Sadly we learned of the passing of former Blackhawks head coach Orval Tessier over the weekend.
Tessier was named the head coach of the Blackhawks before the 1982-83 season after a great run with the New Brunswick Hawks in the AHL. He led the Kitchener Rangers to an OHL championship in 1981 and then the New Brunswick Hawks to an AHL championship the following season, which led to a quick ascent to the NHL coaching ranks.
In his first season in Chicago, Tessier brought a number of prospects with him from New Brunswick, most notably Steve Larmer. Larmer credited Tessier with giving him the chance he needed to make the NHL as a regular, and he rewarded that faith with a campaign that earned Larmer rookie of the year honors and Tessier the Jack Adams Trophy as the league’s coach of the year.
Tessier was the first Blackhawks’ coach to win the Jack Adams in 1983. He is still the only Blackhawks’ head coach to win the award 40 years later.
Larmer, Steve Ludzik, Jack O`Callahan and Warren Skorodenski were four players on that New Brunswick roster that eventually became Blackhawks. He also brought Troy Murray up to Chicago.
The Blackhawks won the Norris Division in Tessier’s first season as head coach and advanced all the way to the Campbell Conference championship round, where they were swept by the Edmonton Oilers. After the Hawks allowed 16 goals in the first two games of that series, Tessier infamously said his players needed a heart transplant.
Chicago finished fourth in the Norris in Tessier’s second season and were bounced out of the playoffs in the first round by the Minnesota North Stars. And, after a less-than-ideal start to Tessier’s third campaign, he was sacked mid-season.
Tessier returned to the junior ranks for three more seasons as the head coach of the Cornwall Royals in the OHL.
Over the course of his coaching career, Tessier led four teams to championships in three different leagues (Cornwall and Quebec in the QMJHL, Kitchener in the OHL and New Brunswick in the AHL).