| Blair Atcheynum | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Born | April 20, 1969 Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada | ||
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) | ||
| Weight | 210 lb (95 kg; 15 st 0 lb) | ||
| Position | Right wing | ||
| Shot | Right | ||
| Played for | Ottawa Senators Nashville Predators St. Louis Blues Chicago Blackhawks | ||
| NHL draft | 52nd overall, 1989 Hartford Whalers | ||
| Playing career | 1989–2001 | ||
Blair Michael Atcheynum (born April 20, 1969) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right winger. Atcheynum from Sweetgrass First Nation is of Cree descent. He played major junior ice hockey with the Saskatoon Blades, Swift Current Broncos before starring with the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western Hockey League. He was selected by the Hartford Whalers of the National Hockey League (NHL) in the third round, 52nd overall, in the 1989 NHL entry draft. He never played in the NHL for the franchise, spending the first three years of his professional career in the minor leagues. He was selected by the Ottawa Senators in the 1992 NHL expansion draft and made his NHL debut in the following 1992–93 season. He returned to the minor leagues for the next five seasons before really breaking into the NHL on a regular basis in the 1997–98 season with the St. Louis Blues. He also played with the Nashville Predators and the Chicago Blackhawks before finishing his career in the minors, retiring after the 2020–21 season.
He has supported the Aboriginal Role Model Hockey School in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and was an assistant coach with the minor ice hockey team Battlefords North Stars of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
Atcheynum played minor ice hockey with the North Battleford North Stars of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL). [1] [2] Atcheynum joined the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League (WHL) to play major junior ice hockey in the 1985–86 season. He had a impressive training camp with the team ahead of the season, which was a rebuilding one for the Blades as four of the team's five top scorers had graduated. [3] However, after 19 games with the Blades, having scored one goal and four assists for five points, Atcheynum was returned to North Battleford for the remainder of the season. [1] [4] He rejoined the Blades for the 1986–87 season. Shortly into the season, Atcheynum suffered a strained shoulder. [5] He returned on November 7 after missing five games. [6] He appeared in 21 games with Saskatoon, recording four assists, when he was flipped to the Swift Current Broncos for future considerations after requesting a trade due to concerns over his lack of playing time. [7] [8] Initially it was intended to be just a loan for the season and he would return to Saskatoon. However, WHL commissioner Ed Chynoweth intervened and asked Atcheynum where he wanted to play. He chose the Broncos, believing he was ending up in a good situation. [9] This helped the Broncos, as they had just lost four players in a bus crash on December 30, 1986. Atcheynum played in their first game after the incident on January 9, 1986. [10] [11] He appeared in five games with the Broncos, scoring two goals and three points. [1]
Swift Current had replaced two of the deceased players, but were missing a toughness element that they had lost in the bus crash. Tim Logan of the Moose Jaw Warriors, a multi-positional player capable of playing either forward or as a defenceman who had a reputation for toughness, was placed in the league's compensation pool for the Broncos, whereby if the player was claimed, the Warriors would be awarded compensation. The Warriors believed that he would not be claimed. The Broncos, which had been searching for such a player, selected him and instead of waiting for the league to award compensation, came to an agreement where Atcheynum would go back to the Warriors on January 26. The loss of Logan upset Warriors head coach Greg Kvisle so much that he briefly departed the team, but eventually returned. [12] Graham James, the head coach and general manager of the Broncos, did not think much of Atcheynum as a player at the time. The trade was widely regarded as one of the worst in James' career. [9] Atcheynum appeared in 12 games to finish the season, scoring three goals, but missed time with a shoulder injury. [1] [13] In April, Kvisle resigned after falling out with Warriors general manager Harvey Roy. [14] Under new head coach Jim Harrison, [15] Atcheynum broke out in 1987–88. [16] In January 1988 he was suspended for two games for receiving a gross misconduct penalty in a match against the Brandon Wheat Kings. [17] On February 28, he received the WHL player of the week award, having notched eight goals and nine points in three games. [18] Playing alongside Theoren Fleury towards the end of the season, Atcheynum netted 32 goals and 48 points in 60 games. [1] [9] [19]
In his final season with the Warriors in 1988–89, Kvisle returned as head coach and Atcheynum was one of only four players remaining from his previous stint. [20] Atcheynum, now a star player and leader for the team now that Fleury had graduated, [9] had a 22-game point streak end in December. [21] [22] He was named the November WHL Player of the Month for the East Division. [21] Playing on the team's top line with Rob Harvey and Jerome Bechard, [23] Atcheynum was named the WHL's player of the month for the East Division again for January 1989. [24] He was named the team's most valuable player of the year, and then later, the East Division player of the year. [25] [26] He was runner up as league player of the year to Dennis Holland and was awarded the Brad Hornung Trophy as the league's most sportsmanlike player and was named to the WHL's First All-Star Team. [27] On March 12, he tied Fleury's franchise record for most goals of the season with his 68th marker. [28] He finished the season having more than doubled his previous career highs, scoring 70 goals and 138 points in 71 games and leading the team in scoring. [1] [16] [29] The Warriors spent most of the season at the bottom of the standings, but after the acquisition of goaltender Stan Reddick, they made the 1989 WHL playoffs and faced the Medicine Hat Tigers in the first round. [29] [30] The Warriors swept the Tigers in a best-of-five series, winning three games and advanced to face the Broncos, where they were swept in turn in a best-of-seven series, 4–0. [31] [32] Atcheynum played in all seven games, recording two goals and seven points. [1]
Atcheynum was selected in the third round, 52nd overall, by the Hartford Whalers in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft after scoring 70 goals in 71 games with the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western Hockey League during the 1988–89 season. He never reached the NHL with the Whalers and was later claimed by the new Ottawa Senators in the 1992 NHL Expansion Draft. [33]
He spent the majority of his career in the minor leagues but was able to break into the NHL for a total of 196 games over four seasons. He got his first taste of the NHL during the 1992–93 NHL season when he played four games for the Ottawa Senators, although he spent the majority of the season with their farm team, the New Haven Senators of the American Hockey League. It would take another four years to make it as a regular in the NHL. He played in 61 games (scoring a respectable 11 goals and 15 assists) during the 1997–98 NHL season for the St. Louis Blues after signing with the team as a free agent. The main reasoning behind Atcheynum being called up to the Blues during this period was due to the lack of depth on their roster early on in the 1997-98 season. [34] With St. Louis, Atcheynum would typically play on a line with Craig Conroy and Scott Pellerin that was fondly referred to as the "CPA Line". Blues general manager Larry Pleau was impressed by Atcheynum's hard work, saying "Blair's not a player in the bottom third of our roster. He's one of our first nine forwards. He can move up to the first or second line without missing a step if we need him". [35]
The next year he was selected in the 1998 NHL Expansion Draft by the newly formed Nashville Predators. He played 53 games with the Predators before being traded back to St. Louis for a sixth-round draft pick in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. In 1999 he was signed as a free agent by the Chicago Blackhawks, with whom he played 66 games between 1999 and 2001. Atcheynum retired as a professional hockey player in 2001.
Atcheynum is currently an assistant coach with the Battlefords North Stars of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League [36] Atcheynum is said to have been taking major strides with the North Stars program, as reports show that locals describe the North Stars level of play as "fast and intelligent hockey, free of buffoonery of the goon hockey that many people detest". [37] He was also most recently honoured at the 2012 First Nation Games, alongside Fred Sasakamoose, who was the first treaty Indian to play in the NHL. Atcheynum and Sasakamoose were recognized as role models at both the summer and winter games as hope for young First Nations athletes. [38]
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | ||
| 1985–86 | Battlefords North Stars | SJHL | 33 | 16 | 14 | 30 | 41 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | ||
| 1985–86 | Saskatoon Blades | WHL | 19 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 22 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1986–87 | Saskatoon Blades | WHL | 21 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1986–87 | Swift Current Broncos | WHL | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1986–87 | Moose Jaw Warriors | WHL | 12 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1987–88 | Moose Jaw Warriors | WHL | 60 | 32 | 16 | 48 | 52 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1988–89 | Moose Jaw Warriors | WHL | 71 | 70 | 68 | 138 | 70 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 13 | ||
| 1989–90 | Binghamton Whalers | AHL | 78 | 20 | 21 | 41 | 45 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1990–91 | Springfield Indians | AHL | 72 | 25 | 27 | 52 | 42 | 13 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 6 | ||
| 1991–92 | Springfield Indians | AHL | 62 | 16 | 21 | 37 | 64 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 1992–93 | New Haven Senators | AHL | 51 | 16 | 18 | 34 | 47 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1992–93 | Ottawa Senators | NHL | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1993–94 | Columbus Chill | ECHL | 16 | 15 | 12 | 27 | 10 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1993–94 | Portland Pirates | AHL | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1993–94 | Springfield Indians | AHL | 40 | 18 | 22 | 40 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 1994–95 | Minnesota Moose | IHL | 17 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 7 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1994–95 | Worcester IceCats | AHL | 55 | 17 | 29 | 46 | 26 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1995–96 | Cape Breton Oilers | AHL | 79 | 30 | 42 | 72 | 65 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1996–97 | Hershey Bears | AHL | 77 | 42 | 45 | 87 | 57 | 13 | 6 | 11 | 17 | 6 | ||
| 1997–98 | St. Louis Blues | NHL | 61 | 11 | 15 | 26 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 1998–99 | Nashville Predators | NHL | 53 | 8 | 6 | 14 | 16 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1998–99 | St. Louis Blues | NHL | 12 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 6 | ||
| 1999–00 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 47 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 6 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2000–01 | Chicago Wolves | IHL | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2000–01 | Norfolk Admirals | AHL | 37 | 12 | 8 | 20 | 16 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||
| 2000–01 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 19 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| NHL totals | 196 | 27 | 33 | 60 | 36 | 23 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8 | ||||