Al Sims

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Al Sims bigraphy, stories - Canadian ice hockey player

Al Sims : biography

April 18, 1953 –

Allan Eugene Sims (born April 18, 1953 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian former professional hockey player and later a head coach in the NHL.

Career

In 1972, Sims was the first-round (and first-ever) draft pick of the New York Raiders of the World Hockey Association, but chose to sign with the Boston Bruins who had drafted him in the third round. At Cornwall, Ontario in Junior Hockey he had played with Bob Murray, a rushing defenceman. When he played for Boston he was paired for two years with the greatest rushing defenceman of all time, Bobby Orr. He played for Boston and its American Hockey League affiliate for six seasons, and then for the Hartford Whalers for the next two.

After his retirement from the NHL, he played and coached hockey with Fife Flyers in Scotland. Later he coached in the International League and won the Turner Cup with the Fort Wayne Komets in 1993. He was named assistant coach under Ron Wilson with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 1993-1996 before he became head coach of the San Jose Sharks for the 1996–97 NHL season.

He then became head coach of the Milwaukee Admirals of the IHL for three years, from 1998 to 2000, moved on to the Central Hockey League for four years and to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins as an assistant coach for a year. He is currently back in Fort Wayne, as the head coach of the Fort Wayne Komets of the ECHL. In 2007-2008he coached the Komets to his 2nd Turner Cup championship, beating the Port Huron Icehawks 4 games to 3 after a 3-OT seventh and deciding game. After that, he led them to another Turner Cup in the 2008-2009 season. And the following year (2009–10), he once again led the Komets to their third straight (and his personal fourth straight, counting the 1992-93 season) Turner Cup.

His son Tyler was the starting goaltender of the Providence College Friars in Hockey East, and is currently on the Las Vegas Wranglers (ECHL) roster.

NHL coaching statistics

Team Year Regular season Post season
G W L T Pts Finish Result
SJ 1996-97 82 27 47 8 62 7th in Pacific Missed Playoffs