Steve Tambellini

Steve Tambellini (born on May 14, 1958 in Trail, British Columbia, Canada) is a former NHL player and is currently the General Manager for the Edmonton Oilers hockey franchise in Edmonton, Alberta.

Playing career

Steve Tambellini played his junior hockey for the Lethbridge Broncos of the WHL from the 1975–76 season until the 1977–78 season, where he scored 155 goals and notched 181 assists in 193 games. He would earn the Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy as the top rookie in the league for his effort in the 1975–76 season.

In the 1978 NHL Entry Draft, Tambellini was chosen 15th overall by the New York Islanders. He would spend two years with New York, winning a Stanley Cup with them in the 1980 season. Despite this cup victory, he would be traded late in the next season to the Colorado Rockies. He stayed with Colorado for two seasons, including their first season as the New Jersey Devils as the franchise was relocated in 1982. After the 1982–83 season, Steve was traded to the Calgary Flames. He would remain there for two seasons before signing on as a free agent with the Vancouver Canucks, where he would round out his NHL career.

He would go on to play a minor amount of time in both the Swiss Hockey League and the Austrian Hockey League.

International Play

During his career, Steve Tambellini represented Canada on three separate occasions: In 1978 he played for Team Canada in the World Junior Hockey Championship, winning a bronze medal after scoring two goals and two assists. He played in the World Hockey Championship as well as the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where he scored 11 goals.

After Retirement

After his retirement from hockey, he was hired by the Canucks as the Director of Public and Media Relations and remained with the franchise until July 2008. In 1997, he would be promoted to Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations. In 1998 his position would change again, this time to the Vice President of Player Personnel. In this position he would oversee player development and professional player scouting. He would excel at this position, eventually being named Assistant General Manager to Dave Nonis and to Mike Gillis after Nonis was fired by the Canucks on 14 April 2008 [cite web|url=http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=234310&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_nhl|title="Canucks Part Ways With General Manager", TSN.ca, (2008)] .

In 2002, he was the Director of Player Personnel for the gold medal winning Canadian Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Team at the 2002 Winter Olympics. He would be rewarded again, being named the Director of Player Personnel for both the 2003 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships as well as the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, in both of which he would see his team win gold.

In the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, his oldest son, Jeff Tambellini, was drafted 27th overall by the Los Angeles Kings. Jeff now plays for the team that drafted his father, the New York Islanders.

In 2004, he was inducted into the British Columbia Hockey Hall of Fame.

On July 31, 2008 he was named General Manager of the Edmonton Oilers after the Oilers promoted Kevin Lowe to President of Hockey Operations [cite web|url=http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=244959&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_nhl|title="Oilers hire new GM; Lowe moves upstairs", TSN.ca, (2008)] .

Career statistics

ee also

*List of NHL seasons
*List of NHL players

External links

* [http://www.canucks.com/subpage.asp?sectionID=186 Steve Tambellini's profile on the Vancouver Canucks website]
* [http://www.hhof.com/html/exSCJ05_11.shtml Picture of Steve Tambellini's Name on the 1980 Stanley Cup Plaque]
*hockeydb|5298

References