Better than half-a-lifetime before he became Boss of the Blueshirts, shot-caller for a sound contender to halt 30 years’ worth of National Hockey League championship drought, Peter Laviolette made a notable mark on Binghamton’s hockey community.
A well-traveled, highly successful coach who this season steered the New York Rangers to the franchise’s first Presidents’ Cup Trophy since 2015, Laviolette will on Thursday lead the team in Game 3 of a second-round playoff series against Carolina. New York’s 6-0 postseason record is a franchise first since winning the 1994 Stanley Cup.
Laviolette played 115 games across the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons for the American Hockey League’s Binghamton Rangers as a determined defenseman who came up with 16 goals and 34 assists – but decidedly more in terms of worth to the team.
“He was a real competitive guy and a team guy,” said John Paddock, who coached those 1990-91 B-Rangers. “He was one to rally the team in the dressing room. He cared about the team, and he was a leader of our hockey club.”
And more from Paddock on Laviolette, 59-year-old native of Franklin, Mass.: “Fairly or unfairly, some guys have a certain importance on a team and they’re never going to sit out. Peter was like that for us. He was a real leader on our hockey club that year.”
In March 2004, Laviolette joined former Binghamton Whalers forward Bob Sullivan and former Binghamton Whalers/Rangers medical trainer Jon Smith as members of the Binghamton Hockey Hall of Fame’s seventh induction class.
“Some places you play, you look back and want to forget it. But I like to remember my years in Binghamton,” he said at the time. “I liked being a big fish in a small market where the businesses and fans are always so supportive.
“ … I had lots of laughs and lots of good times in Binghamton. It’s a privilege to have people look back and think of me in that kind of light that they’d put me in a hall of fame. Any time somebody acknowledges something you’ve done, it’s special.”
At age 34, he was appointed head coach of the Bruins’ AHL Providence club and guided it to a 56-16-4-4 regular-season record and 11-3 mark through the playoffs to the Calder Cup. From there, his coaching resume and reputation continued to blossom through assorted NHL stints.
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