James Arthur Bédard (born November 17, 1956) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

retired

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 ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

. He was most recently the goaltending coach for the

Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...

of 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).

Career

Originally drafted in 1976 by the

Washington Capitals The Washington Capitals (colloquially known as the Caps) are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL) ...

, Bédard played for parts of two seasons with the Capitals. After playing two seasons in the minor leagues, Bédard signed to play in the

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

SM-liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

, After two seasons with

HC TPS TPS or Turun Palloseura is an ice hockey team and 10-time champion of SM-liiga and 1-time champion of SM-sarja. They play in Turku, Finland, at Gatorade Center. In terms of championships, TPS is the second all-time most successful team in SM-L ...

, he played in Finland for 12 seasons more, mostly in lower divisions, before finally retiring in 1994. After his playing career, he served as the goaltending coach with the

for 19 seasons. He had won three

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

s with Detroit in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. On May 9, 2016, it was reported that Bédard's contract with the team would not be renewed. Bédard is also the goalie coach for the Detroit Red Wings Alumni Association and is active in its efforts to raise money for children's charities in

Metro Detroit The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the ...

. As of 2016–17, Bédard is the goaltending coach for the OHL's

Windsor Spitfires The Windsor Spitfires are a Canadian junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). The team is based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1971, the franchise was promoted to the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League for the 1975� ...

. Since 2017–18, Bedard has been the goaltending coach for the

Texas Stars The Texas Stars are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) based in Cedar Park, Texas, near Austin, with home games at the H-E-B Center. They are owned by the National Hockey League's (NHL) Dallas Stars and are the t ...

References

External links

*
Profile at hockeydraftcentral.com
1956 births Living people Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Cincinnati Stingers (CHL) players Dallas Stars coaches Dayton Gems players Detroit Red Wings coaches Edmonton Oilers (WHA) draft picks Hershey Bears players HPK players Ice hockey people from Ontario Imatran Ketterä players Rochester Americans players Sportspeople from Niagara Falls, Ontario Stanley Cup champions Sudbury Wolves players HC TPS players Tulsa Oilers (1964–1984) players TuTo players Washington Capitals draft picks Washington Capitals players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Finland Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Canadian ice hockey coaches {{Canada-icehockey-goaltender-stub