Rick Dudley

Playing career

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Dudley began his playing career with the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL in 1972–73 and played there for three seasons, before switching leagues in 1975–76. He played four seasons in the WHA for the Cincinnati Stingers. On February 4, 1979, Cincinnati traded him to the NHL's Buffalo Sabres, where he remained until the 1980–81 season. During that season, Dudley was released and picked up by the last place Winnipeg Jets on waivers, where he played the remaining 30 games of the season, wearing the number 99. He spent the next season, 1981–82, playing seven games for the Fredericton Express in the American Hockey League.

Dudley was famous for wearing a headband/sweatband when he played.

Dudley is a member of the Cincinnati Hockey Hall of Fame. He also played for the 1974 Rochester Golden Griffins of the National Lacrosse League in the off season, and it was as a professional playing two sports that he was once featured on the television game show, To Tell the Truth. Despite missing a dozen games at the start of the season because the NHL playoffs and at the end of the season because of Buffalo Sabres training camp, he still managed to finish sixth in league scoring.

Coaching career

Dudley began coaching the next year, 1982–1983, after retiring as a player. He coached in the ACHL, IHL, and AHL, before finally getting a head-coaching job in the NHL with the Buffalo Sabres in the 1989–90 season. While coaching in the IHL, in 1988, he won the Commissioner's Trophy for the Coach of the Year. He coached the Sabres for three seasons before being fired in 1991–92. He then spent the next four seasons coaching three different teams in the IHL, and wouldn't make an NHL coaching appearance again until he was the mid-season replacement for the Florida Panthers in the 2003–04 season.

Executive career

In the summer of 1998, he would be hired as general manager of the Ottawa Senators for the 1998–99 season, after which he would be hired by the Tampa Bay Lightning (who traded Rob Zamuner as part of a package for the rights to negotiate with Dudley.) He would be released by the Lightning in February 2002 and take over as G.M. of the Florida Panthers in May of the same year. Two years later, he would be let go once more and join the Blackhawks organization as a hockey consultant before rising to the level of assistant general manager in 2006.

On June 18, 2009, Dudley would resign from the Blackhawks in order to join the Atlanta Thrashers as Assistant GM. On April 14, 2010, Dudley was named General Manager, replacing Don Waddell, who became club President. Shortly after settling into his new position, when free agency began on July 1, 2010, Dudley aggressively pursued and obtained four players, including Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, and an assistant coach, John Torchetti, from the 2010 Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks. Dudley was dismissed from the team when it moved to Winnipeg in 2011.

Dudley was added to the Toronto Maple Leafs management team as Director of Player Personnel on June 24, 2011. A year later, on May 25, 2012, Dudley was appointed to serve as assistant general manager for the Montreal Canadiens. In the official team press release announcing the move, Canadiens General Manager Marc Bergevin said, "Rick Dudley is a very knowledgeable and proficient hockey executive and we are pleased to welcome him in our organization in the position of assistant general manager."