Kris Manery once held scoring record at University of Michigan

By C. Scott Holland

One of Leamington’s NHL alumni may not have had a long NHL career, but his prolific scoring in both junior and university hockey put his name into those record books.

Kris Manery joined the ranks of the NHL with the newly formed Cleveland Barons in 1977-78. From there, his NHL career spanned several seasons and several teams, including the Minnesota North Stars, Vancouver Canucks and Winnipeg Jets.

Manery as captain of the U of M team.

However, Kris is best remembered locally for being an important part of the Leamington Flyers in 1971-72 when he posted 35 goals and 54 assists in his rookie season and then in 1972-73 when he had 60 goals and 45 assists to lead all Great Lakes Jr. C scorers.

His Junior C hockey career led to a full-ride scholarship at the University of Michigan. Those four years enabled Kris to become the university men’s hockey team all-time leading goal scorer (at that time).

Today his total goals are still among the university’s top marks ever. As well, he became only the second U of M player to amass over 200 points in a career. In 1975-76 he was named the university team’s MVP.

In 1976-77, Manery was named U of M’s captain and led the team to the NCAA finals, which was played at Olympia Stadium, but U of M lost a heartbreaker in overtime to the University of Wisconsin.

Kris Manery, right, meets with three of Leamington’s other NHL alumni in 1995. From left are Darren McCarty, Kirk Bowman, Pat Ribble and Manery.

Photo courtesy of the Scott Holland Collection

He signed with the Cleveland Barons as a free agent in October 1977 and the Barons would play the LA Kings in their debut. His older brother, Randy, was a member of that Kings squad.

After his NHL career ended, he played a season of CHL hockey with Tulsa and tabbed 54 goals and 35 assists for 89 points. Then he headed to Europe and played there from 1982 to 1984. After a short stint in 1984-85 with Birmingham (AHL), he retired from hockey.

In 1979, Manery was a member of Team Canada at the Izvestia International tourney held annually in Russia. Canada brought home the bronze medal.

In 2008, he was inducted into the Windsor-Essex County Hall of Fame.