Gilles Meloche

Gilles Meloche

Meloche with the Penguins, December 2011
Born (1950-07-12) July 12, 1950
Montreal, QC, CAN
Height 5 ft 8 in (173 cm)
Weight 170 lb (77 kg; 12 st 2 lb)
Position Goaltender
Caught Left
Played for NHL
Chicago Black Hawks
California Golden Seals
Cleveland Barons
Minnesota North Stars
Pittsburgh Penguins
National team  Canada
NHL Draft 70th overall, 1970
Chicago Black Hawks
Playing career 1970–1988

Gilles Emile Meloche (born July 12, 1950 in Montreal, Quebec) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League for the Chicago Black Hawks, California Golden Seals, Cleveland Barons, Minnesota North Stars and Pittsburgh Penguins. He is currently a special assignment scout for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He had previously served as the team's longtime goaltending coach, winning three Stanley Cups in that position before resigning in 2013.[1]

Playing career

After playing junior for the Verdun Maple Leafs, Meloche was the 70th player chosen in the 1970 amateur draft by the Chicago Black Hawks. His first professional season was spent mostly with Flint in the International League with a two game stint with Chicago. Chicago was strong in goal with Tony Esposito, so Meloche was dealt to the California Golden Seals, one of the weakest teams in the league. In his first season with the Seals in 1971–72, he recorded a strong goals against average of 3.33 and four shutouts, including one against the league powerhouse Boston Bruins. The Seals' fortunes in the NHL continued to worsen but Meloche continued to play well as the club's number one goaltender. Meloche faced a barrage of rubber directed at the Seals' goal for another four seasons up to the franchise's relocation to Cleveland. Moving to Cleveland for two seasons, Meloche solidly backstopped the Barons with only a slight improvement in the team.

Following the Barons' merger with the Minnesota North Stars in 1978, Meloche was Minnesota's primary goalie and experienced his greatest success. Meloche spent eight seasons with the North Stars, which included two appearances in the NHL All-Star game in 1980 and 1982. Minnesota experienced playoff success as well, with an appearance in the finals in 1981 and the semi-finals in 1980 and 1984. Meloche finished his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins, playing three more seasons before retiring in 1988.

In total, Meloche played in 788 NHL regular season games over 19 seasons with a GAA of 3.64 and 20 shutouts. Largely because of his stint with the dreadful Seals/Barons teams of the 1970s, his 351 losses are the fourth-most in NHL history, only behind Martin Brodeur, Curtis Joseph and Gump Worsley. He appeared in 45 playoff games and registered a GAA of 3.48 with 2 shutouts.

Following his retirement from playing, Meloche served as a Penguins scout from 1989 to 2006 and also doubled as a goaltending coach/consultant during much of that time. He was part of the staff when the Penguins won Stanley Cups in 1991, 1992 and 2009.[2] Meloche and his wife, Sophie, reside in Pittsburgh. His son, Eric, is a professional ice hockey player who played 74 NHL games between 2000 and 2007 for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers.[3]

Career statistics

Regular season

Season Team League GP W L T MIN GA SO GAA SV%
1969–70 Verdun Jr. Maple Leafs QJHL 45 — — — 2679 221 1 4.95 .882
1970–71 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 2 2 0 0 120 6 0 3.00 .917
1970–71 Flint Generals IHL 33 — — — 1866 104 2 3.34 —
1971–72 California Golden Seals NHL 56 16 25 13 3121 173 4 3.33 .893
1972–73 California Golden Seals NHL 59 19 32 14 3473 235 1 4.06 .885
1973–74 California Golden Seals NHL 47 9 33 5 2800 198 1 4.24 .877
1974–75 California Golden Seals NHL 47 9 27 10 2771 186 1 4.03 .877
1975–76 California Golden Seals NHL 41 12 23 6 2440 140 1 3.44 .888
1976–77 Cleveland Barons NHL 51 19 24 6 2961 171 2 3.47 .890
1977–78 Cleveland Barons NHL 54 16 27 8 3100 195 1 3.77 .887
1978–79 Minnesota North Stars NHL 53 20 25 7 3118 173 2 3.33 .885
1979–80 Minnesota North Stars NHL 54 27 20 5 3141 160 1 3.06 .897
1980–81 Minnesota North Stars NHL 38 17 14 6 2215 120 2 3.25 .889
1981–82 Minnesota North Stars NHL 51 26 15 9 3026 175 1 3.47 .894
1982–83 Minnesota North Stars NHL 47 20 13 11 2689 160 1 3.57 .887
1983–84 Minnesota North Stars NHL 52 21 17 8 2883 201 2 4.18 .868
1984–85 Minnesota North Stars NHL 32 10 13 6 1817 115 0 3.80 .879
1985–86 Pittsburgh Penguins NHL 34 13 15 5 1989 119 0 3.59 .881
1986–87 Pittsburgh Penguins NHL 43 13 19 7 2343 134 0 3.43 .881
1987–88 Pittsburgh Penguins NHL 27 8 9 5 1390 95 0 4.10 .868
NHL totals 788 270 351 131 45,397 2756 20 3.64 .885

Playoffs

Season Team League GP W L T MIN GA SO GAA SV%
1969–70 Verdun Jr. Maple Leafs QJHL 11 5 6 0 654 34 0 3.12 .921
1969–70 Verdun Jr. Maple Leafs M-Cup 8 4 4 — 474 35 0 4.43 —
1970–71 Flint Generals IHL 3 — — — 183 11 0 3.61 —
1979–80 Minnesota North Stars NHL 11 5 4 — 564 34 1 3.62 .885
1980–81 Minnesota North Stars NHL 13 8 5 — 802 47 0 3.52 .884
1981–82 Minnesota North Stars NHL 4 1 2 — 184 8 0 2.61 .908
1982–83 Minnesota North Stars NHL 5 2 3 — 319 18 0 3.39 .882
1983–84 Minnesota North Stars NHL 4 1 2 — 200 11 0 3.30 .875
1984–85 Minnesota North Stars NHL 8 4 3 — 395 25 1 3.80 .902
NHL totals 45 21 19 — 2464 143 2 3.48 .889

International

Year Team Event   GP W L T MIN GA SO GAA
1982 Canada WC 5 3 2 0 299 16 1 3.21

References

  1. ↑ "Penguins goaltenders coach Meloche expected to resign as Fleury ponders future". TribLIVE. 2013-06-09. Retrieved 2013-12-09.
  2. ↑ Pittsburgh Penguins staff. "Pittsburgh Penguins 2010 Media Guide" (PDF). p. 19. Retrieved June 2, 2010.
  3. ↑ "Eric Meloche (b.1976) hockey statistics and profile at". Hockeydb.com. 1976-05-01. Retrieved 2013-12-09.

External links

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