February 12, 2010

GLENS FALLS, NY – The Adirondack Phantoms, proud AHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, announced today the four members of the inaugural 2010 class of the Adirondack Hockey Hall of Fame, presented by Glens Falls National Bank.

Selected by the Adirondack Hockey Hall of Fame Selection Committee, the 2010 inductees are: Bill Dineen, Ned Harkness, Greg Joly and Glenn Merkosky.

“The selections for the inaugural class of the Adirondack Hockey Hall of Fame demonstrate the quality of hockey in this region over the past thirty years,” said Mike Thompson, Phantoms Vice President of Business Operations. “These four gentlemen have made significant contributions to this community’s proud hockey tradition. With the assistance of the great fans in this area, the Hall of Fame Selection Committee’s job was fairly easy. I think the fans will agree these selections are appropriate for the 2010 Inaugural Class.”

The Class of 2010 will be honored when the Adirondack Hockey Hall of Fame, presented by Glens Falls National Bank is officially unveiled during Hall of Fame Weekend, March 12-14, at the Glens Falls Civic Center.

Hall of Fame Weekend begins on Friday, March 12th with Johan Backlund Bobblehead Giveaway Night presented by Associates of Glens Falls as the Phantoms host the defending Calder Cup Champion Hershey Bears for a 7:30 pm face off at the Civic Center. Saturday, March 13th features the main events, with a Hall of Fame Dinner at the Queensbury Hotel where the 2010 Inaugural Class will be officially inducted into the Adirondack Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame Dinner will take place at 4:30 pm and is open to the public; Phantoms season ticket holders will have seating priority. Saturday night the Phantoms host the Providence Bruins for a 7:00 pm face off at the Civic Center and the 2010 Inaugural Inductee Class will be honored with a special pre-game ceremony on the ice. Hall of Fame Weekend concludes on Sunday, March 14th, with a limited edition Class of 2010 Hall of Fame Hockey Card Set Giveaway, presented by Curtis Lumber, while Adirondack battles the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at 3:00 pm.

BILL DINEEN

Born in Arvida, Quebec, Bill Dineen came to Glens Falls, NY at the beginning of the 1983-84 season after an 18-year professional playing career and already with ten years of pro coaching experience. Before his arrival the Adirondack Red Wings had a different head coach in each of their first four seasons. Six seasons later Dineen had led the Red Wings to two Calder Cup trophies and had become the longest tenured and winningest coach in Adirondack pro hockey history.

Dineen quickly established himself in his first season of coaching in the American Hockey League by leading the Red Wings to a 37-29-14 record, before losing a tough seven game series to the Maine Mariners in the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs. In his second season Adirondack ended the season two games under 0.500, becoming the only team in the Red Wings 20-year history in Glens Falls not to make the playoffs; it was also the only Dineen-coached Adirondack squad with a losing record. He made up for it the next year as the team went 41-31-8 in the regular season and won the 1986 Calder Cup Championship four games to two over Hershey, the second title in franchise history. During the 1986-87 and 1987-88 seasons the Red Wings were a combined 32 games above 0.500, but bowed out of the playoffs in the second round each year. In his final season behind the bench, 1988-89, Dineen led the A-Wings to their best season in franchise history, going 47-27-6 (100 points) and winning the 1989 Calder Cup Championship four games to one over New Haven. After winning his second cup, Dineen left the bench and served as Adirondack’s general manager for the 1989-90 season.

In six seasons (1983-1989), Dineen was the Adirondack Red Wings head coach for 480 games, compiling a career record of 236-196-43-5 (0.542 winning pct.), holding the franchise records for games coached and all-time wins. In 63 career Calder Cup playoff games behind the bench, his record with the Red Wings was 36-21 (0.571), winning two championships (1986, 1989) and becoming one of just 12 coaches in AHL history to win more than one Calder Cup title. Dineen was twice named as the recipient of the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as the outstanding coach in the AHL (1984-85 & 1985-86); he is one of just two AHL coaches in league history to win that award in back-to-back seasons.

Dineen played in 324 career National Hockey League games with the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks during his 18-year pro playing career, including winning two Stanley Cups with Detroit (1954, 1955). After hanging up his skates, he climbed behind the bench for another eighteen seasons. Aside from his time in Glens Falls, Dineen was notably the only head coach in the history of the Houston Aeros during their tenure in the World Hockey Association (WHA), where he coached the legendary Gordie Howe for four seasons and helping the Aeros win back-to-back AVCO World Trophies as the WHA Champions in 1974 and 1975. Dineen completed his coaching career as the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers for two years (1991-93), where he was able to coach his son Kevin; all three of his sons, Kevin, Gordon and Peter all played in the NHL.

NED HARKNESS

Nevin D. “Ned” Harkness was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and in the course of a long and storied career in hockey as a coach, general manager and executive he was directly involved in the construction of the Glens Falls Civic Center and helped found the Adirondack Red Wings of the American Hockey League, serving as the team’s first general manager and sparking a 20-year AHL dynasty in Upstate New York.

Harkness will forever be remembered as one of the key members in bringing AHL hockey to Glens Falls, NY. He became the director of the Glens Falls Civic Center in 1979 and supervised its construction, before establishing the Red Wings for their inaugural season, 1979-80, as the top minor-league affiliate of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings. For his immense contributions in getting Adirondack off the ground Harkness was named the 1980 AHL Executive of the Year. In perhaps the ultimate sign of his accomplishments in the region, the Red Wings would capture the 1980-81 Calder Cup Championship, defeating the Maine Mariners four games to two, in his hometown, in the building he helped construct. Harkness served as the Red Wings’ general manager for three seasons (1979-82) and in 1982 he was appointed the president and CEO of the U.S. Regional Development Authority, in charge of managing the Olympic facilities in Lake Placid, NY, a position he held until retiring in 1993.

Harkness is perhaps best known for his incredible NCAA career as a head coach for the men’s ice hockey programs at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY, Cornell University in Ithaca, NY and Union College in Schenectady, NY. He ranks second All-Time amongst NCAA Division I coaches with a winning percentage of 0.740, posting a career NCAA record of 384-131-11 in 526 games over 24 seasons. Harkness began his extraordinary career by restarting the hockey program at RPI in the 1949-50 season. In 14 years (1949-1963) behind the bench for the Engineers he had a record of 176-96-7, winning three regular season conference titles, making three NCAA Tournament appearances and leading RPI the 1954 National Championship, the first in school history. Harkness moved on to become the men’s hockey coach at Cornell University in 1963-64 and over the next seven seasons he turned the Big Red into a national Division I powerhouse. In seven years as Cornell’s head coach he posted a record of 163-27-2, an astonishing 0.854 winning percentage, and winning NCAA championships in 1967 and 1970, while finishing as the runner up in 1969 and third in 1968. During that run the Big Red won five Ivy League titles and four Eastern regional championships. The 1970 NCAA Champion team had a perfect 29-0-0 record, setting NCAA marks for the best single-season winning percentage (1.000) and as the only team in the modern era to be undefeated and untied. His 1967 title-winning squad was led by Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden and Harkness was named the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) Coach of the Year in 1968. His last college coaching job was at Union College in Schenectady, NY where he founded the schools hockey program and went 45-8-2 in three years (1975-78), before moving back to Glens Falls and beginning the steps toward creating the Adirondack Red Wings.

Not just a college hockey coach, Harkness was an outstanding lacrosse coach as well. As RPI’s lacrosse coach he was named the U.S. Lacrosse Coach of the Year in 1951 and he led the Engineers to the 1952 NCAA National Championship in lacrosse; two years later when RPI won its first hockey crown (1954) he became the first coach in NCAA history to win national championships in two different sports. He also coached lacrosse at Cornell from 1966-1968, helping the Big Red win back-to-back Ivy League titles and in 2001 he was inducted into the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

Harkness was hired as the head coach of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings in 1970-71, but was replaced after 38 games, instead becoming the team’s general manager for the rest of the season; he would hold that position for four more years (1971-75). He was inducted into the Lake Placid Hall of Fame in 1993, the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in Eveleth, MN in 1994, while also being a member of the Cornell Hall of Fame, the RPI Athletics Hall of Fame and Rensselaer Hockey Ring of Honor in 2007.

Born in Ottawa, Harkness was still a young boy when his family moved to Glens Falls. He attended Glens Falls Academy and Glens Falls High School, although he graduated from Worcester Academy in Worcester, MA in 1939. He went to college at the Royal Canadian Air Force Academy and served in World War II in the Canadian Air Force from 1943-45, where he flew in 39 successful bombardier missions in Europe. In 1949 he became a naturalized U.S. citizen, less than one year before he became RPI’s hockey coach. He passed away on September 19, 2008, his 89th birthday, at his home in Rochester, NY.

GREG JOLY

Born in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Canada, defenseman Greg Joly had probably never heard of Glens Falls, NY growing up as a top prospect in the Canadian junior hockey system or in his first five years playing in the National Hockey League, but by the end of his twelve-year professional career he was unquestionably one of the All-Time fan favorites in Adirondack Red Wings history.

Joly made his Adirondack debut during the Red Wings’ inaugural 1979-80 season in Glens Falls, tallying six points (3 goals, 3 assists) in eight games for the A-Wings, but spent most of that year up in the NHL with Detroit. The next year the 6’0”, 190 lbs defenseman played in 62 regular season games in Glens Falls and then appeared in 17 of the 18 playoff games and had 16 points (4 goals, 12 assists) as Adirondack captured the 1980 Calder Cup, beating the Maine Mariners four games to two for the first championship in franchise history. He would continue to be a swing-man between Adirondack and Detroit for the next two years, but spent all of the final three seasons of his career in Glens Falls, where he solidified himself as a fan favorite. During Joly’s final year of pro hockey, 1985-86, he had 22 assists and 68 penalty minutes in 65 regular season games and then played in 16-of-17 post season games as Adirondack won the 1986 Calder Cup Championship and Joly became the only player to have his name engraved on the first two cups in the organization’s history.

In his Adirondack Red Wings career he played in 396 regular season games over parts of seven seasons (1979-1986), which ranks second All-Time in franchise history, scoring 230 points (36 goals, 194 assists) and recording 657 penalty minutes. He also played in 46 career Calder Cup playoff games, all with Adirondack, posting 22 points (5 goals, 17 assists) and 95 penalty minutes. Starting in the 1986-87 season, the year after he retired, the team began awarding the Greg Joly Award, to the club’s top defenseman at the end of each year. Joly was also awarded the Community Service Award three years in a row (1982-85) by the Red Wings Booster Club, the only player to receive the honor more than once; the Booster Club only chose to give out the award nine times during the team’s 20 year history, making his selections even more unique.

Joly made himself a top NHL prospect thanks to an outstanding junior career with the Regina Pats of the Western Canadian Hockey League (WCHL), now known as the Western Hockey League (WHL). His point production from the blue line grew substantially each season and over three years with the Pats (1971-74); he scored 204 career points (41 goals, 163 assists) and had 238 penalty minutes in 201 career WCHL games. Joly was named to the WCHL First All-Star team at the end of the 1972-73 season and during his final year of juniors he led Regina to the 1974 Memorial Cup Championship and was named the Memorial Cup Tournament MVP.

Joly was selected as the first overall pick in the 1974 NHL Entry Draft by the expansion Washington Capitals, becoming the first ever player drafted by the organization and the first player in franchise history to sign a contract. During his NHL debut in the first game of the 1974-75 season, he recorded an assist, which was the first assist recorded in the history of the Capitals. The rest of his rookie season was marred by a knee injury that limited Joly to just 44 games that season. A swift skating, puck moving defenseman with plenty of offensive skill, his abilities were not well utilized by the bottom dwelling Capitals and after just two seasons in Washington he was traded to the Detroit Red Wings on November 30, 1976 for veteran enforcer Bryan Watson, also a defenseman. Joly spent the next three full seasons in Detroit, making his Stanley Cup Playoff debut for the Red Wings during the 1978 post season. Between the 1979-80 and the 1982-83 seasons he was a swing man, going back-and-forth between Detroit and Adirondack, before spending his final three years solely in Glens Falls.

Joly appeared in 365 career NHL games over parts of nine seasons, scoring 97 career points (21 goals, 76 assists) and played in five Stanley Cup Playoff games. In his AHL career, mostly with Adirondack, he played in 421 regular season games and had 243 points (39 goals, 204 assists) and 677 penalty minutes and had 22 points in 46 career Calder Cup playoff games, all with the A-Wings. In all over the course of his twelve year pro career he played in 786 career pro games and had 340 points (60 goals, 280 assists) and 927 penalty minutes.

GLENN MERKOSKY

A native of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Glenn Merkosky won three Calder Cup Championships as a player and one as an assistant coach, he set numerous Adirondack Red Wings franchise records, he ranks statistically amongst the top players All-Time in the American Hockey League and he holds the distinction of being the only player in Adirondack hockey history to have his number retired.

One of the absolute fan favorites, Merkosky played six seasons for the Adirondack Red Wings (1985-91) where he was an offensive juggernaut, setting career franchise records in games played (430), goals (204), assists (212), points (416) and overtime goals (5), two of which came during Calder Cup Playoff games. The 5’10”, 175 lbs forward scored 24 or more goals in each of his six years in Glens Falls and became the first Adirondack player in the history of the AHL to record a 50+ goal season when he scored a career-high 54 goals in 1986-87, the same year he set the Adirondack single-season record for shorthanded goals with seven. “Merk” played in 64 career Calder Cup playoff games with the Red Wings and had 60 career points (26 goals, 34 assists), winning the AHL’s championship in 1985-86, his first season with the club, and also in the 1989-90 campaign.

Merkosky retired after the 1990-91 season and climbed behind the bench as an assistant coach with Adirondack, teaming up with head coach Barry Melrose to lead the team to a 40-30-4-6 regular season record and another magical post season run as the Red Wings won their fourth Calder Cup trophy, beating the St. John’s Maple Leafs in a thrilling seven-games during the 1991 Calder Cup Finals. He went on to become the head coach of the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League. In four years coaching in Sudbury (1992-96), Merkosky compiled a record of 135-109-20 in 264 regular season games and a winning percentage of 0.549. The Wolves made the playoffs in the first three years under Merkosky, reaching as far as the OHL Semifinals during the 1995 playoffs. After his fourth year in Sudbury, Merkosky went back to Glens Falls and was named the Red Wings head coach. He was the bench boss in Adirondack for three years (1996-99), posting a record of 90-113-29-8 (0.452) and made the playoffs each season, but never made it out of the first round.

On December 22, 1993, while he was coaching junior hockey in Sudbury, Merkosky was the guest of honor in Glens Falls as Adirondack retired his number 15 and ceremoniously raised a banner with his name and number to the rafters of the Civic Center, one that remains in place to this day. After the ceremony the Red Wings trounced the Hamilton Bulldogs 8-0. He is the only player in the 20-year history of the Adirondack Red Wings organization to have his number officially retired.

Merkosky began his eleven year professional career in the 1980-81 season while playing for the AHL’s Binghamton Whalers. After two years with Binghamton and one split between the CHL’s Wichita Wind and the National Hockey League’s New Jersey Devils, he went to the Maine Mariners and played a key role in their 1984 Calder Cup Championship team. He would play one more season for Maine and then six more in Adirondack, rounding out and even ten years in the AHL. Merkosky ranks 40th All-Time in the AHL in regular season games played (737) and ranks in the top 50 All-Time in all three offensive categories: 11th All-Time in goals (325), tied for 25th in points (678) and tied for 42nd in assists (353). Perhaps even more impressive are his All-Time Calder Cup Playoff ranking, where he is tied for 7th in points (90) and goals (39), 8th in games played (107) and tied for 11th in assists (51). He was selected as the recipient of the AHL’s Fred T. Hunt Memorial Award two times (1986-87 & 1990-91), given to the player who best exemplifies sportsmanship, determination and dedication to hockey; Merkosky and Adirondack teammate Murray Eaves are the only two players in AHL history to win the award twice.

Over parts of five seasons Merkosky played in 66 career NHL games with the Hartford Whalers, New Jersey Devils and Detroit Red Wings, scoring 17 points (5 goals, 12 assists) and recording 22 penalty minutes. He is currently in his eighth season as a pro scout for Detroit, primarily evaluating AHL talent for the Red Wings.

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For a complete listing of career playing and coaching statistics for all four members of the Class of 2010, please click here to download the PDF file.

Next up for Adirondack is a trip to Maine as they will battle the Portland Pirates on Saturday, February 13th for a 7:00 pm face off at the Cumberland County Civic Center. The Phantoms are back on Sunday, February 14th as they host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a Valentine’s Day game at 3:00 pm at the Glens Falls Civic Center. During Sunday’s game Scoville Jewelers will announce the grand prize winner of their Most Romantic Moment contest.

The Time Warner Cable Cup Four-Pack is now on sale at the Phantoms office, starting as low as $56. 2009-10 Phantoms full and partial season ticket packages are still available for the 2009-10 season presented by Bud Light. For more information please contact the Adirondack Phantoms at (518) 480-3355 or online at www.phantomshockey.com.