Paul Harrison

Goaltender Paul Harrison ended a 6 year National Hockey League career as a Buffalo Sabre.

A junior hockey star with the Oshawa Generals, Harrison was drafted by the Minnesota North Stars in 1975. He would only play 8 games in the NHL over his first two seasons as he apprenticed in the minor leagues. He had an incredible 1976-77 season, he was setting records in the AHL. As a member of the New Haven Nighthawk, Harrison played a league leading 55 games posting 32 wins. He was named to the AHL Second All-Star team.

That season convinced the North Stars that Harrison was indeed ready for the NHL. He struggled to a 6-16-2 record in his first full NHL season, and found himself trade to Toronto in the off season.

Harrison had a good opportunity to play with the Leafs, but he had little defensive support from a bad team. He got into 30 games, and posted a 9-17-2 record before returning to the minor leagues.

Harrison spent the entire 1980-81 season in the minors, but was called up for the Leafs playoff run. Harrison was even able to return to game action in a Leafs jersey by participating in one playoff game.

The Pittsburgh Penguins traded for Harrison in 1981-82, but used him sparingly. He saw action in only 13 games before the Penguins waived the goalie. The Buffalo Sabres claimed him in February 1982, and allowed him to participate in 6 regular season contests plus one playoff contest.

This career back up participated in 109 NHL regular season contests, plus 4 playoff games. He posted 28 wins and 2 shutouts. He picked up 1 assist and 28 penalty minutes.

Harrison has since turned from stopping pucks to stopping crime. He is a member of the Ontario Provincial Police.

Former Goalie Loving Life Of A Cop

The Toronto Sun has a good though short piece on Paul Harrison, a goalie who played in 109 NHL games in the late 1970s/early 1980s, most notably with Toronto and Minnesota. For the past 25 years he's been working in Ontario as a police officer. For the past 12 years he's been a very effective administering the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program.

"At today's OPP awards ceremony, Harrison is being singled out for helping to bring the DARE program into the classrooms of 110 schools across Northeastern Ontario. He also helped train and recruit more than 50 police officers as instructors.

"We started out humbly, but have grown quite extensively," Harrison said of the program. "It works because of the officers who teach it."

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