Adam Deadmarsh

Deadmarsh was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1993 NHL entry draft, first round, 14th overall, from the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League. After the lock-out shortened 1994-95 season, the Nordiques relocated to Denver and became the Colorado Avalanche. Deadmarsh helped the Avalanche upset the heavily-favored Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference Finals, and then won the Stanley Cup over the Florida Panthers in 1996. His name was initially misspelled "Deadmarch" on the Cup, but was later corrected; it was the first time a misspelling on the Stanley Cup had ever been corrected.^[2][3]

Deadmarsh was traded to the Los Angeles Kings on February 21, 2001, along with Aaron Miller, a player to be named later (Jared Aulin), and Colorado's first round pick in the 2001 NHL entry draft (Dave Steckel) for Rob Blake and Steve Reinprecht. While the Avalanche were doing well at the time, they leapt at the chance to land Blake who was a star defenseman; the Kings were forced to deal Blake who was a pending unrestricted free agent and had declined to sign a contract extension. ^[4][5] The Kings had not won a postseason series since 1993, but the addition of Deadmarsh and Miller with their consideration postseason experience made the Kings competititive in the playoffs. Deadmarsh became a playoff hero for vaulting the Kings past the heavily favoured Detroit Red Wings in round one of the 2001 Stanley Cup Playoffs, after trailing late in Game 4 by three goals while his team was already down two games to one. Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman has attributed his team's playoff eliminations to Deadmarsh, who was among the Red Wings' most frequent opponents from 1996-2001 while a member of the Avalanche.^[6][7] Los Angeles went on to lose in the conference semifinals to Deadmarsh's former team, the Avalanche, in seven games; the Avalanche would eventually win their second Stanley Cup.

A U.S. citizen by virtue of having an American mother, Deadmarsh played for Team USA in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, the 1998 Winter Olympics, and the 2002 Winter Olympics, winning a gold medal in 1996 and a silver medal in 2002.

After missing most of the 2002–03 NHL season and the entire 2003–04 NHL season due to two concussions (and the next season due to the NHL lockout), Deadmarsh (unofficially) announced his retirement on September 22, 2005, citing the previous concussion as an inability to play further. He was honored on March 20, 2006, before a game between the Avalanche and Kings at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, California, for his dedication to both teams.

He had previously played junior hockey for the Portland Winter Hawks in the Western Hockey League and was a 3 time member of the U.S. National Junior Team, where he shares the all-time U.S. record of 21 games played at the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. He resides in Idaho with his wife and twin daughters.

Adam is a second cousin of former NHL player Butch Deadmarsh.^[8]

After seven years away from hockey, the Colorado Avalanche hired Adam Deadmarsh as their Video/Development Coach On June 19, 2009, where he served in that role from 2009 to 2011.^[9] After spending 2 seasons as Video/Development Coach with the Colorado Avalanche, Deadmarsh was promoted to be an Assistant Coach for the team on June 16, 2011.^[10] After only serving 1 season as an Assistant Coach with Colorado, Adam ultimately resigned from his position behind the bench due to concussion issues on June 7, 2012, and took on a new role with the organization working in their player development office.^[11]

On August 22, 2017, it was announced that the Spokane Chiefs (WHL) had hired Deadmarsh as an assistant coach with their club, where he served from 2017 to 2020.^[12][13]