Former Bruin Shawn McEachern comes bearing gifts

The Huskies are hoping Shawn McEachern and yesterday's first snow will bring them some midseason magic for Christmas

Former Bruin and 13-year NHLer Shawn McEachern has taken over an assistant coaching position for Northeastern - it has yet to be officially announced, but I just finished writing a 700-word bio to be posted when it becomes official. McEachern is a pretty significant addition to the coaching staff - the Waltham native, who spent three years at Boston University before going on to collect 256 goals, 323 assists and 579 points with four different NHL teams, is also the proud owner of a Stanley Cup. He was a lucky winner in the 1991-92 season, signing with the team in March just before Super Mario and Co. repeated. For more on McEachern's career stats, visit his profile at Yahoo, Wikipedia, Legends of Hockey or at the Hockey Database. All of these links are great resources for information on hockey players at a variety of levels from juniors to the NHL.

McEachern was traded to the Kings for Marty McSorley and back to the Pens in 1993 and then returned home to Boston along with Kevin Stevens in exchange for current Bruin Glen Murray and former Bruin Brian Smolinski. McEachern had 53 points during the 1995-96 season with the B’s and would eventually return to Boston for his career finale, 28 games during the 2005-06 season. He also won the first 1996 World Cup of Hockey during in that first year at Boston.

In between stints in Boston, McEachern played some of his best hockey during six seasons with Ottawa Senators, before being shipped to the Trashers before the 2002-03 season. There, he was quickly named the team captain, squashing previous plans to rotate the captaincy among four players.

McEachearn was second to only Ilya Kovalchuk on the Thrasher's points list during the 2002-03 season.

In his first game at Atlanta’s Philips Arena, he recorded a hat trick and despite missing much of the season with groin and back injuries, the Thrashers re-signed their leader to a new deal. He returned healthy in 2003-04, played all 82 games and finished second on Atlanta with 55 points while helping the team to a club record 33 wins.

McEachern does have some coaching experience - he was an assistant for part of the 2004-05 lockout season at Salem State College - and he has done a lot of hockey-related community work.