Born: 8 Nov 1930 (d. 1993)
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Regular Season & Playoff Coaching Record (key)
| Regular Season | Playoffs |
| year | team | finish | finish | |||||||||
| 1973-74 | Edmonton | 3-W | QF | |||||||||
| 1974-75 | Edmonton | DNF | ||||||||||
• Succeeded by Bill Hunter on March 5, 1975.
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Edmonton's Shaw All Color • by Terry Jones • The Hockey Spectator • August 1973
He's all color. Brian Shaw has more sports jackets than the Edmonton Oilers have home games. They're louder than Bill Hunter's voice. And he's got shirts, ties, pants and shoes to match. Shaw's neon outfits are so loud, it's suspected he'll require a plug-in behind the Oiler bench. What his outfits lack, Shaw makes up for in personality. For two years the most colorful coach in the Western Canada Junior Hockey League, Shaw is now head coach of Edmonton Oilers. He is, to be honest, the only man around who has more color than the man he's replacing, W.D. "Wild Bill" Hunter. Hunter didn't have to go far to get him. Shaw worked exactly three feet and nine inches from the Oiler dressing room last year, that being the distance between the Oiler room and the Edmonton Oil Kings dressing quarters. But it wasn't just a matter of Shaw walking the three feet and nine inches. It was no secret Shaw, 42, was the number one candidate for the job. But as late as a week before he signed, he was still weighing offers from the National Hockey League. St. Louis Blues owner Sid Salomon II made a determined pitch to sign Shaw as an assistant coach with the promise of a head job when and if it became available. New York Rangers and Chicago Black Hawks offered Shaw coaching jobs in the minor leagues. He also had an option of remaining a coach of the highly successful junior Oil King club, and he gave that a great deal of consideration due to the outstanding record he's had at that level. He also had an offer from the Victoria Cougars of the Western Canada league in return for a part ownership of the club. Shaw, who compiled a record as a miracle worker in 10 years of coaching junior hockey at Moose Jaw, St. Catherines and Edmonton, said before accepting the Oiler job he wanted to make sure he would have full control of the team. "Everybody said Bill Hunter would be tough to work for," said Shaw, who took Oil Kings to the Memorial Cup Finals in his rookie season. "When I came to Edmonton to coach the juniors for him, people said we wouldn't last 10 minutes. In two years we never had a dispute. He left me in full control of the junior team and never interfered. I want to make sure I had the same arrangement with the pros." Shaw is the only coach Hunter hasn't ousted in junior or pro hockey, Last season Hunter took over from Ray Kinasewich in February. "I'll tell you how confident I am that Brian Shaw is the right man," said Hunter. "He's the only man we considered for the job. The fact that we gave him a three-year contract shows him our confidence. How many other coaches in major league hockey have a three-year contract?" "Examine Shaw's record and you'll see that he has never missed the playoffs. He is a fine developer of talent with more than two dozen of his former juniors in the major leagues. He's a colorful personality and produces exciting aggressive hockey," Hunter continued to enthuse. The question with Shaw, a coach who motivates junior players with 4 a.m. practices after returning home from a road trip and a considerable amount of yelling in the dressing room, is can he achieve the same results with the pros. "Naturally," said Shaw, "I'm not going to handle pros the way I handle juniors, But I promise you one thing, we'll have a disciplined hockey club. The records shows you need discipline to win in pros as well as with juniors. "We'll also be aggressive. An aggressive team never misses the playoffs. Check history. Oilers have players who can play this type of game." Shaw's influence shows in at least three players Oilers have added to the roster: Ron Climie, Brian McKenzie and junior draft Jim McCrimmon of the Medicine Hat Tigers. All three have animalistic tendencies. "Brian will decide who makes our team and who doesn't," says Hunter. "He has the control he wanted and he has our complete backing, I think that's why he turned down the NHL offers." |
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Excerpts from Zander Hollander's Guide to Pro Hockey, 1973-74 (by Reyn Davis & Charley Hallman)
Although not a great player himself, Shaw has turned into one of the game's finest coaches ... Had the best record of any junior coach the last five years as head man at St. Catherines, then Moose Jaw and finally the Edmonton Oil Kings the past two years ... Has reputation of getting the most out of his players ... His Oil Kings won the WCJL last season, but were beaten out by Medicine Hat in the Memorial Cup Western final ... Named coach of the Oilers in late June 1973. |
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