Brian Lawton

**Brian Lawton** (born Brian Robert Lawton on June 29, 1965 in New Brunswick, New Jersey) is an American former professional ice hockey player who played in the NHL for the Minnesota North Stars, New York Rangers, Hartford Whalers,
Quebec Nordiques, Boston Bruins and the San Jose Sharks.

Lawton was drafted first overall by the North Stars in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft.

## Playing Career

Brian played for the U.S. Junior Hockey Team at the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in 1983. He also led his high school, Mount Saint Charles Academy (located in Woonsocket, Rhode Island) to consecutive championships.

He was the first-overall draft pick by the Minneosta North Stars in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft and is also noted for being the first US-born hockey player drafted first-overall in the NHL Entry Draft; as of 2017, Brian is the only U.S. high school hockey player to be drafted first overall into the NHL.

Brian's NHL career included 266 career points in 483 games. Lawton played his first couple of years in Minnesota, and split his second season between the North Stars and their American Hockey League affiliate, the Springfield Indians.

In 1983, Brian was training with the U.S. National Hockey Team, but unlike other North Stars prospects, he was encouraged to turn professional ahead of the 1984 Winter Olympics.

Although he did later play in the 1984 Canada Cup, he missed the extra experience playing in Sarajevo would have afforded him. He also later played for the United States team at the 1987 Championships.

Prior to Jesse Puljujarvi and Mikhail Sergachev, Brian was the only NHL player to ever wear the number 98, which he chose during his rookie season, but he changed to number 8 after two seasons owing to unwelcome comparisons to Wayne Gretzky's number 99. He set a mark for the North Stars franchise for fastest two goals scored by a rookie (at 19 seconds) in 1983.

After playing for five seasons with Minnesota, he had not scored more than 44 points in any season, and the North Stars apparently washed their hands of him, attempting to assign him to their affiliate in Kalamazoo, Michigan. When he refused to report to the team, the North Stars traded him to the New York Rangers in October 1988.

Halfway through the 1988–89 NHL season, the Rangers traded Brian again to Hartford and he would go on to play in eight different cities over the next four years. He retired from professional hockey in 1993 after being traded to the New Jersey Devils by San Jose, but he never playing for the team.

## Post-Playing Career

After retiring from professional hockey, Brian started his company, Lawton Sport and Financial right away. At the time of the company's purchase by Octagon Athlete Representation in 1998, it represented 12 players in the NHL; at times, they represented players such as Mike Modano, Sergei Fedorov and Ryan Malone.

He became Octagon's managing director for hockey, helping Octagon expand their hockey client base and becoming the second-largest hockey agency in the NHL. He left Octagon in 2008 in order to pursue management opportunities in the NHL, having known since his playing days that he ultimately wanted to be in management.

After interviewing for management positions with a number of teams, he caught the attention of then-new Tampa Bay Lightning owners Len Barrie & Oren Koules by approaching them with a prepared 46-page proposal for how to improve the then-last place team.

On June 25, 2008, Brian was named Vice President of Hockey Operations for the Lightning; while Jay Feaster remained in the position of general manager until resigning in July, it was Brian (along with Koules and Barrie) who were making the decisions. Feaster himself indicated in his official announcement that he had already been running the team with Koules and Barrie.

On October 2, 2008, Brian was officially named as general manager and executive vice president; among the earliest moves Lawton made with the Tampa organization were hiring Tom Kurvers & Greg Malone to front office positions, and acquiring and signing Gary Roberts & Ryan Malone (the latter of whom is the son of Greg Malone, and was also a client of Lawton's when he was an agent).

On April 12, 2010, he was dismissed as the general manager and replaced with Tom Kurvers on an interim basis. These days, Brian is currently an on-air analyst for the NHL Network.

## Personal Life

Brian was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and raised in Cumberland, Rhode Island. He married Angelina Rahn in 1992; they currently reside in Minneapolis, Minnesota and have three children.