the highly touted Montgomery was traded to the Montreal Canadiens for Guy Carbonneau. For the 1994–95 season however things did not work out and after just 5 games Montgomery was released by the Canadiens.[2] Later in the year he was signed by the Philadelphia Flyers and skated in 8 regular season contests and 7 playoff contests with the Flyers. Montgomery is credited with nicknaming the dominant line of John LeClair, Eric Lindros, and Mikael Renberg the "Legion of Doom".[3] The 1995–96 season saw Montgomery play only 5 games with the Flyers but he had a career year with the Flyers minor league affiliate Hershey Bears of the AHL. He scored 105 points in 78 games and was named to the AHL Second All-Star Team.

It would be another 4 years before Montgomery would return to the NHL. He played in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) in Germany for the 1996–97 season, followed by two full years with the Philadelphia Phantoms. For The 1999–2000 season Montgomery played part of the year with the Phantoms and spent the majority of the year with the Manitoba Moose.

In 2000, Montgomery was signed by the San Jose Sharks. He played the majority of the 2000–01 season with the Kentucky Thoroughblades but also skated in 28 games with the Sharks. The following year he was signed by the Dallas Stars and played 9 games with the team over two years, spending most of his time with the Utah Grizzlies. Montgomery then played one year in Russia and one year with the Missouri River Otters before retiring in 2005.

Career statistics

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1988–89	Pembroke Lumber Kings	CCHL		50	53	101	154	112		—	—	—	—	—
1989–90	University of Maine	HE		45	26	34	60	35		—	—	—	—	—
1990–91	University of Maine	HE		43	24	57	81	44		—	—	—	—	—
1991–92	University of Maine	HE		37	21	44	65	46		—	—	—	—	—
1992–93	University of Maine	HE		45	32	63	95	40		—	—	—	—	—
1993–94	St. Louis Blues	NHL		67	6	14	20	44		—	—	—	—	—
1993–94	Peoria Rivermen	IHL		12	7	8	15	10		—	—	—	—	—
1994–95	Montreal Canadiens	NHL		5	0	0	0	2		—	—	—	—	—
1994–95	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		8	1	1	2	6		7	1	0	1	2
1994–95	Hershey Bears	AHL		16	8	6	14	14		6	3	2	5	25
1995–96	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		5	1	2	3	9		1	0	0	0	0
1995–96	Hershey Bears	AHL		78	34	71	105	95		4	3	2	5	6
1996–97	Kölner Haie	DEL		50	12	35	47	11		4	0	1	1	6
1997–98	Philadelphia Phantoms	AHL		68	19	43	62	75		20	13	16	29	55
1998–99	Philadelphia Phantoms	AHL		78	29	58	87	89		16	4	11	15	20
1999–2000	Philadelphia Phantoms	AHL		13	3	9	12	22		—	—	—	—	—
1999–2000	Manitoba Moose	AHL		67	18	28	46	111		—	—	—	—	—
2000–01	San Jose Sharks	NHL		28	1	6	7	19		—	—	—	—	—
2000–01	Kentucky Thoroughblades	IHL		55	22	52	74	44		3	1	2	3	5
2001–02	Dallas Stars	NHL		8	0	2	2	0		—	—	—	—	—
2001–02	Utah Grizzlies	AHL		71	28	43	71	90		5	0	1	1	23
2002–03	Dallas Stars	NHL		1	0	0	0	0		—	—	—	—	—
2002–03	Utah Grizzlies	AHL		72	22	46	68	109		2	0	0	0	2
2003–04	Salavat Yulaev Ufa	RSL		20	0	7	7	10		—	—	—	—	—
2004–05	Missouri River Otters	UHL		42	20	27	47	64		3	0	0	0	0
NHL totals				122	9	25	34	80		8	1	0	1	2
AHL totals				451	165	328	493	538		56	24	34	58	136

Coaching career

Montgomery was an assistant coach for Notre Dame for the 2005–06 season. In 2006, Montgomery began a four-year stint as assistant coach at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. On April 12, 2010, he was named head coach of the United States Hockey League (USHL) expansion franchise Dubuque Fighting Saints. In the team's first year, Montgomery guided the Fighting Saints to a 37–14–9 record and the 2010–11 USHL championship with a three games to one victory over the Green Bay Gamblers. He went on to win the Clark Cup again during the 2012–13 season. In 2013, Montgomery was signed by University of Denver as head coach of their Pioneers men's ice hockey team and led them to a berth in the NCAA Tournament. He led the Pioneers to the 2016 Frozen Four. In 2017, his fourth year as the head coach of the Pioneers, he led them to the National Championship game after establishing them as the first-seeded team in the country for the majority of the season.[4] In 2016–17 season he was named the Spencer Penrose national coach of the year.[5][6]

On May 4, 2018, Montgomery was named as the head coach of the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL).[7] He led the Stars to their first playoff appearance in three years.

On December 10, 2019, the Stars fired Montgomery for "unprofessional conduct inconsistent with the core values and beliefs of the Dallas Stars and the National Hockey League."[8] At a press conference, general manager Jim Nill said the situation had come to light the previous weekend, and involved "a material act of unprofessionalism" egregious enough to demand Montgomery's immediate firing. He did not offer specifics "out of respect for everyone involved," only saying that it did not involve abuse of players or criminal conduct.[9] Rick Bowness, who joined the team a month after Montgomery's hiring in May 2018, was named interim coach, while Derek Laxdal (who was the head coach of the Texas Stars at the time) would be promoted to the assistant coaching position that was vacated by Bowness.[10]

According to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, Montgomery was fired for "a personal behaviour issue," and the Stars were not divulging details to protect the privacy of both the whistleblower and Montgomery's family.[11] Montgomery told WFAA in Dallas that "there will be a time" when he speaks about the circumstances that led to his firing.[12]

On January 3, 2020, Montgomery announced that he had checked himself into rehab to deal with alcohol abuse. He said that the Stars had made "an appropriate call" in firing him, and that his ouster made him realize he was living a "damaging lifestyle."[13] On January 7, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Montgomery was fired in part due to concerns about his drinking. Nill had reportedly confronted Montgomery on numerous occasions about drinking in public. The Stars had been aware of Montgomery's history with alcohol; he had been arrested for DUI in 2008 during his time at RPI.[14]

On September 16, 2020, the St. Louis Blues announced they had signed Montgomery to a two-year contract serving as assistant coach to Craig Berube.[15]

Head coaching record

NHL

Team	Year	Regular season						Postseason
		G	W	L	OTL	Pts	Finish	W	L	Win%	Result
DAL	2018–19	82	43	32	7	93	4th in Central	7	6	.538	Lost in Second Round
DAL	2019–20	31	17	11	3	(37)	(fired)	—	—	—	—
Total		113	60	43	10			7	6	.538

NCAA

Statistics overview

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Denver Pioneers (National Collegiate Hockey Conference) (2013–2018)
2013–14	Denver	20–16–6	14–12–3	6th	NCAA Northeast Regional Semifinals
2014–15	Denver	24–14–2	16–11–1	4th	NCAA East Regional Final
2015–16	Denver	25–10–6	19–6–3	3rd	NCAA Frozen Four
2016–17	Denver	33–7–4	18–3–3	1st	NCAA Champion
2017–18	Denver	23–10–8	12–6–6	2nd	NCAA Midwest Regional Final
Denver:		125–57–26	79–38–16
Total:		125–57–26
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

USHL

Team	Year	Regular season						Postseason
		G	W	L	OTL	Pts	Finish	W	L	Win%	Result
DBQ	2010–11	60	37	14	9	83	1st in Western Conference	9	2	.818	Won Clark Cup
DBQ	2011–12	60	36	20	4	76	3rd in Eastern Conference	2	3	.400	Lost in Conference Semifinals
DBQ	2012–13	64	45	11	8	98	1st in Eastern Conference	9	2	.818	Won Clark Cup
Total		184	118	45	21	257		20	7	74

Awards and honours

Award	Year
All-Hockey East Rookie Team	1989–90
All-Hockey East Second Team	1990–91
AHCA East Second-Team All-American	1990–91
All-Hockey East Second Team	1991–92
Hockey East All-Tournament Team	1992	[16]
All-Hockey East First Team	1992–93
AHCA East Second-Team All-American	1992–93
Hockey East All-Tournament Team	1993	[16]
All-NCAA All-Tournament Team	1993	[17]

• 1996: AHL Second All-Star Team

References

1. "Jim Montgomery". denverpioneers.com. Archived from the original on June 30, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
2. Cowan, Stu (August 19, 2014). "Marking the 20th anniversary of Habs trading captain Carbonneau". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
3. Meltzer, Bill (November 11, 2006). "Legion of the Doomed". Inside Hockey. Archived from the original on December 6, 2010. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
4. Maiman, Beth (April 8, 2017). "Frozen Four: Denver beats Minnesota Duluth 3-2 to win first NCAA hockey title since 2005". NCAA.com. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
5. "Denver's Jim Montgomery is CCM/AHCA Men's Division I Coach of the Year". ahcahockey.com. April 4, 2017. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
6. "Denver's Montgomery Wins AHCA's Penrose Award as Division I Men's Coach of the Year". www.nchchockey.com. April 4, 2017. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
7. "Stars name Jim Montgomery as head coach". NHL.com. May 4, 2018. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
8. "Jim Montgomery dismissed as head coach of Stars". NHL.com. December 10, 2019. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
9. DeFranks, Matthew (December 10, 2019). "Dallas Stars fire coach Jim Montgomery 'due to unprofessional conduct'". Dallas News. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
10. "Dallas Stars fire head coach Jim Montgomery for 'unprofessional conduct'". CBC.ca. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
11. Elliotte Friedman (December 11, 2019). "31 Thoughts: Jim Montgomery firing hockey's latest bombshell". Sportsnet.
12. Alex Rozier; Mike Leslie (December 11, 2019). "Fired Dallas Stars head coach promises 'there will be a time' he'll talk". WFAA.
13. Shanna McCarriston (January 3, 2020). "Former Stars coach Jim Montgomery releases first comments since being fired for 'unprofessional conduct'". CBS Sports.
14. Mac Engel (January 7, 2020). "Dallas Stars previously had warned Jim Montgomery about his relationship with alcohol". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Retrieved July 26, 2020.
15. Miller, Corey (September 16, 2020). "Former Stars head coach, Blues forward Jim Montgomery named assistant coach in St. Louis". ksdk.com. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
16. "2013–14 Hockey East Media Guide". Hockey East. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
17. "NCAA Frozen Four Records" (PDF). NCAA.org. Retrieved June 19, 2013.

External links

• Biographical information and career statistics from NHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or Legends of Hockey, or The Internet Hockey Database