Mike Keane's Professional Hockey Career
Three-time Cup Champion One of the Oldest Pro Hockey Players
Aug 19, 2009
Mike Keane might no longer be in the NHL but he’s certainly giving former Canadiens teammate Chris Chelios a run for his money as one of the oldest active professional hockey players in North America. While the 47-year-old Chelios had yet to find a team for a 26th NHL season as of August 19, 2009, Keane’s status is set.
Keane, 42, will suit up for a fifth season with the American Hockey League’s Manitoba Moose in 2009-10. He joined the club following the NHL lockout in 2005 and his experience and leadership had an immediate impact on his new squad; just two weeks into his stint with the Moose, the Winnipeg native was named team captain.
Manitoba Moose Statistics
Scoring was never the name of Keane’s game, though he could be counted upon to chip a few points as needed. In 2008-09, the right-winger notched his best totals on the scoresheet in nearly a decade with 28 points and a plus-10 differential. In 290 games with Manitoba, Keane has amassed 23 goals and 83 points.
Having been around the professional hockey block, he knows what it takes to win and helped guide his young teammates to two division titles, four consecutive playoff appearances and a run to the Calder Cup Final in 2009. The Moose fell to the Hershey Bears in the Cup Final but Keane enjoyed his best AHL postseason numbers with 11 points in 22 games.
Mike Keane’s NHL Career
Despite being passed over in back-to-back draft years, Keane spent 16 seasons in six different NHL uniforms. Signed by the Montreal Canadiens as a free agent in 1988, he played half of his NHL career as a Hab before embarking on stints with the Colorado Avalanche (twice), New York Rangers, Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks.
His best offensive season came in 1992-93 when he amassed 60 points in the regular season and added 15 more in the playoffs, en route to the Canadiens’ 24th Stanley Cup. Keane went on to hoist the Cup twice more as an NHLer, in 1996 with the Avalanche and again in 1999 with the Stars.
As a three-time Stanley Cup champion, Keane is a member of hockey’s elite; only seven other players in league history have clinched the Cup in three different jerseys.
Oldest Player in AHL History
Though no spring chicken, Keane is far from the oldest player to ever lace up the skates for an AHL contest. That honor belongs to Chelios, who made history during the 2008-09 season while on a rehab assignment with the Red Wings’ farm team, the Grand Rapids Griffins. Then 46, the veteran blue-liner eclipsed the previous record held by William Alexander set back in 1953-54. Alexander, the Hershey Bears’ trainer at the time, was 45 years old when he took on the goaltending duties for a single game, as an emergency replacement.
The chance to surpass Chelios’ mark could be on the horizon for Keane, but he’d have a long way to go to become the oldest player in minor professional hockey history. Mr. Hockey himself, Gordie Howe, was 69 years old when he hit the ice for a game with the Detroit Vipers of the former International Hockey League.
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