Hall, ironman goaltender with record 502 consecutive starts, dies at 94

Glenn Hall, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame whose streak of 502 consecutive starts by a goaltender – 552 including Stanley Cup Playoffs – is among the most untouchable records in sports, died Wednesday in a Stony Plain, Alberta hospital. He was 94.

Hall spent 10 of his 18 NHL seasons with the Chicago Black Hawks -- the team's name was then two words -- with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 1961 and earned the nickname "Mr. Goalie." He finished his NHL career with a record of 407-326-164, a 2.50 goals-against average and 84 shutouts, his shutout total ranking fourth all-time in the NHL.

"Glenn Hall was the very definition of what all hockey goaltenders aspire to be. Aptly nicknamed 'Mr. Goalie,' Glenn was sturdy, dependable, and a spectacular talent in net," said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman in a statement. "He set the bar for consistency with a goaltending ironman record of 502 consecutive regular-season games played for the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks. That record, set from 1955-56 to 1962-63, still stands, probably always will, and is almost unfathomable – especially when you consider he did it all without a mask.

"Glenn was a true star, whose career was filled with accomplishment and accolades. From the moment he stepped foot in an NHL crease, Hall excelled. He won the Calder Trophy with the Red Wings, earned every win for the Blackhawks in their run to the 1961 Stanley Cup, and captured a Conn Smythe Trophy despite losing in the Final with the St. Louis Blues. A seven-time, first-team NHL All-Star – an honor bestowed on him more than any other goalie – Hall is an honored member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and was selected as one of the NHL’s 100 Greatest Players.

"The National Hockey League family mourns the passing of a legend of the game and sends our heartfelt condolences to Glenn’s children Pat, Lindsay, Tammy, and Leslie as well as the entire Hall family."

Many of Hall's heroics came after he was mildly sick to his stomach with nervous energy before the start of a game.

"I always felt I played better if I was sick before the game," he once said, stories of his illness often greatly exaggerated. "If I wasn't sick, I felt I hadn't done everything I could to try to win."

Glenn Hall has some 2015 fun "painting the barn" on his Stony Plain, Alberta farm, and with a wave on his 94th birthday on Oct. 3, 2025.

Black Hawks teammate Ed Litzenberger would spin the nickname "Mr. Goalie" into "Ghoulie" for Hall's ghostly white complexion before a game.

Born Oct. 3, 1931, in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, from where his minor hockey career took him to the Ontario major-junior Windsor Spitfires from 1949-51, Hall spent the better part of four seasons in the minor leagues.

He toiled with the Indianapolis Capitals (1951-52) and Edmonton Flyers (1952-55) of the Western Hockey League before becoming the Detroit Red Wings' starter in 1955-56 season, following Terry Sawchuk's trade to the Boston Bruins.

Hall made his NHL debut against the Canadiens at the Montreal Forum on Dec. 27, 1952, frantically summoned from the Western Hockey League's Edmonton Flyers during the Christmas break.

At home in Humboldt, Hall received a telegram from Flyers GM Bud Poile.

"Tried to phone," Poile's wire began. "You are to catch Flight No. 10 out of Saskatoon 3:45 a.m. 26th of December for Montreal. Sawchuk is hurt and Detroit are bringing you up. I will have your equipment on the plane. ..."

Sawchuk had taken a shot in the foot in practice, breaking a bone in his instep, and the urgent call went to the club's primary affiliate to fetch a replacement for the one-goalie parent team. Hall stuffed the telegram in his bag and was driven 70 miles from Humboldt to Saskatoon for his flight to Montreal.

Somehow, his equipment never caught up. Hall arrived at the Forum a few hours before the 8:15 p.m. face-off searching in vain for his duffel bag.

Red Wings trainer Ross "Lefty" Wilson played goal in practices for Detroit, giving Sawchuk a break. Three times during the 1950s – against the Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, and once for the Boston Bruins against his own club – Wilson would be pressed into emergency fill-in duty.

Glenn Hall in the den of his Stony Plain, Alberta farmhouse in 2018, memorabilia from his Hall of Fame career behind him.

So, it was Wilson to whom Hall turned that night in Montreal, a nervous 21-year-old borrowing his trainer's awful equipment and dull skates. Despite all of that, he was excellent in a 2-2 tie, playing five more games – four wins and a tie – before Sawchuk returned and Hall was shipped back to the minors.

Hall finished his 1955-56 NHL rookie season with a .925 save percentage, 2.10 goals-against average, and 12 shutouts, winning the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie. He was named a First-Team All-Star for the first of a record seven times.

But after a 38-win season in 1956-57, Hall was on the move; he was shipped to the Black Hawks on July 23, 1957, packaged with Red Wings superstar Ted Lindsay in exchange for Chicago goalie Hank Bassen and skaters Johnny Wilson, Forbes Kennedy and Bill Preston.

By then, Hall had started and finished 140 consecutive regular-season games. He didn't miss a second of action during his first five seasons with Chicago, a stretch in which he was a First-Team or Second-Team All-Star four times and sparked the Black Hawks to the Stanley Cup in 1961, ending the Canadiens' unprecedented run of five consecutive championships.

The streak lasted until back problems forced him to leave a game on Nov. 7, 1962 and sit out Chicago's next game on Nov. 10.

Amazingly, he did it all without a mask; Hall didn't use one until late in his career with the St. Louis Blues.

"Our first priority was staying alive," he told Sports Illustrated in 1992. "Our second was stopping the puck."

Hall would be the pioneering grandfather of the butterfly style of goaltending that became the standard years after he retired, further developed by Chicago's Tony Esposito and Patrick Roy of the Canadiens. He would drop to his knees, spread his legs to take away the bottom of the net and rely on his gloves to deal with high shots.

Hall was 35 when the Black Hawks made him available in the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft. He was snapped up by the Blues on June 6 and talked out of a planned retirement to help the first-year team reach the Stanley Cup Final.

Although the Canadiens swept the series, Hall was voted the 1968 Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, the second player from the losing team – Detroit goalie Roger Crozier the first in 1966 – to be so recognized.

He teamed with another veteran, Jacques Plante, to get the Blues back to the Final in each of the next two seasons, winning his third Vezina Trophy (1962-63, 1966-67) when he shared it with Plante in 1968-69.

Hall hung up his pads after going 13-11-8 with a 2.42 goals-against average in 1970-71. He still owns the record for goaltenders by being voted to the First-Team All-Star seven times, the last as a 37-year-old with the Blues in 1968-69.

After his playing days were done, Hall spent most of his time at his farm in Stony Plain, land he had purchased in 1965. The town's arena was named in his honor for Canada's Centennial year in 1967.

Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1975, his name was etched on the Stanley Cup three times: in 1951-52 (though he never played a game that season as an occasional practice goalie for Detroit), misspelled Glin Hall, which later was changed to Glen Hall, an "n" missing; with Chicago in 1960-61; and with the 1988-89 Calgary Flames, for whom he worked as the team's goaltending consultant.

Hall was featured with a 2002 Canada Post stamp and medallion, voted among the 100 Greatest NHL Players during the League's Centennial in 2017 and in 2023, was elected to the St. Louis Blues Hall of Fame. His life has recently been celebrated in the award-winning feature-length documentary film "Mr. Goalie," which premiered last October in Windsor, Ontario, where he played his junior hockey.

Top photo: Chicago Black Hawks goalie Glenn Hall watches captain Pierre Pilote carry the puck from behind the net during a 1960s game at Maple Leaf Gardens. Hall and the late Pilote were inducted together into the Hockey Hall of Fame as members of the Class of 1975.