Ian Cooper (ice hockey)

Last updated

Ian Cooper
Born (1968-11-29) 29 November 1968 (age 56)
Durham, England
Height 6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight 199 lb (90 kg; 14 st 3 lb)
Position Right wing
Shot Left
Played for Durham Wasps
Cardiff Devils
London Knights
Guildford Flames
Chelmsford Chieftains
National teamFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
Playing career 1984–2001

Ian Edward Cooper (born 29 November 1968 in Durham, England) is a retired British ice hockey player. He is a member of the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame and is the younger brother of fellow Hall of Fame member, Stephen Cooper. He has a daughter and son named Lola and Felix Cooper. He is married to Ruth Cooper.

Contents

Playing career

.

Club

Cooper started his senior ice hockey career with the Durham Wasps during the 1984–85 season when he was still playing junior ice hockey with the Wasps' junior team, the Durham Hornets. Appearing for the Wasps 30 times that season, he scored just three goals. His career took off the following season when he appeared exclusively for the Wasps and scored 38 goals and 36 assists in all competitions and helped the Wasps to retain their British Hockey League (BHL) Premier Division title. [1]

Cooper stayed with the Wasps for two more seasons — being named to the 1988 BHL all-star team along the way [2] — before an ambitious Cardiff Devils in Division 1 of the BHL offered him enough money to play full-time and signed him and his brother for the 1988–89 season. Cooper helped Cardiff to win the promotion playoffs to the Premier Division as well gaining his second all-star team award. [3] The following season, Cooper helped the Devils to win the league championship and the playoffs.

Being able to get professional wages in his home town, Cooper returned to the Durham Wasps for the 1990–91 season where he helped them to win a grand slam of the Norwich Union Trophy, the league championship and the playoffs. After helping the Wasps to retain the league championship and the playoffs in the 1991–92 season, Cooper returned to the Cardiff Devils for the 1992–93 season. During his six seasons with the Devils, Cooper helped them to win two league championships and two playoffs in the BHL and one league championship and a Bensons & Hedges Cup in the Ice Hockey Superleague (ISL).

Cardiff did not renew Cooper's contract in 1998 and he joined the London Knights as captain for their inaugural campaign in the 1998–99 season of the ISL. He stayed with the Knights for 18 months until they arranged his move to the Guildford Flames where he finished the 1999&] in the BNL and then 10 games for the Chelmsford Chieftains in the English Premier Ice Hockey League, Cooper retired from ice hockey moved into media management as a career.

International

Cooper first appeared for the Great Britain national ice hockey team when he represented his country at the under-18 level in 1985. He has made a total of 80 appearances for the national team in the under-18, under-20 and the senior teams. During his time with the senior team he helped them climb the international ranks from Pool D to Pool A of the Ice Hockey World Championships before cementing their position in Pool B. Cooper described the Pool B gold medal he won in 1993 as "something special".

Awards and honours

Career statistics

Club

  Regular season [4]  Playoffs [4] [5]
SeasonTeamLeagueGPGAPtsPIMGPGAPtsPIM
1984–85 Durham Wasps BHL 19325030000
1985–86Durham WaspsBHL352924534251560
1986–87Durham WaspsBHL3523254835655106
1987–88Durham WaspsBHL33484997726751218
1988–89 Cardiff Devils BHL246448112113–––––
1989–90Cardiff DevilsBHL324853101946891714
1990–91Durham WaspsBHL334463107116811172834
1991–92Durham WaspsBHL36514910014071271928
1992–93Cardiff DevilsBHL36515510656812132532
1993–94Cardiff DevilsBHL3454641185887142128
1994–95Cardiff DevilsBHL445271123955710176
1995–96Cardiff DevilsBHL36354075103607718
1996–97Cardiff Devils ISL 411617336274592
1997–98Cardiff DevilsISL28471178914512
1998–99 London Knights ISL36411152861126
1999–00London KnightsISL1834751–––––
1999–00 Guildford Flames BNL 71891461456
2000–01 Basingstoke Bison BNL2????????????–––––
2000–01 Chelmsford Chieftains EPIHL 105182316–––––

International

  Tournament [5]
YearTeamEventGPGAPtsPIM
1986 Great Britain World Junior Championships Pool C 51232
1986Great BritainEuropean Junior Championships Pool C43036
1991Great Britain World Championships Pool C 842616
1992Great BritainWorld Championships Pool C53698
1993Great Britain World Championships Pool B 74486
1994Great Britain World Championships Pool A 61014
1995Great BritainWorld Championships Pool B21012
1997Great BritainWorld Championships Pool B700012
1999Great BritainWorld Championships Pool B71232
1999Great BritainWorld Championships Pool A Qualifiers10000
2000Great BritainWorld Championships Pool B722410

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 Martin C. Harris (2002). "Ian Cooper's British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame entry". Ice Hockey Journalists UK. Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
  2. 1 2 "All Star Team season 87–88". Ice Hockey Journalists UK. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
  3. 1 2 "All Star Team season 88–89". Ice Hockey Journalists UK. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
  4. 1 2 "Ian Cooper's profile at hockeydb.com". The Internet Hockey Database. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
  5. 1 2 "Ian Edward Cooper – player profile and career stats". European Hockey.net. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.