Paul Patrick Coffey (born June 1, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played for nine teams over 21 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1980 to 2000. Coffey ranks second all-time among NHL defencemen in goals, assists, and points, behind only Ray Bourque. He won the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the NHL's best defenceman three times and was voted to eight end-of-season All-Star teams (four first-team and four second-team). He holds the record for the most goals by a defenceman in one season, 48 in 1985–86, and is the only defenceman to have scored 40 goals more than once, also doing it in 1983–84. He is also one of two defencemen to score 100 points in a season more than once, as he did it five times; Bobby Orr did it six times. Coffey holds or shares 33 NHL records in the regular season and playoffs.
During his NHL career, he played for the Edmonton Oilers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Los Angeles Kings, Detroit Red Wings, Hartford Whalers, Philadelphia Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks, and Boston Bruins. He is a four-time Stanley Cup champion, winning three times with Edmonton and a fourth with Pittsburgh.
Coffey was born in Weston, Ontario, and grew up in Malton, Ontario. The city of Mississauga renamed Malton Arena to Paul Coffey Arena and Wildwood Park to Paul Coffey Park in a ceremony on September 23, 2016. In 2017, Coffey was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history.
In his youth, Coffey played in the 1974 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a minor ice hockey team from Mississauga.
Coffey was drafted sixth overall by the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980 NHL entry draft. In the 1981–82 season he scored 89 points and was named a second-team NHL All-Star. In the Oilers' first Stanley Cup-winning season, 1983–84, he became only the second defenceman in NHL history to score 40 goals in a season, and added 86 assists to finish second in point scoring. He won his first James Norris Memorial Trophy in 1984–85 while posting 37 goals and 121 points. On December 26, 1984, in a game against the Calgary Flames, Coffey became the last defenceman in the 20th century to score four goals in one game. Coffey went on to post a historic post-season in the 1985 playoffs, setting records for most goals (12), assists (25), and points (37) in one playoff year by a defenceman on the way to another Stanley Cup. In the 1985–86 season, where he was awarded his second Norris Trophy, Coffey scored 48 goals, which broke Bobby Orr's record for regular season goals by a defenceman (46 goals in 1974–75), and Coffey's 138 regular season points was second only to Orr (139 points in 1970–71) among defencemen.
Coffey helped Edmonton to a third Cup in 1986–87, but the deciding game seven of that year's Stanley Cup Final against the Philadelphia Flyers would be his last in an Oiler uniform. Coffey had two years remaining on a contract that paid him a reported $320,000 a year, but held out at the beginning of the 1987–88 season, wanting the contract renegotiated to pay him $800,000 a year. Team owner Peter Pocklington refused to do so, and offended Coffey by suggesting he lacked courage when playing; Coffey vowed never to put on an Edmonton uniform again and demanded a trade. On November 24, 1987, the Oilers traded Coffey, along with Dave Hunter and Wayne Van Dorp, to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Craig Simpson, Dave Hannan, Moe Mantha, and Chris Joseph.
As the Penguins' Rod Buskas was already wearing uniform number 7, Coffey agreed to change his uniform number from 7 to 77. Coffey would wear 77 for most of the rest of his career until his final season in Boston, where he wore 74. Coffey played four and a half seasons with Pittsburgh. On December 22, 1990, Coffey became the second defenceman after Denis Potvin to record 1,000 points, doing so in a record-breaking 770 games. In 1990–91, Coffey helped Pittsburgh to win their first Stanley Cup, which was also his fourth Cup, defeating the Minnesota North Stars in six games. During the 1991-92 season, the Penguins were coached by Scotty Bowman, who had stepped in after head coach Bob Johnson took a leave of absence for cancer treatment. Coffey passed Denis Potvin to become the career leader in goals, assists, and points by a defenceman, with Coffey leading these categories until the final season of his career. After 54 games, with Pittsburgh struggling despite being the defending Cup champions, Coffey's large salary made him expendable so he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings. In Los Angeles, he was reunited with former Oilers teammates Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri for parts of two seasons.
Having played just 10 games with the Kings in the 1992-93 season, he was traded to the Detroit Red Wings, where he played for three and a half seasons. Coffey was reunited with Scotty Bowman, who became the head coach of the Red Wings for 1993-94. In the lock-out shortened 1994–95 NHL season, Coffey led his team in scoring for the only time in his entire career and was awarded the Norris Trophy for the third time, as the Red Wings won the Presidents' Trophy for their first-place regular season finish. In the 1995 playoffs, he led all defencemen in scoring while helping Detroit to the Stanley Cup Finals. The Red Wings, however, were swept by the New Jersey Devils in four games. Coffey would then help the Red Wings to 62 regular season wins the following year as they clinched their second consecutive Presidents' Trophy, but they were upset by the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Finals. During Game 1 of that series, Coffey scored two goals but also accidentally scored on his own net after Colorado's Stephane Yelle attempted to pass the puck into the slot, but it instead ended up on Coffey's stick.
Hartford Whalers and Philadelphia Flyers
After a falling-out with Red Wings head coach Scotty Bowman, Coffey was traded to the Hartford Whalers at the start of the 1996–97 season as part of a package to acquire Brendan Shanahan – a move that Coffey was unhappy with since the Whalers were a non-contending team. Coffey only played 20 games for the Whalers before engineering a trade to the Philadelphia Flyers. He played for the Flyers for a season and a half. In the 1997 Stanley Cup playoffs, Coffey's experience helped the Flyers get past the Pittsburgh Penguins (playing against old teammate Mario Lemieux) and New York Rangers (featuring former Oilers teammates Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier) to reach 1997 Stanley Cup Final, which was also Coffey's seventh appearance in the Finals. In the Finals series against his former team, Detroit, Coffey was on the ice for six of Detroit's goals and was in the penalty box for a seventh when the Flyers conceded a power-play goal, having no points and being minus-2 and minus-3 in the first two games. Bowman had directed Detroit's players to specifically go after Coffey as a pressure point in the Flyers roster; a hit from Darren McCarty in game two left Coffey sidelined for the rest of the series with a concussion.
Chicago Blackhawks, Carolina Hurricanes and Boston Bruins
After 10 games with the Chicago Blackhawks, where he only picked up 4 assists and had a -6 rating, Coffey was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes (the relocated Hartford Whalers, whom Coffey had briefly played for in the 1996–97) for the rest of the 1998-99 season, where he played one and a half seasons. He had a slow start in the 1999-2000 season but finished strong with one of his best seasons in years.
As a free agent in the off-season of 2000, Coffey signed a two-year $4 million contract with the Boston Bruins, intending to fill the void left by Ray Bourque, who had been traded away to the Colorado Avalanche in spring 2000. This was also the last free agent acquisition by Harry Sinden, who relinquished his title as Bruins general manager early in the 2000-01 season. While Coffey wore number 77 since leaving the Edmonton Oilers, he wore 74 since Bourque had long worn 77 with the Bruins. Coffey missed 9 games due to injury and only appeared in 18 games, where he was unable to make defensive stops without being penalized, while also only getting four assists and failed to improve the Bruins' powerplay. After playing what would be his final NHL game at the Atlanta Thrashers on December 4, 2000, Coffey was waived by the Bruins. After his stint with the Bruins was finished, Coffey reported turned down two offers to return to the NHL. That season, Bourque passed his career goal, assist, and point records, and Bourque and Coffey both retired after the 2000–01 season.