Springfield Indians 1959 to 1962: Best All-Time AHL Team?

The Springfield Indians of the early part of the 1960’s were perhaps the best American Hockey League ever assembled. The Indians won the Calder Cup in three consecutive years from 1959-60 to 1961-62, the only AHL team to ever accomplish this feat. Five players from those teams are now enshrined in the AHL Hall of Fame and two are in the Hockey Hall of Fame. In addition, owner of the Indians, Eddie Shore, is in both.

Check out this unique hockey trivia revolving around that 3-peat Springfield Indians team:

The top 5 all-time Springfield Indians point producers played in at least two of those three years. Jim Anderson, Bill Sweeney, Brian Kilrea and Floyd Smith played on all three, while Harry Pidhirny played in 1959-60 and 1960-61.

Five that played for the Indians during those three years are now members of the AHL Hall of Fame. Bill Sweeney, Jim Anderson, Noel Price and Marcel Paille played all three years while Harry Pidhirny played two of the three. The AHL Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 2006. Team owner Eddie Shore has also been inducted.

Two players are now members of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Lorne ‘Gump’ Worsley played just 15 games with the Indians in 1959-60. Gump was inducted into the Hall in 1980. Brian Kilrea was inducted in 2003 in the builder’s category for his work with Ottawa 67’s of the Ontario Hockey League. In addition, Eddie Shore was long a member of the Hall of Fame before Springfield’s glory days, inducted in 1947 for his NHL accomplishments with the Boston Bruins.

Surprisingly, the Indians didn’t dominate the AHL’s individual awards during the three year stretch. In 1959-60, they were shut out of the awards ceremony. Bill Sweeney and Floyd Smith finished 2-3 in AHL scoring but it was Fred Glover of the Cleveland Barons that took the John B. Sollenberger Trophy.

In 1960-61, Bill Sweeney took the scoring title as Springfield placed five players in top ten. Bob McCord won the Eddie Shore Award as the league’s top defenseman and Marcel Paille won the Harry ‘Hap’ Holmes Award for the goalie with the lowest goals against average. 1961-62 was a bit of a repeat, except it was Kent Douglas winning the Eddie Shore, not McCord.

Interestingly, over the three year span, not one of the highly talented Springfield Indians won the Les Cunningham Award as AHL MVP. Fred Glover won twice and Phil Maloney of the Buffalo Bisons won in the middle year. In fact, over the life of the franchise, just one player was honoured as MVP. Ross Lowe will forever be in the Springfield hockey trivia books as the lone man, winning in 1954-55.

At the time, Springfield was the minor league affiliate of the NHL’s New York Rangers. The Rangers were not enjoying as much success, to say the least. 1961-62 was the only year New York made the Stanley Cup playoffs between 1958-59 and 1965-66. They were quickly ousted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round. It is said by many that the team in Springfield would have done better in the NHL than the Rangers.

1968-69 AHL Scoring Leaders

The American Hockey League in 1968-69 consisted of eight teams, a far cry from the 30 clubs today. The Hershey Bears won the Calder Cup with a 4-1 final series win over the Quebec Aces. There was just one player in 1968-69 to reach the 100 point plateau and the league lacked a 50 goal scorer.

Jeannot Gilbert – Hershey Bears

Jeannot Gilbert of the Hershey Bears led the league, and earned the John B. Sollenberger Trophy, with 100 points on 35 goals and 65 assists over 71 games. 1968-69 was Gilbert’s fourth of eight years in Hershey. He played nine games in the NHL over his career, five with the Boston Bruins in 1962-63 and four with the Bruins in 1964-65. Gilbert ended his pro career with two years in the World Hockey Association, 1973-74 and 1974-75, with the Quebec Nordiques.

Michel Harvey – Hershey Bears

Another member of the Hershey Bears finished second with 93 points. Michel Harvey scored 41 goals and assisted on 52 while playing the full 74 game schedule. A veteran of the AHL, playing eleven years in the league, Harvey got his chance at major league hockey in 1972-73 with the Quebec Nordiques of the WHA. 1973-74 proved to be his last year in professional hockey, playing 26 games for the Maine Nordiques in the North American Hockey League.

Guy Trottier – Buffalo Bisons

Guy Trottier of the Buffalo Bisons led the league in goals with 45 and finished third in points with 82. Trottier also played two games for the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League in 1968-69. The following season, Guy led the AHL in goals again, this time with 55.

Ron Ward – Rochester Americans

Ron Ward of the Rochester Americans finished fourth with 78 points on 35 goals and 43 points over 73 games. Ward played 18 games in the NHL the following season with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 1971-72, with the Vancouver Canucks, Ron played 71 games in what would be his last appearance in the NHL.

Ward played 359 games in the World Hockey Association between 1972-73 and 1976-77, contributing 380 points. In Ward’s first year in the WHA, he finished second in points with 118 as a member of the struggling New York Raiders. He would also play for the Vancouver Blazers, Los Angeles Sharks, Cleveland Crusaders, Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Fighting Saints and Calgary Cowboys during his WHA career.

Willie Marshall – Baltimore Clippers

Willie Marshall of the Baltimore Clippers also finished with 78 points but played one more game that Ron Ward. Marshall is one of the greatest players in the history of the AHL. He played 1,205 regular season games with the Pittsburgh Hornets, Hershey Bears, Providence Reds, Baltimore Clippers and Rochester Americans. He scored 523 career goals and totalled 1,375 points.

Marshall was a charter member of the AHL Hall of Fame in 2006. To date, no player has played more games or had more goals, assists and points over an AHL career than Willie. Since 2003-04, the Willie Marshall Award has been handed out to the AHL player with the most goals scored during the regular season.

 

QMJHL Teams To Win Less Than 10 In A Season

Since the inception of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in 1969-70, just three teams have won less than ten games in seasons varying in length from 62 to 72 games. A far cry from the three teams that share the QMJHL record for most wins in a season at 58 each.

1977-78 Shawinigan Dynamos

The 1977-78 Shawinigan Dynamos share the dubious CHL record for least wins in a season with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. The team, now known as the Cataractes, won just three of their 72 regular season games. The Dynamos also tied four games for a total of ten points. London tied just 3 over their 66 regular season OHL games to total nine points.

Shawinigan allowed an incredible 9.54 goals per game for a total of 687 goals against. Four goalies saw action with the club with individual goals against averages ranging from 8.77 to 14.11. They finished fifth and last in the Dilio Division, 33 points behind fourth place Chicoutimi Sagueneens, a team that won just 16 games. The Dynamos went through four different head coaches behind the bench. 40 different skaters saw at least one game of action with the club. The leading scorer was Gilles Hebert with 28 goals and 83 points in 63 games.

1975-76 Shawinigan Dynamos

Next in line is another Shawinigan Dynamos team. The 1975-76 version won just nine games over 72 regular season games. The team finished last overall and fifth in the East Division, 45 points behind the fourth place Sorel Eperviers (Black Hawks).

The bright light on the 1975-76 Dynamos was first year player Jean-Marc Bonamie. Bonamie led the team in scoring with 49 goals and 87 points in 62 games. He was named the recipient of the Michel Bergeron Trophy as QMJHL rookie of the year. Bonamie, the first overall pick at the 1975 QMJHL Entry Draft, played just three years in the QMJHL before hanging up the blades.

The 1975-76 Dynamos were a little better on defense than their future counterparts. The team allowed 554 goals with three goalies taking the abuse. The goals against averages of the shell-shocked goaltenders ranged from 7.50 to 10.17. They used a total of 44 different skaters throughout the season.

1971-72 Laval National

In just the third year of the QMJHL’s existence and first with the new nickname, the Laval National finished the regular season with just nine wins over 62 games. The National finished last in the ten team league, 14 points behind the St. Jerome Alouettes. Just four years later, Laval reached the QMJHL finals. The franchise relocated and evolved to become the present day Acadie-Bathurst Titan.

Leading the club in scoring was Bob Sirois with 64 points in 59 games. Sirois was in his third of five years in the league and would score 72 and contribute 153 points in his final season in the QMJHL with the Montreal Rouge Blanc Bleu. Bob was a third round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers at the 1974 NHL Amateur Draft. He played 286 regular season games in the NHL between 1974-75 and 1979-80 with the Flyers and Washington Capitals.

1984-85 Plattsburgh Pioneers*

A big asterix to this article came during the 1984-85 QMJHL season. The league expanded to the United States for the first time with the addition of the Plattsburgh Pioneers. However, the league would not hold an expansion draft to help stock the Pioneers roster. The team played just seventeen games before folding, not winning a single game.