Blake Coleman became the second former RedHawk to win two career Stanley Cups last month.
And the Tampa Bay forward was the first MU alum to hoist the NHL’s top prize in consecutive seasons.
Coleman has logged 53 career playoff games, 48 of which came in the past two Cup runs with the Lightning, with whom he contributed 24 points and was plus-11.
He is already fourth all-time among Miamians in NHL playoff points (26) and second in plus-minus (12).
Following the season, Coleman was traded to Calgary where the unrestricted free agent signed a six-year, $29 million contract.
Alec Martinez in the only other Miamian with two Stanley Cup rings, winning titles in 2012 and 2014 with Los Angeles.
A look at other RedHawks’ contributions to their respective teams this postseason:
NHL
Alumni represented Miami well this playoff year. In addition to Coleman’s title in Tampa, one former player made it to the second round of the tournament and three more former RedHawks advanced to the conference finals.
Martinez and Reilly Smith qualified for the conference final with Vegas, with the tandem dressing for all 19 of the Golden Knights’ postseason games and combining for 16 points.
Smith, a forward, scored three goals and dished for seven assists in the playoffs, with his 10 points second only to Coleman among Miamians.
Martinez led all former RedHawks in goals with four this playoff year despite playing defense.
— Andy Greene was the other conference finalist, as he played 19 games for the New York Islanders and earned one point.
Thanks to 40 postseason games logged the past two seasons, Greene is third among RedHawks in that category, having dressed for 90 contests.
— Sean Kuraly’s Boston Bruins won one playoff round before being beaten by Greene’s Islanders. He has played in 57 postseason contests, notching 19 points, in six pro seasons.
— Three other Miamians dressed for NHL games in the 2020-21 regular season but did not see time in the playoffs: Jack Roslovic, Austin Czarnik and Louie Belpedio.
Roslovic, who was traded from Winnipeg to his home town of Columbus mid-season, led all former RedHawks in NHL regular season points with 34.
AHL
While the AHL did not play for the Calder Cup this past season due to COVID, several MU alums had solid years with their respective Triple-A teams.
— Grand Rapids forward Riley Barber reached the 20-goal mark for the fourth time in his AHL career despite playing just 32 games in a COVID-shortened season. He has scored 126 AHL goals in six seasons in that league.
— Former MU linemates Josh Melnick and Anthony Louis have reunited with Texas the past two seasons, and 2020-21 was the best season for both in terms of production at the pro level.
Louis notched 26 points in 35 games, an average of 0.74, and Melnick went 9-13-22 in 38 games, or 0.58 points per game.
— Columbus native Carson Meyer extended his string of consecutive seasons playing in-state to five, as he debuted with Cleveland and went 9-11-20 in 26 games.
Meyer played two seasons at Miami and the previous two at Ohio State.
— Gordie Green also logged his first pro games in this league with Toronto, where he went 1-1-2 in 14 games. He also scored eight goals and dished for 10 assists in 19 contests with Wichita of the ECHL.
ECHL
It was an abbreviated playoff year in the ECHL, but the Kelly Cup championship still counts for Fort Wayne’s Justin Vaive.
Vaive logged 13 Kelly Cup games for the Komets, scoring four goals and picking up two assists during their playoff run.
— Pat Cannone was the only other RedHawk whose team qualified for the playoffs. He recorded one assist in three postseason games for Utah, which was bounced in the first round.
— In the regular season, defenseman Trevor Hamilton went 4-30-34 and Cannone tallied 28 points in 36 games. Karch Bachman scored 10 times in 32 games.
EUROPE
Miamians had little success in the postseason overseas, as none of the three skaters whose teams qualified logged more than four playoff games, but five RedHawks recorded at least 28 points with their respective teams, and two pairs did so as teammates.
— In his first season outside North America, Carter Camper finished second on Leksands (Sweden) in points with 46 in 46 games.
Teammate Matthew Caito rolled up four goals and 27 assists, leading the team in defenseman points with 31.
— Former Miami teammates Andy Miele and Chris Wideman joined forces for Nizhny of the KHL (Russian elite league).
Center/forward Miele finished with 44 points and Wideman — a defenseman — ended the season with 41.
— Defenseman River Rymsha went 7-21-28 for Detva of the Slovakian League.
Finals stats for 2020-21 (can also be viewed anytime at https://viewfromtheglass.com/prohawks-2/current-stats-for-miamians-in-the-pros/):
| 2020-21 FINAL PRO STATS | ||||||||
| Skaters | ||||||||
| REGULAR SEASON | Team | Pos. | GP | G | A | Pts. | PIM | + / – |
| Jack Roslovic | Columbus | F | 48 | 12 | 22 | 34 | 14 | -11 |
| Alec Martinez | Las Vegas | D | 53 | 9 | 23 | 32 | 12 | 26 |
| Blake Coleman | Tampa Bay | F | 55 | 14 | 17 | 31 | 37 | 15 |
| Reilly Smith | Las Vegas | F | 53 | 14 | 11 | 25 | 18 | 10 |
| Sean Kuraly | Boston | F | 47 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 20 | -10 |
| Andy Greene | New Jersey | D | 55 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 9 |
| Kiefer Sherwood | Colorado | F | 16 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Austin Czarnik | NY Islanders | F | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| Louie Belpedio | Minnesota | D | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| Totals | 332 | 54 | 85 | 139 | 107 | 39 | ||
| AHL | Team | Pos. | GP | G | A | Pts. | PIM | + / – |
| Riley Barber | Grand Rapids | F | 32 | 20 | 14 | 34 | 22 | 1 |
| Anthony Louis | Texas | F | 35 | 11 | 15 | 26 | 8 | -1 |
| Josh Melnick | Texas | F | 38 | 9 | 13 | 22 | 4 | 3 |
| Carson Meyer | Cleveland | F | 26 | 9 | 11 | 20 | -2 | 13 |
| Cameron Schilling | Hershey | D | 31 | 4 | 15 | 19 | 28 | 12 |
| Kiefer Sherwood | Colorado | F | 10 | 10 | 6 | 16 | 8 | -1 |
| Curtis McKenzie | Utica | F | 26 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 35 | -3 |
| Louie Belpedio | Iowa | D | 23 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 28 | 4 |
| Grant Hutton | Bridgeport | D | 24 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 16 | -3 |
| Vincent LoVerde | Hartford | D | 23 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 16 | 0 |
| Gordie Green | Toronto | F | 14 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | -7 |
| ECHL | Team | Pos. | GP | G | A | Pts. | PIM | + / – |
| Trevor Hamilton | Jacksonville | D | 59 | 4 | 30 | 34 | 23 | 9 |
| Pat Cannone | Utah | F | 36 | 10 | 18 | 28 | 16 | 2 |
| Justin Vaive | Fort Wayne | F | 47 | 10 | 8 | 18 | 93 | -2 |
| Gordie Green | Wichita | F | 19 | 8 | 10 | 18 | 10 | 0 |
| Karch Bachman | Greenville | F | 32 | 10 | 4 | 14 | 13 | 0 |
| Max Cook | Florida | F | 25 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 4 | -4 |
| SPHL | Team | Pos. | GP | G | A | Pts. | PIM | + / – |
| Max Cook | Macon | F | 13 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 2 | 8 |
| Europe | Team | Pos. | GP | G | A | Pts. | PIM | + / – |
| Carter Camper | Leksands | F | 46 | 14 | 32 | 46 | 8 | 6 |
| Andy Miele | Nizhny | F | 55 | 19 | 25 | 44 | 35 | 5 |
| Chris Wideman | Nizhny | D | 59 | 9 | 32 | 41 | 73 | 0 |
| Matthew Caito | Leksands | D | 51 | 4 | 27 | 31 | 46 | -4 |
| River Rymsha | Detva | D | 48 | 7 | 21 | 28 | 78 | 13 |
| Will Weber | Schwenningen | D | 35 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 58 | -1 |
| Colin Sullivan | Chamonix | D | 18 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 24 | -23 |
| PLAYOFFS | ||||||||
| NHL | ||||||||
| Skaters | Teams | Pos. | GP | G | A | Pts. | PIM | + / – |
| Blake Coleman | Tampa Bay | F | 23 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 22 | 5 |
| Alec Martinez | Las Vegas | D | 19 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 1 |
| Sean Kuraly | Boston | F | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | -3 |
| Andy Greene | NY Islanders | D | 19 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 1 |
| Reilly Smith | Las Vegas | F | 19 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 4 | 7 |
| Kiefer Sherwood | Colorado | F | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 93 | 10 | 19 | 29 | 49 | 11 | ||
| ECHL | Team | Pos. | GP | G | A | Pts. | PIM | + / – |
| Justin Vaive | Fort Wayne | F | 13 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
| Pat Cannone | Utah | F | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | -6 |
| Europe | Team | Pos. | GP | G | A | Pts. | PIM | + / – |
| Andy Miele | Nizhny | F | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | -5 |
| Chris Wideman | Nizhny | D | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 20 | -4 |
| Matthew Caito | Leksands | D | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
View From the Glass 