Mark Osborne (ice hockey)


Mark Anatole Osborne is a Canadian retired ice hockey player. Osborne played in the National Hockey League primarily as a checking winger between 1981 and 1995. Osborne played in 919 games, tallying 212 goals and 531 points.

Playing career

As a youth, Osborne played in the 1974 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with the Toronto Shopsy's minor ice hockey team.
Osborne played his junior career for the Niagara Falls Flyers of the Ontario Hockey League for three seasons, between 1979 and 1981. After his second year there, he was selected 46th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the 1980 NHL Entry Draft.
As a rookie in the 1981–82 season he scored an impressive 26 goals and totaled 67 points, which would prove to be the second highest point total of his career, behind his 73 in the 1989–90 season with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
During the 1983 off-season he was traded to the New York Rangers in the trade that saw popular Ron Duguay leave the Rangers. In New York, Osborne played three and a half seasons, reaching the semifinals with them in 1986. At the 1987 trade deadline he was shipped to the Maple Leafs for his first stint there, which lasted five and a half seasons. In Toronto he played on a line with Gary Leeman and Ed Olczyk called the GEM line. In November 1990, he was sent to the Winnipeg Jets, but returned to the Leafs in a 1992 trade deadline deal for Lucien Deblois. In his second stint with Toronto he was on an effective checking line with Bill Berg and Peter Zezel and helped the Leafs reach the Conference Finals in two consecutive seasons, falling short each time of making it to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Before the shortened 1995 season Osborne signed with the Rangers, for his final NHL season. He went on to play three more years with the Cleveland Lumberjacks of the International Hockey League as a player-coach, before retiring in 1997–98.

Post playing career

After retiring Osborne worked as general manager of the Toronto St. Michael's Majors of the OHL from October 29, 1999, to August 2000, after serving as an assistant coach the previous season. He followed that by becoming assistant GM of the Mississauga IceDogs for the 2002–03 season. Osborne was a hockey analyst with The Score Television Network. He then became an analyst for Leafs TV, a popular media outlet covering the Toronto Maple Leafs. He is currently a pro scout for the Los Angeles Kings organization.

Personal facts

Osborne is a devout Christian and worked at a Christian hockey camp in the off-seasons in London, Ontario and Moncton, New Brunswick. His nickname is Ozzie. He has been married to actress Madolyn Smith since 1988. His father, Alex Osborne, formerly led a major branch of the CIBC in Toronto, Canada.