Guy Chouinard

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Guy Chouinard bigraphy, stories - Canadian ice hockey player

Guy Chouinard : biography

October 20, 1956 –

Guy Camil "Gramps" Chouinard (born October 20, 1956) is a retired professional ice hockey player who played in the 1970s and 80’s for the Atlanta Flames, Calgary Flames, and St. Louis Blues. He has also had a lengthy career as a coach in the QMJHL since retiring as a player, and currently serves as head coach of the Prince Edward Island Rocket.

Career statistics

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1971–72 Quebec Remparts QMJHL 58 29 41 70 6
1972–73 Quebec Remparts QMJHL 59 43 86 129 11
1973–74 Quebec Remparts QMJHL 62 75 85 160 22 4 0 1 1 0
1974–75 Omaha Knights CHL 70 28 40 68 6 6 1 6 7 0
1974–75 Atlanta Flames NHL 5 0 0 0 2
1975–76 Nova Scotia Voyageurs AHL 70 40 40 80 14 9 6 9 15 0
1975–76 Atlanta Flames NHL 4 0 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0
1976–77 Atlanta Flames NHL 80 17 33 50 8 3 2 0 2 0
1977–78 Atlanta Flames NHL 73 28 30 58 8 2 1 0 1 0
1978–79 Atlanta Flames NHL 80 50 57 107 14 2 1 2 3 0
1979–80 Atlanta Flames NHL 76 31 46 77 22 4 1 3 4 4
1980–81 Calgary Flames NHL 52 31 52 83 24 16 3 14 17 4
1981–82 Calgary Flames NHL 64 23 57 80 12 3 0 1 1 0
1982–83 Calgary Flames NHL 80 13 59 72 18 9 1 6 7 4
1983–84 St. Louis Blues NHL 64 12 34 46 10 5 0 2 2 0
1984–85 Peoria Rivermen IHL 9 2 5 7 0
NHL totals 578 205 370 575 120 46 9 28 37 12

Coaching career

Chouinard has also had a brilliant career (more than 10 years) coaching in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, notably for the Victoriaville Tigres, Quebec Remparts, and Prince Edward Island Rocket and was enshrined in the QMJHL Hall of Fame in 2005. He has coached the second most games in the QMJHL (988), most wins as a coach (515) and most championships as a coach (4).

From 2002 to 2006, he coached in the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey, a minor professional league in Quebec, first with the Trois-Rivieres Vikings, then the Thetford-Mines Prolab. He was fired as the Prolab head-coach on January 13, 2006, after a 7–3 loss against the Saint-Hyacinthe Cristal. With the Prolab, his record was 45 wins and 48 loss (including 10 shootout loss and 2 losses in overtime).

Chouinard was hired by the QMJHL’s Prince Edward Island Rocket to replace Yanick Jean as head coach, on October 22, 2007, a position he holds to this day.

Playing career

Chouinard was the 28th overall pick in the 1974 NHL Entry Draft, following a successful junior career with the Quebec Remparts in which he was a regular at the age of 15. He was one of the first underage players available in the entry draft because of the National Hockey League’s decision to allow drafting of underage players that year. While playing with the Atlanta Flames, he set records for scoring goals in six consecutive games from November 14 to November 24, 1978; he was the first Flame to score 50 goals in a season in the 1978–79 season. He remained with the team when it relocated to Calgary at the start of the 1980–81 season. He left the Flames franchise as its all-time leader in points (529) and assists (336) (records since broken) on September 6, 1983, when he was traded to the St. Louis Blues for future considerations.

After playing in the first nine games of the 1984-85 season in the IHL with Peoria, Chouinard opted to retire.

Other

Chouinard was nicknamed "Gramps" because he appeared much older than he really was. He is not the only member of his family to play professional hockey; he is the older brother of former minor-leaguer Jean Chouinard and the father of Eric Chouinard, who currently is in the Phoenix Coyotes organization. His nephew, Marc Chouinard, played in the NHL for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks.