Don Edwards

DON LAURIE EDWARDS (Goalie/ Coach/ General Manager)

Born Sep 28 1955 - Hamilton, ONT
Height 5.09 - Weight 165 - Shoots Left

Selected by Buffalo Sabres round 5 #89 overall 1975 NHL Amateur Draft

The Goalie:

Edwards (on the left) when he was 17 playing goal for the Caledonia Corvairs. With him is his uncle, Roy Edwards, a veteran NHL goalie of the time who minded the net for Detroit and Pittsburgh. Photo courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator.

Don Edwards had a successful eleven year career in the NHL playing for  the Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Amazingly, Edwards did not start playing goalie until the age of 13. At 12, he was an all-star forward for his team in Binbrook, Ontario and by the following season he was their all-star goalie. He then went on to become a very successful junior hockey goalie playing two seasons for the Kitchener Rangers and making the First All-star team both years. Despite being a  standout goalie in junior, he was not a high draft pick by the Buffalo Sabres  in 1975. Many scouts felt that his size, or lack of it, would be a disadvantage.

Edwards continued to play stand-out hockey for the Sabres farm club,Hershey Bears, making the AHL Second All-star team in 1976 for two seasons. The following season he was called up to play for the Buffalo Sabres, where he started in 25 games. Year two for the Sabres he was pegged as the club’s number one netminder and played 72 games that season. Edwards posted up better goals-against-average against the NHL's top four teams, Montreal, Boston, Philadelphia and New York Islanders, which was lower compared to the rest of the league.

Don Edwards from his Buffalo Sabres days. Photo courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator.

His third season with Buffalo, 1978-79, the team cut back on the number of games he played and he shared the netminding duties with Bob Sauve. The following season they shared the Vezina trophy as the league's top netminders.  The Sabres that season had the lowest goals-against-average in the NHL.

In his fifth season with Buffalo, Edwards posted 3 shutouts to lead all goalies in  the NHL in that department. Prior to his sixth season with the Sabres, 1981-82, he  was selected to play for and represent Team Canada in the 1981 Canada Cup. He shared the netminding duties on the Canadian squad with Mike Liut. Edwards watched the Finals from the bench as Team Canada lost to the Soviets by a final score of 8 to 1. After that tournament he went on to play 62 games for Buffalo,  in his sixth and final season there. From then on he never posted a goals-against-average lower than 4.00 in the NHL.

After his Buffalo playing days he went on to play four more seasons in the league, three with Calgary Flames and one for the Toronto Maple Leafs, his favorite hockey club when growing up.

After his NHL career, Edwards played one season at the semi-pro level for the Brantford Mott’s Clamatos of the Eastern Canadian senior hockey league. The following season he capped off his hockey career by playing 3 games in the AHL for the Nova Scotia Oilers.

In 459 NHL regular-season games, Edwards had a 208-155-74 mark with 16 shutouts and a 3.32 goals-against average.

Coach/ General Manager:

Edwards worked with the Los Angeles Kings as an assistant coach during the 1998-99 season and with the Carolina Hurricanes as a goaltending coach in the 2003-2004 season. He also spent several years consulting with both teams.

In 2005-06 Edwards took over coaching and general managerial duties of the Oakville Blades in the Ontario provincial junior-A hockey league where he led the club to a 61-23-3-4 record (.709 winning percentage) over two seasons. After the 2006-07 season he resigned from the organization after the home arena, Dominion Twin Rinks, went bankrupt. It was then purchased by the Town of Oakville. He was soon hired to be the new general manager of the Ontario Hockey League’s Saginaw Spirit.

Legendary hockey coach Scotty Bowman had this to say about Edwards being hired in Saginaw: "If he brings the same leadership qualities and work ethic to the Saginaw Spirit as he brought to the Buffalo Sabres as my goalie, nobody in the OHL will outwork him. Saginaw has landed a very high quality individual as their new GM. I wish both Don and my friends at the Saginaw Spirit well as they work to bring a championship to Saginaw."

Honours:

* 1974 OMJHL First All-Star Team, Kitchener Rangers
* 1975 OMJHL First All-Star Team, Kitchener Rangers
* 1976 AHL Second All-Star Team, Hershey Bears
* 1978 NHL Second All-Star Team, Buffalo Sabres
* 1979 NHL Second All-Star Team, Buffalo Sabres
* 1980 Vezina Trophy, Buffalo Sabres, (shared with Bob Sauve)
* 1980 NHL All-Star Game
* 1982 NHL All-Star Game

Personal:

His late uncle Roy Edwards was also an NHL goalie with Detroit and Pittsburgh.

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