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Bruce Ramsay is excited to be working alongside his former teammate and coaching buddy, Todd Nelson.

Story and photo by Mark Newman

Bruce Ramsay had every intention of becoming a teacher.

He had just finished his university degree when he got an opportunity in 1994 to try out for the Prince Edward Island Senators, the American Hockey League team affiliated with the NHL’s Ottawa Senators.

Ramsay had played three seasons for Thunder Bay in the Colonial Hockey League, a lower-level circuit where he made a living dropping his gloves, twice collecting 313 penalty minutes in a single season. He didn’t know the head coach, Dave Allison, but he did his best to impress the new boss behind the bench.

“I did what I did best in training camp,” Ramsay said. Fighting for a roster spot, he took the the challenge quite literally. He knew opportunities to play at a higher level didn’t come around that often, so he knuckled down and worked hard to get noticed.

Ramsay didn’t earn a roster spot out of camp, but he was eventually called up to play a couple of games for the 1994-95 Senators team that included no less than seven players who would one day play for the Grand Rapids Griffins.

One look at the scoresheet seemingly told you everything you needed to know about Ramsay. He amassed 462 penalty minutes in 62 games for the Thunder Bay Senators during the 1994-95 season, when he added 14 goals and 29 assists, impressive totals given the amount of time he was spending in the sin bin.

Ramsay had 400 penalty minutes in 56 games with Thunder Bay the following season, when he also appeared in three games in the International Hockey League with the Milwaukee Admirals. He was not one to sit quietly, waiting for opportunities to come. This was not a man sitting on his hands.

He quickly earned a reputation as a standup guy, an energetic enforcer who was eager to defend his teammates without hesitation or fear. At age 26, he became a player-assistant coach in Thunder Bay when he received another call from Allison.

Allison had become the new head coach of the expansion team in Grand Rapids, and he had taken issue with the fact that San Antonio Dragons had taken liberties with his Griffins squad not once but twice during the first month of the team’s inaugural 1996-97 season.

“He persuaded me to come here for a couple of games to see what it was like and I took advantage of the opportunity,” Ramsay said. “A two-week tryout turned into three years with the Griffins and the opportunity to meet my wife, Jennifer.”

Two decades later, Ramsay is back in Grand Rapids as an assistant coach to former teammate Todd Nelson. Even though he retired as a player long ago, Ramsay, now the father of two children, Natalie, 14, and Reid, 11, remains as competitive as ever.

“I’ve probably settled down a bit from my playing days, but I still have that energy and fire,” he said. “When I played, there was never any question that I wanted to win more than anyone else. That’s always been my approach.”

Ramsay was a rugged competitor whose toughness was unmatched. More than one teammate has proclaimed that Ramsay was, pound for pound, the toughest guy they knew, and it was hardly a surprise when he signed a contract with the St. Louis Blues following his first season in Grand Rapids.

It gave him his first and only taste of an NHL training camp.

“It was an incredible thrill, especially when you consider the players who were there at the time: Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Chris Pronger, Al MacInnis, Steve Duchesne, Grant Fuhr and the list goes on. It was especially cool for me because Pronger was from my hometown, Dryden, Ontario, and even used to date my sister.”

The Blues’ roster also included Pavol Demitra, whom Ramsay had befriended the prior year because both of their careers went back to Prince Edward Island. “We got tattoos together with Matt Ruchty,” he recalled. “I got a ram and he got a bulldog.”

Ramsay was assigned by St. Louis to Worcester (AHL) after the camp, but he never played there as the Griffins bought out his contract so he could return to Grand Rapids. “I thought I had a real good training camp, but there were 70-plus players there and I was a little older, so I don’t think I fit into St. Louis’ plans.”

After playing two more seasons with the Griffins – for whom his 781 penalty minutes still rank second all time – Ramsay departed to become a player-assistant coach for Allison in Fort Wayne during the 1999-2000 season. He played a year in the Central Hockey League with the Wichita Thunder before finishing his playing career in Muskegon.

Ramsay and Todd Nelson were serving as player-assistant coaches under Danton Cole in 2001-02 when the Muskegon Fury captured the Colonial Cup as UHL champs. “There’s no better feeling after working so hard for a whole season than experiencing the results of being the best in the league,” he said.

Although Ramsay and Nelson became close that season, their bond had been forged much earlier.

“When I got called up to the Griffins, my first game was in Quebec City and my roommate was Todd Nelson,” he recalled. “Right from the beginning, we hit it off. We stayed close through the years, and after Nellie got the head coaching position in Muskegon, he relied heavily on me to help him out.”

In 2002-03, Ramsay had left the UHL to accept his first head coaching position in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League, but he returned to lead the Port Huron Beacons through the 2003-04 campaign.

Nelson, meanwhile, led the Fury to back-to-back UHL titles in 2004 and 2005 before losing out in the second round in 2006. When Nelson left to become an assistant coach with the Chicago Wolves, he recommended Ramsay to be his successor.

Ramsay was the head coach in Muskegon for three seasons before taking the head coaching position with the CHL’s Tulsa Oilers in 2009-10, one year before Nelson became the head coach of the Oklahoma City Barons.

All told, Ramsay coached six years in Tulsa, giving him a total of 11 seasons of head coaching experience at the AA level.

“When you’re the head coach and director of hockey operations at that level, you’re in charge of recruiting, immigration, housing, scheduling… basically every aspect that falls under running a team,” he said. “It was a very hands-on experience.”

For the past five seasons, Ramsay and Nelson were the only two professional hockey coaches in Oklahoma.

“We were only 90 minutes away, so I’d visit him sometimes in Oklahoma City and he’d come fish with me in the summertime,” Ramsay said. “I loved Tulsa, a great city with friendly people. It was really hot in the summer, but the winters were nice.”

When Nelson succeeded Jeff Blashill to become the 10th head coach in Griffins history, Ramsay got the offer to join his old teammate and coaching buddy in Grand Rapids. He didn’t hesitate before saying yes.

“Nellie is an intelligent coach who understands the game extremely well,” Ramsay said. “He knows how to motivate players to strive to be their best. And, like I do, he believes in having a healthy locker room where guys want to play for the guy beside them, where the whole team is working for each other.”

Ramsay was thrilled to be given the opportunity to not only rejoin the Griffins but also to work with the Red Wings organization.

“I think 24 straight seasons in the playoffs says everything about the standards that are set in Detroit,” he said. “Developing players is their specialty and I’m excited that I’m now going to be part of that process. As a coach, you want to work with the best players you can, and I now get to work with future NHLers. That’s really exciting.”

Bruce Ramsay is excited to be working alongside his former teammate and coaching buddy, Todd Nelson.

Story and photo by Mark Newman

Bruce Ramsay had every intention of becoming a teacher.

He had just finished his university degree when he got an opportunity in 1994 to try out for the Prince Edward Island Senators, the American Hockey League team affiliated with the NHL’s Ottawa Senators.

Ramsay had played three seasons for Thunder Bay in the Colonial Hockey League, a lower-level circuit where he made a living dropping his gloves, twice collecting 313 penalty minutes in a single season. He didn’t know the head coach, Dave Allison, but he did his best to impress the new boss behind the bench.

“I did what I did best in training camp,” Ramsay said. Fighting for a roster spot, he took the the challenge quite literally. He knew opportunities to play at a higher level didn’t come around that often, so he knuckled down and worked hard to get noticed.

Ramsay didn’t earn a roster spot out of camp, but he was eventually called up to play a couple of games for the 1994-95 Senators team that included no less than seven players who would one day play for the Grand Rapids Griffins.

One look at the scoresheet seemingly told you everything you needed to know about Ramsay. He amassed 462 penalty minutes in 62 games for the Thunder Bay Senators during the 1994-95 season, when he added 14 goals and 29 assists, impressive totals given the amount of time he was spending in the sin bin.

Ramsay had 400 penalty minutes in 56 games with Thunder Bay the following season, when he also appeared in three games in the International Hockey League with the Milwaukee Admirals. He was not one to sit quietly, waiting for opportunities to come. This was not a man sitting on his hands.

He quickly earned a reputation as a standup guy, an energetic enforcer who was eager to defend his teammates without hesitation or fear. At age 26, he became a player-assistant coach in Thunder Bay when he received another call from Allison.

Allison had become the new head coach of the expansion team in Grand Rapids, and he had taken issue with the fact that San Antonio Dragons had taken liberties with his Griffins squad not once but twice during the first month of the team’s inaugural 1996-97 season.

“He persuaded me to come here for a couple of games to see what it was like and I took advantage of the opportunity,” Ramsay said. “A two-week tryout turned into three years with the Griffins and the opportunity to meet my wife, Jennifer.”

Two decades later, Ramsay is back in Grand Rapids as an assistant coach to former teammate Todd Nelson. Even though he retired as a player long ago, Ramsay, now the father of two children, Natalie, 14, and Reid, 11, remains as competitive as ever.

“I’ve probably settled down a bit from my playing days, but I still have that energy and fire,” he said. “When I played, there was never any question that I wanted to win more than anyone else. That’s always been my approach.”

Ramsay was a rugged competitor whose toughness was unmatched. More than one teammate has proclaimed that Ramsay was, pound for pound, the toughest guy they knew, and it was hardly a surprise when he signed a contract with the St. Louis Blues following his first season in Grand Rapids.

It gave him his first and only taste of an NHL training camp.

“It was an incredible thrill, especially when you consider the players who were there at the time: Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Chris Pronger, Al MacInnis, Steve Duchesne, Grant Fuhr and the list goes on. It was especially cool for me because Pronger was from my hometown, Dryden, Ontario, and even used to date my sister.”

The Blues’ roster also included Pavol Demitra, whom Ramsay had befriended the prior year because both of their careers went back to Prince Edward Island. “We got tattoos together with Matt Ruchty,” he recalled. “I got a ram and he got a bulldog.”

Ramsay was assigned by St. Louis to Worcester (AHL) after the camp, but he never played there as the Griffins bought out his contract so he could return to Grand Rapids. “I thought I had a real good training camp, but there were 70-plus players there and I was a little older, so I don’t think I fit into St. Louis’ plans.”

After playing two more seasons with the Griffins – for whom his 781 penalty minutes still rank second all time – Ramsay departed to become a player-assistant coach for Allison in Fort Wayne during the 1999-2000 season. He played a year in the Central Hockey League with the Wichita Thunder before finishing his playing career in Muskegon.

Ramsay and Todd Nelson were serving as player-assistant coaches under Danton Cole in 2001-02 when the Muskegon Fury captured the Colonial Cup as UHL champs. “There’s no better feeling after working so hard for a whole season than experiencing the results of being the best in the league,” he said.

Although Ramsay and Nelson became close that season, their bond had been forged much earlier.

“When I got called up to the Griffins, my first game was in Quebec City and my roommate was Todd Nelson,” he recalled. “Right from the beginning, we hit it off. We stayed close through the years, and after Nellie got the head coaching position in Muskegon, he relied heavily on me to help him out.”

In 2002-03, Ramsay had left the UHL to accept his first head coaching position in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League, but he returned to lead the Port Huron Beacons through the 2003-04 campaign.

Nelson, meanwhile, led the Fury to back-to-back UHL titles in 2004 and 2005 before losing out in the second round in 2006. When Nelson left to become an assistant coach with the Chicago Wolves, he recommended Ramsay to be his successor.

Ramsay was the head coach in Muskegon for three seasons before taking the head coaching position with the CHL’s Tulsa Oilers in 2009-10, one year before Nelson became the head coach of the Oklahoma City Barons.

All told, Ramsay coached six years in Tulsa, giving him a total of 11 seasons of head coaching experience at the AA level.

“When you’re the head coach and director of hockey operations at that level, you’re in charge of recruiting, immigration, housing, scheduling… basically every aspect that falls under running a team,” he said. “It was a very hands-on experience.”

For the past five seasons, Ramsay and Nelson were the only two professional hockey coaches in Oklahoma.

“We were only 90 minutes away, so I’d visit him sometimes in Oklahoma City and he’d come fish with me in the summertime,” Ramsay said. “I loved Tulsa, a great city with friendly people. It was really hot in the summer, but the winters were nice.”

When Nelson succeeded Jeff Blashill to become the 10th head coach in Griffins history, Ramsay got the offer to join his old teammate and coaching buddy in Grand Rapids. He didn’t hesitate before saying yes.

“Nellie is an intelligent coach who understands the game extremely well,” Ramsay said. “He knows how to motivate players to strive to be their best. And, like I do, he believes in having a healthy locker room where guys want to play for the guy beside them, where the whole team is working for each other.”

Ramsay was thrilled to be given the opportunity to not only rejoin the Griffins but also to work with the Red Wings organization.

“I think 24 straight seasons in the playoffs says everything about the standards that are set in Detroit,” he said. “Developing players is their specialty and I’m excited that I’m now going to be part of that process. As a coach, you want to work with the best players you can, and I now get to work with future NHLers. That’s really exciting.”