Gordie Howe | |||
---|---|---|---|
Hockey Hall of Fame, 1972 | |||
Born |
Floral, Saskatchewan, Canada |
March 31, 1928||
Died | June 10, 2016 Sylvania, Ohio, U.S. |
(aged 88)||
Height | 6 ft 0 in (183 cm) | ||
Weight | 205 lb (93 kg; 14 st 9 lb) | ||
Position | Right wing | ||
Shot | Ambidextrous | ||
Played for |
USHL Omaha Knights NHL Detroit Red Wings Hartford Whalers WHA Houston Aeros New England Whalers IHL Detroit Vipers |
||
National team | Canada | ||
Playing career | 1946–1971 1973–1980 |
Gordon Howe OC (March 31, 1928 – June 10, 2016) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. From 1946 to 1980, he played twenty-six seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) and six seasons in the World Hockey Association (WHA); his first 25 seasons were spent with the Detroit Red Wings. Nicknamed "Mr. Hockey", Howe is considered the most complete player to ever play the game and one of the greatest ice hockey players of all time. A 23-time NHL All-Star, he held many of the sport's career scoring records until they were broken in the 1980s by Wayne Gretzky, who himself has been a major champion of Howe's legacy. He continues to hold NHL records for most games and seasons played. In 2017, Howe was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players".
Howe was recruited by the Red Wings and made his NHL debut in 1946. He won the Art Ross Trophy for leading the league in scoring each year from 1950-51 to 1953-54, then again in 1956-57 and 1962–63, a total of six times, the second most in NHL history. He led the league in goal scoring four times. He ranked among the top ten in league scoring for 21 consecutive years and set a league record for points in a season (95) in 1953, a record which was broken six years later. He won the Stanley Cup with the Red Wings four times and won six Hart Trophies as the league's most valuable player. He also led the NHL playoffs in points six times, but there was no Conn Smythe Trophy recognizing the most valuable player in the playoffs until the latter part of his career (1965), well after Detroit had won its four Stanley Cups with Howe.
Howe retired for the first time in 1971 and was immediately inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame that same year. He was then inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame the next year. However, he came back two years later to join his sons Mark and Marty on the Houston Aeros of the WHA. Although in his mid-40s, he scored over 100 points twice in six years. He made a brief return to the NHL in 1979–80, playing one season with the Hartford Whalers, then retired at the age of 52. His involvement with the WHA was central to their brief pre-NHL merger success and forced the NHL to expand their recruitment to European talent and to expand to new markets.