Penguins History: Michel Briere

Years before Mario Lemieux hoisted the Penguins onto his broad shoulders and carried them to Stanley Cup glory, another center of French-Canadian descent wowed the Steel City faithful with his slick moves and clever, determined play.

Like No. 66, Michel Edouard Briere was a junior hockey scoring champion. Unlike Mario, he was not expected to be a franchise player. Although he piled up a whopping 320 points during two seasons with the Shawinigan Bruins, he was overlooked by the other NHL teams in the 1969 Amateur Draft. Even the Penguins passed on the will o’ the wisp center.

“We took Rick Kessell on the second round and Michel Briere on the third round,” general manager Jack Riley recalled. “He was the 26th player picked in the draft. We made a mistake there.”

Scout Dick Coss, who pleaded with Riley to select the La Belle Province scoring sensation, knew Briere was something special.

“This kid spent his life playing against and beating boys who towered over him,” Coss said. “Michel knew what the other pro scouts were saying about him as a junior—that he was too small. But every summer, he’d go down into the mine or to the saw-mill and build himself up.”

Briere clearly believed in himself, too. When Riley offered him a $4,000 signing bonus, the rookie demanded an additional $1,000.

“I asked him why,” Riley recalled. “It’s really not that much extra money,” Briere responded, “because I’ll be playing for the Penguins for the next 20 years.”

The youngster proved to be a quick study.

“At the start of the season, Penguins coach Red Kelly tried to protect Briere, keeping him out of matchups with stronger, more experienced centers,” wrote Pittsburgh Press Sports Editor Roy McHugh. “On faceoffs it seemed that Montreal’s Jean Beliveau beat him to the draw every time—at the start of the season. By the end of the season, Briere was beating Beliveau, getting his stick on the puck before it hit the ice.”

In an era when few players made the jump from junior hockey to the NHL, Briere flourished. Slotted between Val Fonteyne and Jean Pronovost on the speedy “Jet Line,” he led the club in assists and finishing third in scoring.

“He looked like a kid, he looked like a little boy, and he was out there doing great things,” Pronovost said.

Kelly marveled at Briere’s elusiveness. One night in Philadelphia two Flyers lined him up in their crosshairs. At the last second Michel squirted through an opening and the unfortunate foes cracked heads, knocking each other unconscious.

“If they looked at the puck, he’d be gone,” Kelly said. “He was slippery, he could shift and make movements, but all the time he was doing this he was still skating. A lot of guys, when they shift, aren’t going anywhere. Michel kept on skating at the same rate of speed.”

Considered the Pens’ brightest star, Briere soon was targeted for abuse. During the 1970 Stanley Cup Semifinals, St. Louis coach Scotty Bowman assigned the rugged tandem of Noel Picard and Bob Plager the task of stopping the precocious rookie by any means.

Using his quickness and wits to fullest advantage, Briere made the brawny defenders look foolish. With Picard and Plager lumbering in his vapor trail, he enjoyed an extraordinary series, racking up a team-high four goals.

It appeared that Briere would make good on his promise to play in Pittsburgh for 20 years. However, on the evening of May 15, 1970, fate intervened to deliver a crushing blow. While traveling with friends near his hometown of Malartic, Quebec, Michel’s car skidded off the road. As a result of injuries sustained in the accident, the 20-year-old lapsed into a coma.

The Penguins rallied around their fallen teammate. In a touching display of support, they took his jersey on road trips during the 1970-71 season. During trips to Montreal the team visited Briere in the hospital.

“You’d walk in and sit down, you’d take hold of his hand,” Kelly recalled. “He’d turn his head toward you and his eyes would open, staring. He couldn’t talk. I was always optimistic, but the last time I saw him …”

Michel tragically passed away on April 13, 1971. To honor his legacy, the Penguins retired his No. 21. Over the team’s 44-year history, only Lemieux was afforded the same tribute.