Mike Keenan

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Michael Edward Keenan (born October 21, 1949 in Bowmanville, Ontario) is the former General Manager of the Florida Panthers. He was named to the position May 26, 2004. On September 3, 2006, Keenan resigned his position and was replaced by head coach Jacques Martin.

Keenan was a player for St. Lawrence University (1969-72), the University of Toronto (1972-73), the Roanoke-Valley Rebels (1973-74), and his native Whitby Warriors (1976-77).

He began his coaching career with the Peterborough Petes before moving on to the Rochester Americans, which he guided to the American Hockey League championship in 1983. He returned to University of Toronto to lead it to the CIAU title. He then landed his first high-profile job with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1984, then the Chicago Blackhawks in 1988. In 1993, he took the job as New York Rangers head coach, and led the franchise to its first Stanley Cup win since 1940. Keenan has also coached the St. Louis Blues (1994-96), Vancouver Canucks (1997-98), and Boston Bruins (2000-01). While coaching the St. Louis Blues, he refused to dress his team in a newly designed alternate jersey because of how horrible they looked. He was named head coach of the Panthers on December 3, 2001 before becoming its GM.

Currently, he is 5th all time in NHL wins. Keenan's teams never missed the playoffs until 1998. His tough coaching style and attitude towards his players have earned him the nickname "Iron Mike".

[edit] Controversy

Despite Keenan's coaching record his inability to maintain working relationships with players and team organizations has resulted in a lack of long term coaching positions. His coaching resumue includes abrupt terminations or resignations from coaching or general manager positions, sometimes at bafflingly inopportune, or peak, moments of his career.

Keenan was unceremoniously dismissed from the Philadelphia Flyers not long after leading them to the 1987 Stanley Cup Finals. After taking the Chicago Blackhawks to the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals, Keenan again abruptly resigned his coaching position a year later due to friction in the front office and a lucrative coaching offer from the New York Rangers. Keenan managed to coach the Rangers to the Stanley Cup in his first and only year as head coach, but was unable to coexist long enough with general manager Neil Smith and resigned weeks later. Unremarkable stops as coach or general manager in St. Louis, Vancouver, Boston and Florida (twice) followed.

In September of 2006, Keenan again attracted headlines when he abruptly resigned as general manager of the Florida Panthers. It was speculated that Keenan had lost a power struggle with head coach and longtime friend, Jacques Martin, over personnel decisions. Martin succeeded him as general manager upon his resignation.

"Iron Mike" was also notorious for pulling or switching his goaltenders, sometimes multiple times in a period. In game 4 of the first round of the 1987 playoffs, Keenan pulled his goalies, Ron Hextall and Glenn Resch, a total of five times in a single game (the 5th time to gain a man-advantage in the last minute of play).

Goaltender Roberto Luongo said the following regarding Keenan's penchant for pulling his goalies while a member of the Florida Panthers in 2002:

“Not a big deal. [Keenan] does it so much that we expect it. If he’s your coach and you’re an NHL goalie on the bench, you have to be ready, just in case.”

^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Career Record

Team	Year	Regular Season							Post Season
Team	Year	G	W	L	T	OTL	Pts	Finish	W	L	Win %	Result
PHI	84/5	80	53	20	7	-	113	1^st in Patrick Division	12	7	.632	Runner-Up
PHI	85/6	80	53	23	4	-	110	1^st in Patrick Division	2	3	.400	Preliminary Round
PHI	86/7	80	46	26	8	-	100	1^st in Patrick Division	15	11	.577	Runner up
PHI	87/8	80	38	33	8	-	85	2^nd in Patrick Division	3	4	.429	Division semi-finalist
PHI Total		320	190	102	27	-	408		32	25	.561	4 Playoff Appearances
CHI	88/9	80	27	41	12	-	66	4^th in Norris Division	9	7	.563	Conference Finalist
CHI	89/90	80	41	33	6	-	88	1^st in Norris Division	10	10	.500	Conference Finalist
CHI	90/1	80	49	23	8	-	106	1^st in Norris Division	2	4	.333	Division Semi-Finalist
CHI	91/2	80	36	29	15	-	87	2^nd in Norris Division	12	6	.667	Runner up
CHI Total		320	153	126	41	-	347		33	27	.550	4 Playoff Appearances
NYR	93/4	84	52	24	8	-	112	1^st in Atlantic	16	7	.696	Won Stanley Cup
NYR Total		84	52	24	8	-	112		16	7	.696	1 Playoff Appearance 1 Stanley Cup Championship
STL	94/5	48	28	15	5	-	61	2^nd in Central	3	4	.429	Conference Quarter-Finalist
STL	95/6	82	32	34	16	-	80	4^th in Central	7	6	.538	Conference Semi-Finalist
STL	96/7	33	15	17	1	-	31	4^th in Central	-	-	-
STL Total		163	75	66	22	-	172		10	10	.500	2 Playoff Appearances
VAN	97/8	63	21	30	12	-	54	7^th in Pacific	-	-	-	-
VAN Total		63	21	30	12	-	54		-	-	-
BOS	00/1	74	33	26	7	8	81	4^th in Northeast	-	-	-
BOS Total		74	33	26	7	8	81		-	-	-
FLO	01/2	56	16	29	8	3	43	4^th in Southeast	-	-	-
FLO	02/3	82	24	36	13	9	70	4^th in Southeast	-	-	-
FLO	03/4	15	5	8	2	0	12	4^th in Southeast	-	-	-
FLO Total		153	45	73	23	12	125		-	-	-
Total		1,014	569	447	140	20	1,299		91	79	.535

Preceded by Bob McCammon	Philadelphia Flyers Head Coaches 1984-88	Succeeded by Paul Holmgren
Preceded by Bob Murdoch	Chicago Blackhawks Head Coaches 1988-92	Succeeded by Darryl Sutter
Preceded by Ron Smith	New York Rangers Head Coaches 1993-94	Succeeded by Colin Campbell
Preceded by Bob Berry	St. Louis Blues Head Coaches 1994-97	Succeeded by Jimmy Roberts
Preceded by Tom Renney	Vancouver Canucks Head Coaches 1997-99	Succeeded by Marc Crawford
Preceded by Pat Burns	Boston Bruins Head Coaches 2000-01	Succeeded by Robbie Ftorek
Preceded by Duane Sutter	Florida Panthers Head Coaches 2001-04	Succeeded by Rick Dudley
Preceded by Rick Dudley	Florida Panthers General Managers 2004-06	Succeeded by Jacques Martin

Philadelphia Flyers Head Coaches
Allen • Stasiuk • Shero • McCammon • Quinn • Keenan • Holmgren • Dineen • Simpson • Murray • Cashman • Neilson • Ramsay • Barber • Hitchcock • Stevens

Chicago Blackhawks Head Coaches

Muldoon • Stanley • Lehman • Gardiner • Irvin • Shaughnessy • Tobin • Iverson • Matheson • Gorman • Loughlin • Stewart • Thompson • Gottselig • Conacher • Goodfellow • Abel • Eddolls • Ivan • Pilous • Reay • White • Pulford • Johnston • Magnuson • Tessier • Murdoch • Keenan • D. Sutter • Hartsburg • Graham • Molleken • Suhonen • B. Sutter • Yawney • Savard

New York Rangers Head Coaches
Patrick • Boucher • L. Patrick • Colville • Cook • M. Patrick • Watson • Pike • Harvey • Sullivan • Francis • Geoffrion • Popein • Stewart • Ferguson • Talbot • Shero • C. Patrick • Brooks • Sator • Webster • Esposito • Bergeron • Neilson • Smith • Keenan • Campbell • Muckler • Tortorella • Low • Trottier • Sather • Renney

St. Louis Blues Head Coaches
Patrick • Bowman • Arbour • Abel • McCreary • Talbot • Angotti • Young • Boivin • Francis • Plager • Berenson • Demers • Sutter • B. Plager • Berry • Keenan • Roberts • Quenneville • Kitchen • Murray

Vancouver Canucks Head Coaches
Laycoe • Stasiuk • McCreary • Maloney • Kurtenbach • Neale • Neilson • Laforge • Watt • McCammon • Quinn • Ley • Renney • Keenan • Crawford • Vigneault

Boston Bruins Head Coaches
Ross • Denneny • F. Patrick • Weiland • Clapper • Boucher • L. Patrick • Schmidt • Watson • Sinden • Johnson • Guidolin • Cherry • Creighton • Cheevers • Goring • O'Reilly • Milbury • Bowness • Sutter • Kasper • Burns • Keenan • Ftorek • O'Connell • Sullivan • Lewis