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

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

. He played 73 games in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

with the

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

during the 1977–78 and 1978–79 seasons. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1976 to 1994, was spent in the minor leagues and then mainly in

I-Divisioona I-Divisioona was the second tier of ice hockey in Finland from 1974 to 2000. It replaced the previous league Suomensarja that ran from 1936 to 1974. I-Divisioona was known as the Finland-liiga (1992–1994) and the Fazer liiga (1994–1996) due ...

, the second level of hockey in Finland. After his playing career Bédard worked in coaching, serving as 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 ...

from 1996 to 2016 and winning the

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup () 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, and the International Ic ...

three times with the team.

Career

Originally drafted in 1976 by the

, 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

SM-liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mest ...

, 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- ...

, 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 won the

three times 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 Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

and

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. 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 Metro Detroit is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and over 200 municipalities in the Southeast Michigan, surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the officia ...

. In the 2016–17 season, Bédard was 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� ...

. For 2017–18, Bedard became the goaltending coach for the

Texas Stars The Texas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Cedar Park, Texas. They are the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the National Hockey League's (NHL) Dallas Stars. They play their homes games at the H-E-B Center. History In ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

External links

*
Profile at hockeydraftcentral.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bedard, Jim 1956 births Living people Canadian ice hockey coaches Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Cincinnati Stingers (CHL) players Dallas Stars coaches Dayton Gems players Detroit Red Wings coaches Edmonton Oilers (WHA) draft picks HC TPS players Hershey Bears players HPK players Imatran Ketterä players Rochester Americans players Ice hockey people from Niagara Falls, Ontario Stanley Cup champions Sudbury Wolves players Tulsa Oilers (1964–1984) players TuTo players Washington Capitals draft picks Washington Capitals players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States 20th-century Canadian sportsmen Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Finland