Pat Stapleton (ice hockey)

Patrick James "Whitey" Stapleton (July 4, 1940 – April 8, 2020) was a Canadian ice hockey player. A defenceman, Stapleton played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) and the World Hockey Association (WHA), most notably for the Chicago Black Hawks. He was the father of Mike Stapleton, who had a lengthy career in the NHL as well.

Pat Stapleton
Born (1940-07-04)July 4, 1940
Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
Died April 8, 2020(2020-04-08) (aged 79)
London, Ontario, Canada
Height 5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Weight 180 lb (82 kg; 12 st 12 lb)
Position Defence
Shot Left
Played for Boston Bruins
Chicago Black Hawks
Chicago Cougars
Indianapolis Racers
Cincinnati Stingers
National team  Canada
Playing career 19591978

Playing career

Pat Stapleton in Moscow at a meeting of participants of the 1972 Summit Series, February 24, 2012.

Stapleton played Junior B hockey with the Sarnia Legionnaires before spending two seasons with the St. Catharines Teepees of the Ontario Hockey Association, winning the Memorial Cup in 1960. With the Legionnaires he won two Western Jr. 'B' championships and one Sutherland Cup as an all-Ontario champion. Although he was a defenceman, he led the Legionnaires in scoring during his second season.

His first full season was with the Sault Thunderbirds of the Eastern Professional Hockey League in 1960–61. Stapleton had signed with the Chicago Black Hawks, but was claimed by the Boston Bruins in the intra-league draft in June 1961 and began his National Hockey League career with the Bruins in the 1961–62 season. The next year, he split his time between Bruins and their EPHL affiliate, the Kingston Frontenacs. Stapleton spent the next two years in the minor leagues, playing with the Portland Buckaroos of the Western Hockey League. He received the Hal Laycoe Cup as the WHL's top defenceman for the 1964–65 season.

Stapleton was briefly the property of the Toronto Maple Leafs in June 1965 as part of a trade with the Bruins, but he was left unprotected in the intra-league draft and was claimed the next day by the Chicago Black Hawks. Wearing number 7, he played some games with the Hawks' Central Hockey league affiliate, the St. Louis Braves, in 1965–66, but they would be the final minor league games of his career. Stapleton remained in the NHL for eight seasons with the Black Hawks, and was named Second Team All-Star three times (1966, 1971, and 1972). Stapleton played with the Black Hawks in the Stanley Cup finals in 1971 and 1973. His highest scoring season was 1969, where his 50 assists set a new NHL record for assists in a season by a defenceman (broken the next year by Bobby Orr).

Stapleton was a member of the Team Canada team at the Summit Series in 1972. During the tournament he was a +6 and was often paired with his Black Hawks teammate Bill White. It is believed that Stapleton is the owner of the puck used by Paul Henderson to score the series-winning goal. Stapleton himself admits that he doesn't know which one of the hundreds of pucks he owns is that game winning one, though it is in his possession.[1][2]

In 1973, Stapleton jumped from the NHL and signed a five-year deal with the Chicago Cougars of the World Hockey Association where he became player-coach, replacing Marcel Pronovost as coach. He was a WHA first-team all-star in 1974 and won the Dennis A. Murphy Trophy as the league's top defenceman in the 1973–74 season.

Stapleton again represented Canada in the 1974 Summit Series against the national team from the Soviet Union, this time as team captain, recording three assists in eight games. He was again player-coach of the Cougars in 1974–75, and the team struggled on the ice and financially. In December 1974, he and teammates Dave Dryden and Ralph Backstrom bought the troubled franchise. At the time, Stapleton also owned two small arenas in the Chicago area along with other business interests.

The Cougars folded after the 1974–75 season and Stapleton was claimed by the Indianapolis Racers, where he played for two seasons and was named a second-team all-star in 1976. When the Racers refused to honour his contract in 1977, Stapleton was transferred to the Cincinnati Stingers, where he played one season before retiring in 1978. Over his career, Stapleton scored 337 points in the NHL and 239 in the WHA.

Retirement

Stapleton lived in Strathroy, Ontario and was a member of the advisory board of the Junior B Strathroy Rockets of the Western Ontario Junior Hockey League. He has a Strathroy and District Hockey Association award named after him.

In 2008, Stapleton brought the puck that Paul Henderson fired into the net to win the 1972 Summit Series with the Russians to a Sarnia Legionnaires game. He dropped it at a ceremonial faceoff being held to honour Legionnaire founder Tommy Norris. He told the Sarnia Observer that he had the puck on his stick when the buzzer sounded to end the series. He was about to shoot it down the ice when he suddenly paused and picked it up. In May 2010, Stapleton told the Toronto Sun that he would hang onto the puck until the 40th Anniversary of the Summit Series in 2012.[3]

Stapleton died on April 8, 2020, at the age of 79.[4]

Honours

In 2005, he was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame as a member of Team Canada in the 1972 Canada - USSR Summit Series. In 2010, he was elected as an inaugural inductee into the World Hockey Association Hall of Fame.[5]

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GPGAPtsPIM GPGAPtsPIM
1957–58 Sarnia Legionaires WOJHL 4814314524
1958–59 St. Catharines Teepees OHA-Jr. 4910263618 70006
1959–60 St. Catharines Teepees OHA-Jr. 4712354783 175121732
1959–60 Buffalo Bisons AHL 10002
1959–60 St. Catharines Teepees M-Cup 14591437
1960–61 Sault Ste. Marie Thunderbirds EPHL 595434822 121892
1961–62 Boston Bruins NHL 6925742
1962–63 Boston Bruins NHL 210338
1962–63 Kingston Frontenacs EPHL 4910263692 542612
1963–64 Portland Buckaroos WHL 705444980 51670
1964–65 Portland Buckaroos WHL 7029578661 1034716
1965–66 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 554303452 62354
1965–66 St. Louis Braves CPHL 142466
1966–67 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 703313454 611212
1967–68 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 674343834 110444
1968–69 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 756505644
1969–70 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 494384228
1970–71 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 767445130 18314174
1971–72 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 783384147 82244
1972–73 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 7510213114 162151710
1973–74 Chicago Cougars WHA 786525844 120131336
1974–75 Chicago Cougars WHA 684303438
1975–76 Indianapolis Racers WHA 805404548 70222
1976–77 Indianapolis Racers WHA 818455329 92680
1977–78 Cincinnati Stingers WHA 654454928
WHA totals 37227212239187 282212338
NHL totals 63543294337353 6510394938

International

Year Team Event   GP G A Pts PIM
1972 Canada SS 7 0 0 0 6
1974 Canada SS 8 0 3 3 12
Senior totals 15 0 3 3 18

Coaching record

TeamYearRegular seasonPost season
GWLTPtsFinishResult
Chicago Cougars1973–74 7838355814th in WHA EastLost in Avco Cup Finals
Chicago Cougars1974–75 7030471613rd in WHA EastMissed playoffs
Indianapolis Racers1978–79 255182127th in WHATeam folded

References

  1. 1972summitseries.com, accessed February 2, 2007
  2. Sean Fitz-Gerald (April 22, 2015). "Canadian teammate finally admits he has the puck Paul Henderson scored with to win Summit Series — or does he?". National Post. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  3. Holy puck! A sacred piece of rubber
  4. Pyette, Ryan (April 9, 2020). "RIP Pat Stapleton: Strathroy star, Team Canada '72 legend, puck-mystery master". London Free Press. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  5. "WHA Hall of Fame Members". Archived from the original on January 15, 2019. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
Preceded by
Pierre Pilote
Chicago Black Hawks captain
1969–70
Succeeded by
Pit Martin
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