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Don Blackburn
DonBlackburn
Position Left Wing
Shot Left
Height
Weight
6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
175 lb (80 kg)
Teams NHL
Boston Bruins
Philadelphia Flyers
New York Rangers
New York Islanders
Minnesota North Stars
WHA
New England Whalers
Nationality Flag of Canada Canadian
Born (1938-05-14)May 14, 1938,
Kirkland Lake, ON, CAN
Pro Career 1959 – 1976

Donald Blackburn (born May 14, 1938) is a retired Canadian professional left winger who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers, New York Islanders and Minnesota North Stars. He also played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) with the New England Whalers. He later became the Whalers first ever NHL coach.

He started out with the junior Hamilton Tiger Cubs of the Ontario Hockey Association in 1956-57 and 1957-58. Blackburn then spent most of the next nine years in the minors.

Blackburn got his big break when the Philadelphia Flyers drafted him in the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft. He spent two strong seasons with the Flyers and then was traded to the New York Rangers in 1969-70. He also played with the New York Islanders and the Minnesota North Stars before settling with the New England Whalers in 1973-74.

Coaching Career[]

He retired in 1975-76 and was the Whalers' coach for a short time before being demoted to assistant coach. Blackburn spent a few years as a scout before becoming their coach again in the 1978-79 WHA playoffs.

Blackburn was the first ever Hartford Whalers coach in the 1979-80 NHL season. He led them to a 27–34–19 record in the 1979–80 NHL season. In the playoffs, the Whalers were swept by Montreal in three games. Blackburn was fired midway through the 1980–81 season after the Whalers sat with a miserable record of 15–29–16. He was replaced by interim coach Larry Pleau.

Awards[]

Gallery[]

External Links[]

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Don Blackburn. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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