Donald Cairns (born October 8, 1955) is a Canadian former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player. He played 9 games in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL) for the

Kansas City Scouts The Kansas City Scouts were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1974 to 1976. In 1976, the franchise relocated to Denver, and became the Colorado Rockies. In 1982, the Rockies relocated to New Jersey where t ...

and

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...

between 1975 and 1977, as well as several years in various minor leagues during his career, which lasted from 1975 to 1978. Selected by the Scouts in the

1975 NHL Amateur Draft The 1975 NHL Amateur Draft was the 13th NHL Entry Draft. It was held at the NHL office in Montreal, Quebec. The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Philadelphia Flyers made the most noise at the draft, trading Bill Clement, Don McLean, and t ...

and the

Michigan Stags The Michigan Stags were a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit that played a portion of the 1974–75 season in the World Hockey Association. On January 18, 1975, the team folded, but the league immediately took over operation and moved ...

of the

World Hockey Association The World Hockey Association (french: Association mondiale de hockey) was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) ...

in the 1975 WHA Amateur Draft, Cairns signed with the Scouts and made his NHL debut that year, playing 7 games in the NHL and 33 in and the minor leagues. He played a further 2 NHL games the following year with Colorado, where the Scouts had relocated to, again spending time in the minors, and briefly played one further season before retiring in 1978.

Early life

Cairns was born in

Red Deer, Alberta Red Deer is a city in Alberta, Canada, located midway on the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. Red Deer serves central Alberta, and key industries include health care, retail trade, construction, oil and gas, hospitality, manufacturing and education. ...

and was raised in the neighbourhood of Fairview and went to

Lord Beaverbrook High School Lord Beaverbrook High School (LBHS) is a public high school in Calgary, Alberta, Canada operated by the Calgary Board of Education. It was founded in 1967 and the first year of attendance was in 1968. It has approximately 1,100 students and 100 st ...

in south

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

Pro hockey career

Cairns was drafted by the

in the second round of the

. He was also selected by the

in the second round of the

(WHA) Amateur Draft in that same year. Despite having a respectable minor career his professional one was short lived he bounced around the minors and got called up playing just seven games in the National Hockey League wearing jersey #20 for the Kansas City Scouts. He would end up playing two more games for the Rockies after the Scouts moved after poor season ticket sales in Kansas City. In Colorado, Cairns would attain his only NHL point, an assist. He retired from hockey after the 1977–1978 season.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

External links

*
Game Roster Kansas City Scouts, vs Philadelphia Flyers 17 January 1976 flyershistory.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cairns, Don 1955 births Living people Calgary Canucks players Canadian ice hockey forwards Canadian people of Scottish descent Colorado Rockies (NHL) players Flint Generals (IHL) players Kansas City Scouts draft picks Kansas City Scouts players Michigan Stags draft picks Oklahoma City Blazers (1965–1977) players Phoenix Roadrunners (CHL) players Port Huron Flags (IHL) players Ice hockey people from Red Deer, Alberta Victoria Cougars (WHL) players