During the 1988 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Campbell and assistant general manager Neil Smith discovered several Red Wings players, including Bob Probert and Petr Klima, out past curfew.
[2][3] The incident occurred at a suburban Edmonton bar called "Goose Loonies", and led to an apology being issued by Demers.
After head coach Mike Keenan left the Rangers after their Stanley Cup win in 1994, Campbell was promoted to take over for him.
That was good enough to get the Rangers into the playoffs as the 8th and lowest seed, where they faced the Eastern Conference regular season champion and top-seeded Quebec Nordiques in the first round.
After losing captain Mark Messier to free agency in the offseason and losing out on Joe Sakic in their quest to bring him to the team after the Colorado Avalanche matched the offer sheet the Rangers signed him to in 1997, Campbell's Rangers struggled out of the gate the next season and he was fired as coach after 57 games, and John Muckler replaced him.
Furthermore, the team also did not win another playoff series, nor mere postseason game until they swept the Atlanta Thrashers during the 2007 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.
Shortly after being fired by the Rangers, Campbell was hired by the NHL as the league's Senior Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations, taking over from the departed Brian Burke.
"[22] Despite the controversy and the admission of inappropriate content and accusations of bias, the NHL posted a strong backing of Campbell on their website and he continued in his role as the Senior Vice President until stepping down on June 1, 2011,[23] Brendan Shanahan replaced his position as Vice President of Player Safety.
In a piece for the Players' Tribune, John Scott revealed that one NHL executive attempted to shame him out of competing, asking how his children would feel about his participation.