With a career spanning more than three decades, Scotty Bowman is widely regarded as the most successful professional hockey coach in the history of the game. His incredible record includes the biggest number of playoff wins at 223 and the highest number of wins in the regular season – an impressive 1,244. He was named as the best coach in any of the main professional sports by Sports Illustrated, and won the Jack Adams Award in both in 1977 and 1996. In 2012 he was honoured as an Officer of the Order of Canada and five years later was awarded the Order of Hockey in Canada award. Bowman is the only NHL coach who has helped three sides seal victory in the Stanley Cup, and the teams he coached reached the finals a record 13 times.

Hailing from Quebec, Canada, Bowman was a minor league hockey player in his youth before a fractured skull injury forced him into early retirement from the game. Bowman immediately launched his coaching career, joining the Ottawa Junior Canadiens in 1956 in the Quebec Junior Hockey League. Two years later he helped the side lift the Memorial Cup before moving to the NHL in 1967, where he guided the St. Louis Blues to their first Stanley Cup final in history. In 1971 Bowman joined the Montreal Canadiens, where he enjoyed one of the most successful periods of his career including victory in the Stanley Cup in 1973 followed by four consecutive Stanley Cup wins between 1976 and 1979.

After coaching the Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins and the Canada men’s national ice hockey team, Bowman retired as a coach in 2002. He was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2003, and now works as Chicago Blackhawks Senior Advisor of Hockey Operations.