In his three full seasons of junior hockey in the WHL, Barry Beck was an important piece in the New Westminster Bruins machine that made three consecutive visits to the Memorial Cup finals. Beck was highly anticipated in the NHL after being taken second overall in 1977.
Barry enjoyed a decent National Hockey League career. However, injuries were his nemesis and it was ultimately a shoulder injury that brought him down. Beck is still active in hockey as the current head coach of the Hong Kong National Team.
Junior Career
NHL Career
Rookie Card
Career Stats
Barry Beck – Junior
Barry Beck played in the Western Hockey League from 1973-74 to 1976-77, although he appeared in just one game with the Kamloops Chiefs in 1973-74. He played one more game with the Chiefs at the start of the 1974-75 season before heading to the New Westminster Bruins.
Of course, both the Chiefs and Bruins are no longer in the WHL. The Kamloops Chiefs moved out and are the present day Seattle Thunderbirds. Ironically, the New Westminster Bruins ended up in Kamloops where they are now the Kamloops Blazers.
Over his time in the WHL, Beck scored 44 and assisted on 159 for 202 points from the blue line over 189 regular season games. In his true rookie season, 1974-75, the Bruins won the President’s Cup with a four games to three victory over the Saskatoon Blades in the finals. At the Memorial Cup, New Westminster fell to the Toronto Marlboros 7-3 in the final.
The following year, Barry tied for ninth in the WHL with 80 assists, equaling teammate Brad Maxwell, another defenseman. He also placed fifth in the league with 325 penalty minutes. Beck was named a First Team All-Star.
New Westminster once again won the President’s Cup in 1975-76, again beating the Saskatoon Blades in the finals. At the Memorial Cup, it was another Ontario team taking out the Bruins in the finals. This time, it was Dale McCourt and the Hamilton Fincups.
It all came together for the Bruins and Beck in 1976-77. Once again, the team won the President’s Cup, this time beating the Brandon Wheat Kings in the finals. This time, New Westminster would win the Memorial Cup championship with a close 6-5 win over the Ottawa 67’s in the final.
In 1976-77, Beck was named the WHL most valuable player (now the Four Broncos Trophy). He was also named the league’s top defenseman and was again a First Team All-Star. At the Memorial Cup tournament, Barry was an all-star defenseman and won the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as tournament MVP.
Barry Beck – NHL
Between 1977-78 and 1985-86, along with a short comeback stint in 1989-90, Barry Beck played in 615 regular season National Hockey League games with the Colorado Rockies, New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings. Over that time, he scored 104 goals and assisted on 251 for 355 points. In the Stanley Cup playoffs, he added 33 over 51 games.
At the 1977 NHL Amateur Draft, Beck was taken second overall by the Rockies. He went behind only Dale McCourt of the St. Catherines Fincups who went to the Detroit Red Wings. Barry also went second overall at the 1977 WHA Amateur Draft, selected by the Calgary Cowboys. Only Scott Campbell of the London Knights went ahead of him, taken by the Houston Aeros.
In his rookie NHL season, Beck was second to just Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders in voting for the Calder Memorial Trophy. He finished the season with 22 goals and 38 assists for 60 points in 75 regular season games with Colorado. That would turn out to be the best offensive season of his NHL career.
On November 2, 1979, ten games into the 1979-80 NHL season, Beck was shipped to the New York Rangers. Going to the Rockies were Lucien Deblois, Pat Hickey and Dean Turner.
With New York, Barry was team captain from 1980-81 to 1985-86. He replaced Walt Tkaczuk and was replaced by Ron Greschner.
The deepest Beck would get into the Stanley Cup playoffs came in 1980-81. The Rangers reached the semi-finals before being swept by the Islanders. Barry contributed 13 points in 14 post season games that year. In 1980-81, he finished eighth in the NHL during the regular season with 231 PIM.
A shoulder injury brought Beck down during the 1985-86 season. He tried a comeback in 1986-87 but re-injured the shoulder in an exhibition game against the Winnipeg Jets. In 1989-90, Barry returned to the National Hockey League to play 52 games with the Los Angeles Kings.
Barry Beck – Rookie Card
The Barry Beck rookie card appears as number 121 in the 1978-79 O-Pee-Chee and 1978-79 Topps NHL hockey card sets. He is shown as a member of the Colorado Rockies, the team that took him second overall at the 1977 NHL Amateur Draft.
Beck’s final card is included in the 1985-86 O-Pee-Chee and Topps set as a member of the New York Rangers. Despite the market flood of hockey cards that started to show up in 1989-90, Barry did not get a card during his short comeback with the Los Angeles Kings that year.
However, Barry does make a great cameo appearance on the front of Danny Gare‘s 1986-87 O-Pee-Chee hockey card. That would be Gare’s final hockey card and the front shows the two captains fighting for the puck.
Barry Beck – Career Stats
| Season | Team | Lge | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
| 1973-74 | Kamloops Chiefs | WCHL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1974-75 | Kamloops Chiefs | WCHL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1974-75 | New Westminster Bruins | WCHL | 58 | 9 | 33 | 42 | 162 |
| 1975-76 | New Westminster Bruins | WCHL | 68 | 19 | 80 | 99 | 325 |
| 1976-77 | New Westminster Bruins | WCHL | 61 | 16 | 46 | 62 | 167 |
| 1977-78 | Colorado Rockies | NHL | 75 | 22 | 38 | 60 | 89 |
| 1978-79 | Colorado Rockies | NHL | 63 | 14 | 28 | 42 | 91 |
| 1979-80 | Colorado Rockies | NHL | 10 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 8 |
| 1979-80 | New York Rangers | NHL | 61 | 14 | 45 | 59 | 98 |
| 1980-81 | New York Rangers | NHL | 75 | 11 | 23 | 34 | 231 |
| 1981-82 | New York Rangers | NHL | 60 | 9 | 29 | 38 | 111 |
| 1982-83 | New York Rangers | NHL | 66 | 12 | 22 | 34 | 112 |
| 1983-84 | New York Rangers | NHL | 72 | 9 | 27 | 36 | 134 |
| 1984-85 | New York Rangers | NHL | 56 | 7 | 19 | 26 | 65 |
| 1985-86 | New York Rangers | NHL | 25 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 24 |
| 1989-90 | Los Angeles Kings | NHL | 52 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 53 |
| NHL Stats | 615 | 104 | 251 | 355 | 1016 |