Gadsby, a native of Calgary, survived the wartime Nazi submarine's torpedo sinking of the British ocean liner S.S. Athenia and a battle with polio early in his NHL career to play two decades as one of the League's most effective defenseman and earn induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The Chicago Blackhawks signed Gadsby in the summer of 1946 after he played two seasons for Edmonton of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, and he played 48 NHL games as a 19-year-old in 1946-47, the first of his nine seasons with Chicago. Gadsby was cut for 12 stitches in his first NHL game on Nov. 20, 1946, the first of nearly 650 he took during his career. He also overcame polio in 1952 without interrupting his career.
Gadsby, a native of Calgary, survived the wartime Nazi submarine's torpedo sinking of the British ocean liner S.S. Athenia and a battle with polio early in his NHL career to play two decades as one of the League's most effective defenseman and earn induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The Chicago Blackhawks signed Gadsby in the summer of 1946 after he played two seasons for Edmonton of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, and he played 48 NHL games as a 19-year-old in 1946-47, the first of his nine seasons with Chicago. Gadsby was cut for 12 stitches in his first NHL game on Nov. 20, 1946, the first of nearly 650 he took during his career. He also overcame polio in 1952 without interrupting his career.
His best offensive seasons came after he was traded to the New York Rangers on Nov. 23, 1954. Gadsby had an NHL career-high 51 points in 1955-56 and matched that total in 1958-59, earning NHL First-Team All-Star honors each time; he set a League record for assists by a defenseman with 46 in 1958-59. Gadsby was also a First-Team All-Star in 1957-58, when he scored an NHL career-best 14 goals.
The third phase of Gadsby's career began when he was traded to the Detroit Red Wings on June 12, 1961. He didn't put up the kind of offensive numbers he had with the Rangers but remained one of the NHL's best defensemen, earning a Second-Team All-Star berth in 1964-65.
Gadsby never won the Stanley Cup. The closest he came was in the 1964 Cup Final, when the Red Wings took a 3-2 series lead into Game 6 against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Olympia Stadium. But an overtime shot by Toronto defenseman Bobby Baun hit Gadsby's stick and floated into the net, giving the Maple Leafs a series-tying win, and Toronto won Game 7 at home for its third straight title.
When he retired after the 1965-66 season, Gadsby was the NHL's career scoring leader among defensemen with 568 points (130 goals, 438 assists) in 1,248 games. He returned to the Red Wings as coach in 1968-69 but they missed the playoffs, and he was replaced two games into the following season.
Gadsby was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1970. He remained a popular figure in Detroit for decades, often appearing at Red Wings games and authoring a 2003 autobiography titled "The Grateful Gadsby." He died on March 10, 2016 at the age of 88.
NOTES & TRANSACTIONS
- NHL Second All-Star Team (1953, 1954, 1957, 1965)
- NHL First All-Star Team (1956, 1958, 1959)
- Played in NHL All-Star Game (1953, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1965)
- Signed as a free agent by Chicago, July 14, 1946.
- Traded to NY Rangers by Chicago with Pete Conacher for Allan Stanley, Nick Mickoski and Rich Lamoureux, November 23, 1954.
- Traded to Detroit by NY Rangers with Eddie Shack for Billy McNeill and Red Kelly, February 5, 1960. Kelly and McNeill refused to report and transaction was cancelled, February 7, 1960.
- Traded to Detroit by NY Rangers for Les Hunt, June 12, 1961.
