Mike Milbury

Michael James Milbury (born June 17, 1952 in Brighton, Massachusetts) is an American Sportscaster. He is a former Defenseman for the Boston Bruins. He later served as assistant general manager under Harry Sinden and head coach of Boston, as well as GM and coach of the New York Islanders.

Colgate University
Milbury played college ice hockey for Colgate University before signing a professional contract with the hometown Boston Bruins of the NHL in 1972/73. He played for for the Bruins in the 1976 Stanley Cup playoffs and later represented the United States team at the inaugural 1976 Canada Cup.

National Hockey League
Season  Team                 Lge   GP  G   A Pts  PIM   GP G  A Pts PIM 1972-73 Colgate University  NCAA   23  2  19  21   68 1973-74 Colgate University  NCAA   28  4  26  30   85

1973-74 Boston Braves        AHL    5  0   0   0    7   -- - -- --  -- 1974-75 Rochester Americans  AHL   71  2  15  17  246    8 0  3  3  24 1975-76 Rochester Americans  AHL   73  3  15  18  199    3 0  1  1  13

1975-76 Boston Bruins        NHL    3  0   0   0    9   11 0  0  0  29 1976-77 Boston Bruins        NHL   77  6  18  24  166   13 2  2  4  47 1977-78 Boston Bruins        NHL   80  8  30  38  151   15 1  8  9  27 1978-79 Boston Bruins        NHL   74  1  34  35  149   11 1  7  8   7 1979-80 Boston Bruins        NHL   72 10  13  23   59   10 0  2  2  50 1980-81 Boston Bruins        NHL   77  0  18  18  222    2 0  1  1  10 1981-82 Boston Bruins        NHL   51  2  10  12   71   11 0  4  4   6 1982-83 Boston Bruins        NHL   78  9  15  24  216   -- - -- --  -- 1983-84 Boston Bruins        NHL   74  2  17  19  159    3 0  0  0  12 1984-85 Boston Bruins        NHL   78  3  13  16  152    5 0  0  0  10 1985-86 Boston Bruins        NHL   22  2   5   7  102    1 0  0  0  17 1986-87 Boston Bruins        NHL   68  6  16  22   96    4 0  0  0   4 NHL Totals: 754 49 189 238 1552   86 4 24 28 219

Boston Bruins
Over eleven seasons, Milbury played 754 games as a defenseman for the Bruins. He is well known for an incident which occurred on December 23, 1979, in a game against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Milbury followed his teammates into the stands during a brawl and took a spectator's shoe off. He then used the shoe to beat the spectator.

He became head coach of the Boston Bruins in the 1989–90 season, leading the team to the Presidents Trophy and an appearance in the Stanley Cup finals. He was named Executive of the Year by the Sporting News.

He was the head coach of the Wales Conference team at the 1991 All-Star Game, where he generated some controversy by including enforcer Chris Nilan and checker Brian Skrudland ahead of players such as Kirk Muller and Guy Lafleur. However, Nilan and Skrudland both missed the game due to injury. As a result of Milbury's controversial roster picks, the league's Board of Governors changed their policy so that future teams would be chosen by committee.

New York Islanders
Season Team               Lge Type      GP  W  L  T Pct      Result 1985-86 Boston Bruins     NHL Assistant        --- 1987-88 Maine Mariners    AHL Head      80 44 25  7 0.61875  Lost in round 2 1988-89 Maine Mariners    AHL Head      80 32 40  8 0.45000  Out of Playoffs 1989-90 Boston Bruins     NHL Head      80 46 25  9 0.63125  Lost in Finals 1990-91 Boston Bruins     NHL Head      80 44 24 12 0.62500  Lost in round 3 1995-96 New York Islanders NHL Head     82 22 50 10 0.32927  Out of Playoffs 1996-97 New York Islanders NHL Head     45 13 23  9 0.38889  Replaced Midseason 1997-98 New York Islanders NHL Head     19  8  9  2 0.47368  Out of Playoffs 1998-99 New York Islanders NHL Head            ---           Replaced Midseason

He is a well-known figure in the National Hockey League for his controversial (and often quotable) style, as well as for his penchant for blockbuster trades.

During several of the years that Milbury served as Islanders GM, the team's ownership mandated that he operate the team on an austere budget. In 1999 he was forced to trade star scorer Zigmund Palffy because team owners no longer wanted to pay his multi-million dollar contract.

However, Milbury has also been criticized for the many decisions he made in which payroll or orders for upper management were not factors. Many young players and prospects that Milbury traded away went on to have distinguished careers, often eclipsing those of the players he received in return. He has traded away defensemen Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Bryan Berard, Eric Brewer, Darius Kasparaitis, and Bryan McCabe; goalies Roberto Luongo and Tommy Salo, as well as forwards Olli Jokinen, Todd Bertuzzi, Raffi Torres. Milbury has also come under fire for his draft day decisions such as choosing Rick DiPietro first overall in 2000 over Dany Heatley and Marian Gaborik; as well as his decision to include the 2001 second overall draft pick (Jason Spezza) as part of the Alexei Yashin trade.

In June 2006, Milbury stepped down as Islanders GM to accept a position as Senior Vice President of Charles Wang's sports holdings. In an appearance on Mike and the Mad Dog, Wang did not challenge a suggestion from the hosts that he "fired" Milbury. Milbury resigned from his Senior VP job in May 2007. He said that he missed making hockey-related decisions and would be open to a hockey operations job in another organization.

Television work
American networks NESN and NBC, and TSN in Canada hired Milbury as an analyst for the 07/08 season.

In July 2008 Milbury signed a 2 year contract with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Hockey Night in Canada.