Steve Durbano
| Steve Durbano | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Born |
December 12, 1951 Toronto, ON, CAN |
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| Died | November 10, 2002 (aged 50) Yellowknife, NT, CAN |
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| Height | 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) | ||
| Weight | 210 lb (95 kg; 15 st 0 lb) | ||
| Position | Defence | ||
| Shot | Left | ||
| Played for |
AHL Rhode Island Reds CHL Omaha Knights Salt Lake Golden Eagles NHL Colorado Rockies Kansas City Scouts Pittsburgh Penguins St. Louis Blues WHA Birmingham Bulls |
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| NHL Draft | 13th overall, 1971 New York Rangers |
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| Playing career | 1971–1979 | ||
Harry Steven "Mental Case" Durbano (December 12, 1951 in Toronto, Ontario – November 10, 2002 in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player noted for his villainous behaviour on the ice and his larger-than-life persona off it. He is the all-time leader in penalty minutes per game in the NHL, with 1127 career PIMs over a mere 220 games played, for 5.12 PIMs per game.
Born in Toronto, Durbano rose through minor hockey to a place on the Toronto Marlboros of the Ontario Hockey Association. He was drafted by the New York Rangers in the first round of the 1971 NHL Amateur Draft. He never played a game for the Rangers, though, and was traded to the St. Louis Blues where he began his career. Durbano quickly gained a reputation for being one of the toughest players in the league, amassing 1,411 major league-career penalty minutes, including an NHL-leading 370 PIM in the 1975–76 season.
He played 220 NHL games over the course of his career for St. Louis as well as the Pittsburgh Penguins, Kansas City Scouts and Colorado Rockies, along with 45 games in the World Hockey Association for the Birmingham Bulls.
In 1983, shortly after he retired, Durbano was implicated in a scheme to import half a million dollars worth of cocaine into Canada and was sentenced to seven years in prison. After his release, Durbano did not keep straight - he was arrested once for shoplifting, and, in 1995, he was sent back to prison after he attempted to recruit an undercover police officer into an escort service in Welland, Ontario. He moved to the Northwest Territories late in life in an effort to find peace, and died there of in November 2002.
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