Vern Stenlund (born April 11, 1956) is a Canadian former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

, university professor, author and coach. He played briefly in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

for the Cleveland Barons during the 1976–77 season.

Playing career

A former second-round NHL draft pick of the

California Golden Seals The California Golden Seals were a professional ice hockey club that competed in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1967–68 NHL season, 1967 to 1975–76 NHL season, 1976. Based in Oakland, California, they played their home games at the Oa ...

in 1976, Stenlund played professionally with the Barons, as well as both the

Salt Lake Golden Eagles The Salt Lake Golden Eagles were a minor professional hockey team based in Salt Lake City from 1969 to 1994. History They played in the Western Hockey League from 1969 to 1974, the Central Hockey League from 1974 to 1984 and the International H ...

and Phoenix Roadrunners of the

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

. Also a standout junior player, Stenlund enjoyed a tremendous junior career in the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; ) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League, alongside the Western Hockey League and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. The league is for players ag ...

with the

London Knights The London Knights are a junior ice hockey team from London, Ontario, Canada, playing in the Ontario Hockey League, one of the leagues of the Canadian Hockey League. The Knights started out in 1965 as the London Nationals but changed to their ...

, where he led the team in scoring with 119 points in the 1975–76 season. He retired from playing in 1981 due to injuries.

Academic career

After retiring from hockey, he earned his doctorate from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in 1994 and went on to become an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the

University of Windsor The University of Windsor (UWindsor, U of W, or UWin) is a public university, public research university in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's southernmost university. It has approximately 17,500 students. The university was incorporated by ...

. In addition to his work at the University of Windsor, Stenlund helped develop the "Chevrolet Safe and Fun Hockey Program" along with former hockey star

Bobby Orr Robert Gordon Orr (born March 20, 1948) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest players of all time. Orr used his skating speed, scoring, and play-making abilities to revolutionize the ...

. Stenlund has also written numerous books about the game, including ''Coaching Hockey Successfully, High-Performance Skating for Hockey, Hockey Drills for Puck Control, Hockey Drills for Passing and Receiving and Hockey Drills for Scoring''. In 2001, the

Ontario Hockey Association The Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) is the governing body for the majority of junior and senior level ice hockey teams in the province of Ontario. Founded in 1890, the OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern ...

appointed Stenlund as its first "master mentor coach", to improve the quality of coaching and the player experience in

junior ice hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from ...

. Stenlund also has worked extensively with

Hockey Canada Hockey Canada (which merged with the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association in 1994) is the national governing body of ice hockey and ice sledge hockey in Canada. It is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation and controls the majority ...

throughout his career, serving on a number of committees geared towards athlete development and education. In 2004–05, he served on three national Hockey Canada committees including the Athlete Development Committee, the Coach Mentorship Advisory Council and the Parent Education Advisory Group. In 2016, he was honoured with the Gordon Jukes Hockey Development Award, one of Hockey Canada's highest recognition for service to the game on a national level. Previously, in September 2015, he was inducted into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in the Builder category. Stenlund served as the ghost writer for hockey legend

's first memoir (published in 2013) titled ''Bobby Orr: My Story''. The book was released through the Penguin Publishing Group across North America and quickly became a

New York Times Best Seller ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...

, reaching #4 on the best sellers list on March 16, 2014. He also assisted former Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page in writing his book titled ''Unaccountable: Truth and Lies on Parliament Hill'' which was released in 2015. He retired in 2014 as a tenured associate professor at the

in the Faculty of Education after a 29-year career.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stenlund, Vern 1956 births Living people 20th-century Canadian sportsmen California Golden Seals draft picks Canadian ice hockey centres Cleveland Barons (NHL) players Cleveland Crusaders draft picks Ice hockey people from Thunder Bay London Knights players Phoenix Roadrunners (CHL) players Salt Lake Golden Eagles (CHL) players University of Michigan alumni Windsor Spitfires coaches