Craig Berube’s Remarkable Career: Enforcer to Stanley Cup Champion

Craig Berube’s NHL career has spanned 38 years. He first stepped on the ice for the Philadelphia Flyers on March 22, 1986, and played for 17 seasons. He last played for the Calgary Flames on March 31, 2003.

Berube decided to get into coaching when his playing career ended. It took him ten years to work his way through the coaching ranks. He coached his first game as the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers on Oct. 8, 2013, replacing Peter Laviolette after he was fired just three games into the 2013-14 season. 

As a Player, Berube Was Far From a Prolific Scorer

Berube’s lengthy career was not due to his scoring prowess. He is noted in the NHL record book as the lowest-scoring player to have played 1,000 or more games. In his 1,054 regular season games, Berube tallied 61 goals and added 98 assists for 159 points. 

His toughness and physicality earned Berube his lengthy playing career. He sits seventh in career penalty minutes with 3,149. Berube had 257 fights in his professional career, including 24 bouts in the 1993-94 season. Hits were not tracked for players whose careers began before the 1997-98 season, so there is no record of how many hits Berube registered.  

“Back in the day,” when an enforcer-type player had to establish his reputation quickly, Berube did that. He was awarded 26 minutes in penalties in his first NHL game. They included two five-minute fighting majors, two minor instigating penalties, two minutes for roughing, and a ten-minute misconduct. 

Berube’s Coaching Gigs Were Dynamic and Largely Successful

Berube’s first foray into NHL head coaching lasted just two seasons. As noted earlier, he replaced Laviolette as the Flyers coach early into the 2013-14 season. He led the team to a third-place finish in the Metropolitan Division and sixth overall in the Eastern Conference. They lost to the second-place New York Rangers in seven games in the first round of the 2014 Playoffs. After the Flyers failed to make the playoffs in the 2014-15 season and finished 6th in the Metropolitan Division, Berube was fired days after the season ended. 

On Nov. 18, 2018, Mike Yeo was fired by the St. Louis Blues. Berube was named the interim head coach. He soon became part of the most amazing sagas of NHL history. On Jan. 1, 2019, the Blues were dead last in the NHL with 34 points. They would post a record of 30-10-5, the best record of any team in the league since the first of January. The Blues would climb all the way to third place in the Central Division. In the postseason, the Blues beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-2, the Dallas Stars 4-3, and the San Jose Sharks 4-2 to earn a berth in the Stanley Cup Final.

On June 12, 2019, the Blues defeated the Boston Bruins 4-1 in Game 7 to win the Stanley Cup. Never in the history of the NHL had a team in 31st place on Jan. 1 of a calendar year gone on to win the Stanley Cup. It was also the only championship in Blues history since the team’s inception in 1967.

In Berube’s case, he became just the second interim coach in the league’s history to hoist a Stanley Cup. The only other was Larry Robinson with the New Jersey Devils in 2000. Interestingly, Berube only finished third in the voting for the Jack Adams Award for the NHL’s best head coach that season.  

Berube Couldn’t Get Past the First Round of the Playoffs Since the Blues’ Stanley Cup

Berube was rewarded with a contract following the 2018-19 season. Under him, the Blues would make the postseason the next three seasons, but they could not seem to get past the first round. After starting the 2023-24 season with a 13-14-1 record, the Blues relieved Berube of his coaching duties on Dec. 12, 2023.

On May 17, 2024, Berube became the 32nd coach of the Maple Leafs. He’s set to embark on his first season with the Maple Leafs. Will he achieve what has eluded the team for so long? Can they make a deep run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs under Berube’s leadership?

Berube has already won a Stanley Cup with the Blues; can he replicate that success with the Maple Leafs this season? The Toronto fan base is eager to see if his coaching prowess can finally guide the team to a long and successful postseason run. 

[Note: I want to thank long-time Maple Leafs fan Stan Smith for collaborating with me on this post. Stan’s Facebook profile can be found here.]