Tom Barrasso

At 59 years old, Tom Barrasso has this physical status:

Thomas Patrick Barrasso (born March 31, 1965) is an American professional ice hockey coach and former player.

Barrasso was a goaltender for 18 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators, Carolina Hurricanes, Toronto Maple Leafs, and St. Louis Blues.

He was the first goaltender to play in the NHL straight from high school, without having competed for major junior, college, or some other form of professional hockey first.

As an 18-year-old rookie in 1984, he was the youngest winner of the league's Vezina Trophy for best goaltender.

He was also the youngest goaltender to win the Calder Memorial Trophy, a record that he still holds as of the 2017-18 season.

Barrasso appeared on several Stanley Cup championship teams with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and 1992.

In 2009, he was inducted as a member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. Barrasso was an assistant coach and in charge of goaltending development for the Carolina Hurricanes since being out of active service.

Barrasso joined former Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice on the coaching staff at Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the Kontinental Hockey League in June 2012.

He began coaching Asiago Hockey in the Alps Hockey League in 2016, winning the championship in the 2017-18 season.

Barasso left Asiago in October 2018 to become the Sheffield Steelers' head coach.

Personal life

Ashley, Kelsey, and Mallory are three children by Barrasso and his partner Megan. After his oldest daughter died of neuroblastoma cancer in the early 1990s, Barrasso created the Ashley Barrasso Cancer Research Fund in the early 1990s.

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Playing career

Barrasso grew up in the town of Stow, Massachusetts, where he played ice hockey on an outdoor rink. He began playing goaltender at the age of five, and by the time he was a teenager, he was playing in net for Acton-Boxborough with fellow NHL players Bob Sweeney and Jeff Norton. Barrasso was regarded as one of the most promising American goaltending prospects of all time. In 1983, he was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres with the 5th overall pick. He went from high school to the NHL in a straight fashion, and he loved it. Barrasso was the youngest goaltender to play and win a game in the NHL since Harry Lumley almost 40 years ago at the time. In his first season, he earned the Calder Memorial Trophy and Vezina Trophy, becoming the third player to win both awards in the same year.

The Sabres traded Barrasso with a 3rd round draft pick in the 1990 draft (Joe Dziedzic) to the Pittsburgh Penguins on November 12, 1988.

He has been to the Stanley Cup twice before, in 1991 and 1992. It was his participation in these Cup runs that established him as a "money goalie." Barrasso missed two years, the 1994–95 NHL season, and the 1996–97 NHL season with injuries, but he came back with strong results in the next decade. He became the first American goaltender to win 300 games in 1997. He had a tense rivalry in Pittsburgh's later years, with local media who was unforgiving of him and his family. This explains why his #35 was not cut off by the Penguins (current starting goaltender Tristan Jarry now wears #35), although Jaromr Jágr's number has been withdrawn from circulation with plans to retire it in the future.

In March 2000, he was traded to the Ottawa Senators for Ron Tugnutt and Janne Laukkanen, a swap that was seen as a threat to both teams. He was uneven in Ottawa, going 3-4 in seven starts and losing the first two games of Ottawa's first round match against Toronto before bouncing back and winning the next two games to even the series. During a CBC's broadcast on Thursday, he caused a riot when he said, "I really couldn't give a shit what you guys have to say." Barrasso will later apologize for using vulgar words, but he stuck by his words in the interview, citing that the year had been difficult for him. In six games, the Senators will lose the next two games and the Maple Leafs series.

Barrasso's deal ended after his playoff stint with Ottawa, and he did not want to re-sign with the Senators. In time for the 2001–02 season, he completed the 2000–01 season out of hockey and returned with the Carolina Hurricanes. He enjoyed some late international success, winning Silver at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

He played for a short time during his career, including the Ottawa Senators, the Carolina Hurricanes, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the St. Louis Blues before retiring from ice hockey in 2003. On the day he announced his resignation, he signed a pro forma deal with Pittsburgh so he could leave hockey as a Penguin.

Coaching career

Barrasso, goaltending coach (2007–09) and later assistant coach (2009–11) of the Carolina Hurricanes. He moved to Metallurg Magnitogorsk as assistant coach during the 2012–13 season. During the Summer of 2015, Slovan Bratislava recruited Barrasso as the team's goaltending coach, but he departed the team and moved to Valpellice, Italy. The team won the Coppa Italia but decided not to join the newly formed Alps Hockey League. Barrasso, on the other hand, did not leave Italy: he went to Asiago as head coach. Barrasso was appointed as head coach of the Sheffield Steelers in the EIHL in October 2018.

Barrasso was appointed head coach of HC Varese in the IHL on June 26, 2021.

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Awards and achievements

• 1984 – Calder Memorial Trophy (Top rookie in NHL)
• 1984 – Vezina Trophy (Top goaltender in NHL)
• 1984 – NHL First All-Star Team
• 1985 – NHL Second All-Star Team
• 1985 – William M. Jennings Trophy (Team with fewest goals allowed – shared with Bob Sauve)
• 1985 – Played in NHL All-Star Game
• 1991 – Stanley Cup champion (Pittsburgh Penguins)
• 1992 – Stanley Cup champion (Pittsburgh Penguins)
• 1993 – NHL Second All-Star Team
• #17 all time in Wins in regular season with (369).
• #9 all time in Saves with (22090) in regular season career.
• #13 all time in Playoff Wins with (61).
• #3 all time in NHL wins by a US born Goaltender (369) [1]
• 2002 – Olympic ice hockey silver medalist (Team USA)
• 2007 – Inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame
• 2009 – Inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame
• 2015 – Coppa Italia champion (Hockey Club Valpellice)
• 2018 – Alps Hockey League champion (Asiago Hockey AS)
• 2003 – Member of the Pittsburgh Penguins Ring of Honor that formerly circled the Pittsburgh Civic Arena