Lance Nethery (born June 28, 1957) 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 ...

centre and coach, and current executive. He played 41 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 ...

with the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

and

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. They play their home games at Rogers Place, which ...

during the 1980–81 and 1981–82 seasons. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1979 to 1990, was split between the minor leagues and then in Europe, mainly in the Swiss Nationalliga A. After his playing career Nethrey became a coach and manager in the

Deutsche Eishockey Liga The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (for sponsorship reasons called "PENNY Deutsche Eishockey Liga") (; English: ''German Ice Hockey League'') or DEL, is a German professional ice hockey league and the highest division in German ice hockey. Founded in ...

, working in those roles between 1993 and 2019.

Playing career

Nethery was born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, and raised in

Burlington, Ontario Burlington is a city in the Regional Municipality of Halton at the northwestern end of Lake Ontario in Ontario, Canada. Along with Milton to the north, it forms the western end of the Greater Toronto Area and is also part of the Hamilton met ...

. He attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

, playing for the

Cornell Big Red The Cornell Big Red is the informal name of the sports teams, and other competitive teams, that represent Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York. The university sponsors 37 varsity sports, as well as numerous intramural and club team ...

, and midway through his college career he was selected by the

, 131st overall, in the eighth round of the 1977 NHL amateur draft. The same year he was named to the ECAC Second All-Star team, and the following two seasons he was named to both the ECAC First All-Star Team and the NCAA East First All-American Team. He was also named ECAC Player of the Year in 1978. Nethery still holds the Cornell records for assists and points in a season, as well as career assists and points. His scoring touch stayed with him as a professional player, and he averaged over a point per game in parts of three seasons with the

New Haven Nighthawks The New Haven Nighthawks were a professional ice hockey team that played in the American Hockey League from 1972 to 1992. They had affiliations with the Minnesota North Stars (1972–1977), New York Islanders (1972–1973), New York Rangers (19 ...

and

Springfield Indians The Springfield Indians were a minor professional ice hockey franchise, originally based in West Springfield, Massachusetts and later Springfield, Massachusetts. The Indians were founding members of the American Hockey League. They were in existen ...

of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

(AHL). Nethery played 41 National Hockey League games in two seasons, for the

and

. After joining the Oilers in a trade for

Eddie Mio Edward Dario Mio (born January 31, 1954) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) for the Indianapolis Racers and Edmonton Oilers between 1977 and 1979, and in the National Hockey Le ...

, Nethery played only three more NHL games, despite putting up two points. In 1982, Nethery left North America, signing with Duisburger SC in Germany. He played dominantly in the minor leagues before signing a contract with

HC Davos Hockey Club Davos is a professional Swiss ice hockey club based in Davos, Switzerland. Davos plays in the National League (NL). The team is usually a strong force in the league and often bolster their roster with Swiss national team players and ...

of the

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

Nationalliga A. Nethery won two championships with Davos, and retired in 1988. In 186 regular season games with

he averaged 1.92 points per game.

Coaching and managing career

Nethery was named the head coach of Davos for the 1990–91 season, and was fired midway through. In 1993 he joined German hockey club Landshut as an assistant coach, and then became the head coach of Mannheim from 1994 to 1999, during which time his team won the league championship three times. In 1999 he became the head coach of Cologne, as well as general manager in 2000, until January 2002. During this time he also served as an assistant coach with Team Canada for the 2001 Deutschland Cup. He joined the

Frankfurt Lions The Frankfurt Lions were a German professional men's ice hockey club from Frankfurt, Germany that played in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. The club ceased operations in 2010 due to financial difficulty. History The hockey team was founded as a se ...

as head coach on April 11, 2002, and was subsequently elevated to general manager on February 5, 2003, leading the team to its first championship. He was hired as the GM of the DEG Metro Stars prior to the 2005–06 season. His contract, set to expire in 2008, was extended through 2012. Nethery and the Metro Stars parted ways by mutual consent in January 2012. He then served as chief executive officer of Düsseldorf's rival

Kölner Haie The Kölner Haie (English: ''Cologne Sharks'') are an ice hockey club based in Cologne, Germany that plays in the professional Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). The team was one of the founding members of the DEL. The ''Kölner Haie'' play their hom ...

between February 2013 and October 2014. In January 2015, Nethery was named team principal of German Oberliga side

Füchse Duisburg The ''Füchse Duisburg'' are a German 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 h ...

and also took over head coaching duties beginning with the 2016-17 campaign. He was released on February 12, 2017, but returned to the Füchse team on May 1, 2018 as sporting director.

Personal

Nethery and his wife Elizabeth have a daughter, Meredith. Meredith graduated from Cornell University in 2009.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Awards and honors

References

External links

*
Lance Nethery's biography at Hockey Draft CentralLance Nethery's biography at the New York Rangers websiteCornell hockey records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nethery, Lance 1957 births Living people AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Switzerland Canadian ice hockey centres Cornell Big Red men's ice hockey players Edmonton Oilers players Füchse Duisburg players HC Davos players Hershey Bears players Ice hockey people from Ontario New Haven Nighthawks players New York Rangers draft picks New York Rangers players SC Herisau players Sportspeople from Burlington, Ontario Sportspeople from Toronto Springfield Indians players Wichita Wind players