Tony Hand Tony Hand ( born 15 August 1967 in Edinburgh ) is a Scottish ice hockey player who became the first British - born and raised player to be drafted by an NHL team when he was picked by the Edmonton Oilers in 1986 . He is currently player - coach of the Manchester Phoenix . He holds several national records , and has scored over 4000 points in his career . Hand grew up in the Muirhouse area of Edinburgh , the second son to David and Lorraine Hand and attended St Augustine ' s Catholic School . He started his ice hockey career with the Edinburgh based Murrayfield Racers , playing for their junior team the Raiders and working part - time at the rink . His older brother Paul was also an ice hockey player . Professional career . Early playing career . He made his senior debut on September 20 , 1981 at the age of fourteen against the Fife Flyers when the Murrayfield Racers had a player shortage . He gained his first point against the Billingham Bombers on October 17 , 1981 with an assist to a Chris Kelland goal . He finished the 1981 / 82 season having played 19 games with figures of 4 goals , 7 assist and followed it up the following year with 20 goals and 22 assists from 24 games . He established himself as a regular first choice player for Murrayfield side that finished 5th in the 1983 / 84 season , scoring 52 goals and 43 assists in 30 league games after scoring 12 goals and 8 assists in 7 Autumn Cup games . He reached his first Championship Playoff Final with Murrayfield but despite Hand scoring 10 goals and 5 assists in 6 games , they lost 5 – 4 to Dundee Rockets . He went on to represent Great Britain at the World Junior Championships scoring 6 goals and 3 assists . In the 1984 / 85 , Hand clocked up his career 100th league goal against Durham Wasps , scoring 72 in the season and broke Roy Halpin ' s league assists record with 92 . He also scored 27 goals and 24 assists in 14 Autumn Cup and Championship Playoff games . With Murrayfield , he reached his second successive final after the Racer finished 3rd in the league but again they lost , this time to Fife Flyers . Representing Great Britain at the Pool C European Championships in Feltre in Italy , he played 3 games and scored 4 points . He also scored 2 goals while guesting for Dundee in the European Cup . In the 1985 / 86 season , Hand continued to clock up the points scoring 79 goals and 85 assists from 32 games to help Murrayfield finish 2nd in the League behind Durham , including his 200th goal against Peterborough Pirates on February 8 , 1986 . In 15 cup and playoff games , he also scored 35 goals and 36 assists as Murrayfield won both competitions . They beat Durham 8 – 5 in the Autumn Cup and Dundee 4 – 2 at Wembley . Personally , he was awarded the Young Player of the Year award winning a couple of weeks attendance at the Calgary Flames training camp to train with NHL players . NHL draft pick . Instead of attending the Flames training camp , Hand went to the Edmonton Oilers ' training camp after they had selected him in the 12th round ( 252nd and last overall ) of 1986 NHL entry draft . There he survived the full fourteen days of camp without being cut , despite breaking his one and only stick on the first day and having to borrow one from Marty McSorley . Playing alongside players such as Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier , he impressed coach Glen Sather and was offered a contract to play Junior Hockey for a year . Suffering from homesickness , Hand turned it down but agreed to return the following year . Hand was the first of only two British born and trained player ever to have been drafted by an NHL team ( the second being Colin Shields ) . Before returning home to Scotland , Hand played briefly for the Junior Western Hockey League ' s Victoria Cougars , with whom he had trained with before the Edmonton camp , scoring eight points in only three games , but returned to Scotland a few months later due to exhaustion from the demands of training , playing and press interest . Despite the interest of other British clubs Hand returned to play for the Racers , where he won his first Heineken League Premier title , the Regal Scottish Cup and Scottish League . He broke the 200 league point barrier for the first time , scoring an amazing 105 goals and 111 assists in 35 games , scoring his 300th career goal against Nottingham Panthers in February 1987 . He also won a bronze medal with the Great Britain Under - 21 ' s in Pool C of the World Championships in Denmark . However , they lost the play - off to Durham Wasps . The following season , Hand went back to Canada to train with the Cougars before heading to Edmonton where he played for the Oilers against Team Canada and assisted a Kevin Lowe goal . Again he was offered a contract with the farm team in Nova Scotia but again turned it down , afraid of being stuck in Junior hockey earning less than his contract in Edinburgh . In his autobiography , Hand concedes that this was perhaps a mistake and that perhaps he should have re - negotiated the offer . In the foreword , Sather expressed his disappointment that " he didn ' t accept my deal because he could have advanced in North America . His progress would have been celebrated . " Indeed , Sather also says " At the training camp I could see that he had a great ability to read the ice and he was the smartest player there other than Wayne Gretzky . he skated well : his intelligence on the ice stood out . he was a real prospect . " Return to Britain . Hand returned in October 1987 for Murrayfield ' s first ill - fated trip onto the continent to play in the IIHF ' s European Cup where , after beating Bulgarian side Slavia Sofia in a preliminary round , the semi - pro team from Scotland were thrashed by full - time sides from Holland , Sweden and Germany . On the domestic front they again won the Heineken League as well as the Scottish League and Cup double . However , in the Norwich Union Cup & Championship play - offs , Durham Wasp again proved to be their nemesis . After beating Murrayfield 11 – 5 in the final of the Autumn Cup competition , Durham also knocked them out of the Wembley Semi - final 11 – 8 despite Hand scoring a Championship record 7 points in the match . Hand ended the 1987 – 88 season with 125 goals and 135 assists in 52 league and cup games having scored his 400th league goal against Whitley Warriors on March 13 . During the close season , Hand trained with Geneve - Servette and was offered a contract as their fourth import , but in the top Swiss league which allowed only three imports to play in game , he turned it down . Instead he returned to Murrayfield where , in an indifferent year , he scored 114 goals and 162 assists in 49 games , including his 1 , 000th point and 500th goal . Having won the Scottish league and cup double with Murrayfield , Hand was selected for the GB senior team for the first time , making his debut in the World Championships Pool D competition in Belgium . In 4 games , he scored 6 goals and 12 assists to help Britain to a third - place finish and receiving his first World Championship medal . At the end of the 1989 – 90 season , after winning the Norwich Union Cup and the Scottish double , Murrayfield reached the Wembley play - off for the fifth time in seven years but lost to Cardiff Devils on penalty shots with Hand missing the deciding shot . He played 45 games , scoring 73 goals and 117 assists . In March 1990 , he won a Gold medal and the MVP award during Great Britain ' s Pool D promotion campaign in Cardiff scoring 5 goals and 8 assists in 4 one - sided games against Australia and Spain . The following season was a disappointing one for Hand as Murrayfield won only one trophy , the Capital Foods Scottish Cup and Great Britain could only finish fifth in the Pool C competition in Denmark . On a personal front , Hand scored his 600th league goal against Durham Wasps and a record 11 assists against Trafford Metros in the quarter - final stage of the Norwich Union Cup . Overall , he scored 85 goals and 147 assists for Murrayfield in 52 games plus 9 goals and 12 assists in 8 games for the GB side . 1991 – 92 started badly for Hand with an eight - game ban for a drug offence when a cold remedy gave a positive result for traces of ephedrine . However , the domestic season got better for him personally as he was awarded a place on the All - Star team and was voted Players ' Player of the Year . He was also the League ' s top scorer with 60 goals and 80 assists in 36 games and captained the Scotland side that beat England 7 – 6 in the 49th Home International , scoring three of the goals . For the Murrayfield team though , the season was full of controversy and disappointment which ended without qualifying for the play - offs . In March 1992 , the Pool C competition was held in Hull and in a group containing Australia , Belgium , Hungary , North Korea and South Korea , the GB team won the gold medal and promotion to Pool B . Hand finished top scorer with 6 goals and 12 assists in the 5 games to win the Best Forward award . End of an era . Despite good offers from many teams over the years , Hand had remained with the Murrayfield Racers until they folded in 1994 . Even then he joined the newly - formed Edinburgh Racers , scoring over 200 points in a season for the third time in his career . However , after a single season with the Edinburgh Racers who also went bankrupt , Hand finally moved to the Sheffield Steelers , in the Superleague . Four years later , another return to Scotland came with a move to the Ayr Scottish Eagles . It was also around this time that Hand was offered a place on the roster of HPK of Finland ' s SM - Liiga Coaching career . In 2001 , Hand started a coaching career as player - coach of the newly formed Dundee Stars of the British National League , before returning to Edinburgh to coach the Edinburgh Capitals , where he has coached twice ( 2003 – 2004 and 2005 – 2006 ) . Between these two spells at Edinburgh Hand was player - coach of the Belfast Giants . In 2004 Hand received an MBE for services to ice hockey . On 19 April 2006 , Hand was announced as the head coach of the Manchester Phoenix for the 2006 – 07 season . Hand has now released his autobiography , " Tony Hand : A Life in British Ice Hockey " , telling all the stories from his career . It is written with Ice Hockey Journalists UK member , Mike Appleton . Still playing aged 41 , in November 2008 he scored his 4000th career point against Hull Stingrays .