Bill Stewart (ice hockey)
| Bill Stewart | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Born |
October 6, 1957 Toronto, ON, CAN |
||
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) | ||
| Weight | 190 lb (86 kg; 13 st 8 lb) | ||
| Position | Defence | ||
| Shot | Right | ||
| Played for |
NHL Buffalo Sabres St. Louis Blues Toronto Maple Leafs Minnesota North Stars AHL Hershey Bears Rochester Americans St. Catharines Saints Springfield Indians |
||
| National team |
 Italy
|
||
| NHL Draft | 68th overall, 1977 Buffalo Sabres |
||
| WHA Draft | 46th overall, 1977 Winnipeg Jets |
||
| Playing career | 1977–1995 | ||
William Donald Stewart (born October 6, 1957) is a retired Canadian-Italian professional ice hockey defenceman and former head coach of the New York Islanders.
A native of Toronto, Stewart was drafted in the 4th round (68th overall) in the 1977 NHL Entry Draft by the Buffalo Sabres and started his National Hockey League career in 1977-78. He also went on to play for the St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Minnesota North Stars. He left the NHL at the end of the 1985–86 season choosing to play hockey in Italy until his retirement in 1995.
Stewart began his professional coaching career with the Muskegon Fury of the Colonial Hockey League in 1995. After one season with Muskegon, Stewart took the head coaching position with the Oshawa Generals of the OHL in 1996. Stewart got back into coaching professional hockey the following season with a stint in the American Hockey League and coaching the Saint John Flames to the Calder Cup Finals in 1998, losing to the Philadelphia Phantoms in six games.
Stewart was named head coach of the New York Islanders on January 21, 1999 after Mike Milbury himself stepped down to concentrate solely on his GM duties. After one season with the Islanders Stewart was relieved of his coaching duties and was replaced by Butch Goring on April 30, 1999. In 1999 Stewart returned to the OHL to become the head coach of the Barrie Colts. The roster that year included the 4 Brampton Boys, one of whom, Ryan Barnes, faced charges of assault with a weapon after a stick-swinging incident during a game in October. Later in the season, three of the team's other players were charged with sexual assault. Finally, Stewart himself made headlines and was banned from entering the United States for twice smuggling a Ukrainian-born player over the Canada-U.S. border in the baggage compartment of the team bus. Stewart infamously walked out of the Halifax Metro Centre without conducting any interviews to the media, following Barrie's 6-2 loss to the Rimouski Océanic in the 2000 Memorial Cup championship game. Following the controversial season in Barrie, Stewart continued his coaching career in Germany and made headlines during the DEL quarter finals in 2001 when he was involved in a mass brawl in game three against the Berlin Capitals, during which he hit Capitals' head Pavel Gross in the head and himself was injured as well. Stewart was handed a two-match suspension and a 15.000 DM fine. In the finals against the München Barons, he feigned fainting behind the Mannheim Eagles bench to buy his star player Jan Alston time to get his skates sharpened. His team ended up winning the championship that year and got to the finals the following season. Stewart left Mannheim in January 2003 after he had been informed that his contract would not be extended at the end of the season.
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