Peter Laviolette has given Westfield State College both national and international recognition as a hockey player and coach. 

The 1986 Westfield State graduate coached the Carolina Hurricanes to the coveted Stanley Cup championship in 2006. Recognized for his oustanding leadership qualities, Laviolette also served as the head coach of the U.S. team at the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, Italy.

Laviolette played for the United States in two Winter Olympic Games: the 1988 Calgary Games and in 1994 at Lillehammer, Norway. Laviolette was the only NCAA Division 3 player on both teams and earned the prestigious honor of being named captain of the 1994 Team USA squad. 

Laviolette also served as the head coach of the New York Islanders. In his first year at the helm of the NHL club, the 37-year-old led the vastly improved Islanders to the 2002 playoffs, where they lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a seven-game, first-round series.
 
Under Laviolette's direction, the Islanders went from having the worst record in the NHL to the fifth best mark in the Eastern Conference with 98 points. Their 44-point increase from the 2001 season was the fourth best turnaround in NHL history. 

Laviolette's meteoric rise in the coaching ranks begin as an assistant coach while finishing his playing career in 1997 as a member of the Providence Bruins, Boston's minor league affiliate in the American Hockey League (AHL). In 1997-98, he began his minor league head coaching career with the Wheeling Thunderbirds in West Virginia and led them to the East Coast Hockey League playoff semifinals. 

In 1998, he began a two-year stint as head coach of the Providence Bruins. In 1998-99, he led Providence to the winningest season in AHL history with a 56-14-4-4 record and a 15-4 postseason run as it captured the AHL's Calder Cup championship. At the conclusion of the season, Laviolette was named the league's Outstanding Coach. 

In 1999-2000, he again led Providence to a playoff spot despite using more than 80 players due to injuries and recalls to Boston. His two-year record at Providence was 89-54-10-7 with a 25-8 playoff record. 

During the 2000-2001 season, Laviolette was promoted to the NHL where he served as an assistant coach with the Boston Bruins. The Franklin, Mass., native played professional hockey for 11 years, and fulfilled a childhood dream by playing in the National Hockey League for 12 games with the New York Rangers in 1988-89. 

Laviolette has been a leader throughout his ice hockey career and a captain at every level of competition. He was a captain during his senior, junior and sophomore seasons at Westfield State, where he was an all-conference defenseman and led the team in scoring his senior year. A four-year starter at Westfield State, he ranks 14th in career scoring with 43 goals and 44 assists.

 Laviolette also was actively involved in the intramurals sports program at Westfield State for four years and supervised the college's floor hockey league. 

In high school, Laviolette was a captain of the 1982 Franklin High School team that advanced to the state finals. Furthermore, he had the distinction of being the Providence Bruins' captain in their inaugural season of 1992-93. He played for the Boston Bruins' top minor league team for a total of four seasons and was voted the team's best defenseman in 1995. At the end of the 1996 season, he had scored 111 career points with Providence, which placed him fourth on the team's all-time list. 

Laviolette spent four years in the New York Rangers organization, playing in Denver and Binghamton, N.Y., where he was captain in 1992. He began his professional career in 1986 with Indianapolis of the International Hockey League. 

Laviolette was first honored by Westfield State in 1988 when he received the Alumnus of the Year Award. He and his wife, Kristen, have two sons, Peter and Jack, and a daughter, Elizabeth Rose.