Craig MacTavish is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player. He played center for 17 seasons in the National Hockey League with the Boston Bruins, Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and St. Louis Blues, winning the Stanley Cup four times (1987, 1988, 1990, 1994). He was the last NHL player not to wear a helmet during games.
MacTavish played two years of NCAA hockey with the University of Lowell Chiefs (now University of Massachusetts Lowell River Hawks) from 1977 to 1979. He was drafted by the Boston Bruins in the 1978 NHL Entry Draft with their ninth pick, 153rd overall, and spent the next several years splitting time between the Bruins and various American Hockey League teams. He finally made the Bruins for good in 1982–83 and played two full seasons with them.
The Oilers signed MacTavish for the 1985–86 season and he spent eight full seasons with the Oilers, helping them to win three Stanley Cups in 1987, 1988, 1990 and serving as team captain from 1992 to 1994. MacTavish was traded to the New York Rangers in 1994, just in time to help several other former Oilers (including Kevin Lowe, Glenn Anderson, Adam Graves, Jeff Beukeboom, Esa Tikkanen and Mark Messier) win the Stanley Cup.
The next season MacTavish signed with the Philadelphia Flyers as a free agent, and was traded to the St. Louis Blues during the 1995–96 season. MacTavish retired following the 1996–97 season and turned to coaching immediately after retiring as a player, signing on as an assistant with the Rangers. After two seasons in New York, he returned to the Oilers as an assistant coach in the 1999–2000 season under former teammate Kevin Lowe. He was subsequently promoted to the top job when Lowe succeeded Sather as general manager. In the 2005–06 season, MacTavish led the Oilers on their run to the Stanley Cup Finals. On April 15, 2009, Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini announced that MacTavish had been relieved of his duties as head coach of the club.
During the 2011–12 season, MacTavish coached the Chicago Wolves, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks. After the season, MacTavish left the Canucks organization, returned to the Oilers as Senior Vice-president of Hockey operations and was named general manager on April 15, 2013. After several years in management, he returned to coaching in 2019 signing a two-year contract with the Russian KHL team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. On September 24, 2019, it was announced that Lokomotiv Yaroslav fired MacTavish after only eight games. In December 2019, he served as head coach of Team Canada and led the squad to the title at the Spengler Cup. He took over the head coaching job at Swiss team Lausanne HC on February 27, 2020. On July 1, 2022, MacTavish was hired by the St. Louis Blues as an assistant coach for the 2022-2023 season but was relieved of his duties for the following season.
