History of Hockey

[Tiger Fan]

Thought I would start a quick dynasty replaying the history of hockey similar to the ones I did with baseball in the early days of OOTP.

Starting with the 1931-32 season and will fast sim out the entire history up to the end of last year.

For this sim I am going to have players be drafted instead of appearing on the team they made their real life debut with. We also should see some different names on the leaderboards throughout history as I have enabled using the FHM development engine instead of recalculating ratings each season based on real life results. Thought it would nice to see if we see some random development.

Let's kick it off with the 1931-32 season. Here are the final standings and scoring leaders.

[Tiger Fan]

Just as they did in real life the Leafs would win the Cup in 1931-32, sweeping Boston 4 straight in my replay.

This is designed to be a quick sim so I will not post every season. Instead I am going to fast sim through until the end of the 1949-50 season and my next post will be a brief recap on each season over that time frame.

[Tiger Fan]

1932-33 Turk Broda was selected first overall in the draft by the Ottawa Senators with Toe Blake going second to Detroit. On the ice, the Toronto Maple Leafs would win their second straight Cup led by 57 points from Charlie Conacher and blueliner King Clancy who was named the league's top defenseman and playoff MVP. Conacher, playing with linemates Joe Primeau (7-36-43) and Busher Jackson (14-21-35) led the league in points and goals with 30. Veteran Montreal forward Howie Morenz (20-31-51) edged out Conacher for his second straight Hart Trophy as league MVP.

1933-34 A third straight Cup for the Leafs with Conacher (35-23-58) again leading the way. He tied the Rangers Frank Boucher (17-41-58) for the Art Ross Trophy. Clancy won the Norris and the playoff MVP (far too early to call it the Conn Smythe Award) but Montreal's Morenz again claimed the Hart Trophy.

1934-35 The Leafs run of 3 straight Cups would come to an end as Boston claimed the title behind an MVP season from defenseman Dit Clapper (14-26-40) as well as a big year out of Toe Blake (16-32-48). A 21 year old Chicago forward named Max Kaminsky (23-32-55) had a breakout year and won the scoring title, edging Conacher by 1 point and Busher Jackson by 4.

1935-36 Conacher (26-33-59) reclaims the scoring crown and Turk Broda - now with Toronto after playing in 7 games over the previous couple of seasons with defunct Ottawa- St Louis, has a huge season claiming the rookie of the year award along with the Vezina Trophy. Broda runs into trouble in the Cup finals though as the Leafs fall in 5 to the Bruins, who win for the second straight season.

1936-37 Broda has another standout season and leads the Leafs to the Cup, their 4th in 6 years. With Joe Primeau (4-18-22) starting to slow down the Leafs put 25 year old Syd Howe (17-35-52) between Conacher (25-26-51) and Jackson (11-36-47) and only Howie Morenz's 48 points stop the trio from finishing 1-2-3 in NHL scoring.

1937-38 Despite just sneaking into the playoffs the Montreal Maroons surprise everyone by winning the Stanley Cup, knocking off both Boston and Toronto. The Maroons got a 51 point season out of Paul Haynes but really had a non-descript cast of charactors. Both Boston, with goalies Tiny Thompson and Bill Durnan, and Toronto with the firepower from the big line and Broda in the cage, were shocked by the Maroons.....who of course folded their franchise just days after the Stanley Cup parade. It is a historical replay so no way to keep the team around.

1938-39 Down to 7 teams with the Maroons folding. Montreal wins the regular season title with an impressive 30-9-9 record and a 9 point bulge on the second place New York Rangers. Toronto finishes third with Chicago edging out Boston for the final playoff spot. The Rangers would win the Cup (I guess a year earlier than they were supposed) beating Montreal in 6 games.

1939-40 Back to back Cups for the Broadway Blueshirts as after finishing 3rd in the regular season the Rangers claim the title. Montreal finished first in the regular season once again, and once again the Habs made an early exit from the playoffs.

1940-41 The Habs finally win their first Cup during the sim and they are led by 25 year old Syl Apps, who has an amazing 70 points in just 48 games. Apps is named league MVP for his efforts. The Habs also have the league's top goaltender in Tiny Thompson, who at 37 is nearing the end of a long career spent primarily with Boston. This season marks the debut of Maurice Richard, but in a Detroit uniform instead of Montreal. Taken second overall by the Wings in the draft after the Brooklyn Americans selected defenseman Bill Quakenbush, the Rocket had 34 points as a 19 year old rookie.

1941-42 Richard has 43 points and adds another 12 in 14 playoff games as the Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup. Richard teams up with another real life Hab in Elmer Lach to pace the Detroit offense. Detroit goaltender Frank Brimsek wins the Vezina. The league scoring leader is Boston's Toe Blake (24-41-65). Blake was actually drafted by Detroit in 1932 and could have teamed with Richard but the Wings sent him to Boston in his rookie season.

1942-43 The Americans fold so the league is down to 6 teams as we enter the Original Six era. Detroit edges Montreal out for first place but the Canadiens triumph in the playoffs to win their second Cup in 3 years. Montreal's Roy Conacher leads the league in points with 72, 1 more than Detroit's Woody Dumart and 4 up on Maurice Richard.

1943-44 The Canadiens win the Cup again thanks to a record 84 point season from Billy Taylor. Winger Roy Conacher benefits from Taylor's 54 assists by leading the NHL with 42 goals. 23 year old goaltender Sugar Jim Henry has a big season between the pipes for the Habs.

CUP WINS
1931-32  Toronto	
1932-33  Toronto
1933-34  Toronto
1934-35  Boston
1935-36  Boston
1936-37  Toronto
1937-38  Montreal Maroons
1938-39  NY Rangers
1939-40  NY Rangers
1940-41  Montreal
1941-42  Detroit
1942-43  Montreal
1943-44  Montreal

[pisquid]

Great stuff. Interesting to say some of the all-time greats on different teams. The Rocket on the Red Wings is kind of hard to imagine..lol.

[Tiger Fan]

I simmed through to current day and Richard remained a Red Wing his entire career. The Rocket never had a 50 goal season but did enjoy a productive career with the Red Wings, winning an MVP award and 4 scoring titles.

He also was a part of 4 of the Red Wings 8 Stanley Cup teams in their franchise history. Detroit won it's first Cup in Richard's second season (1941-42) and would also win in 1946,1947 and 1949.

Post-Rocket Cups for the Wings came in 1961, 1965,1967 and 1980. The 79-80 team was led by the likes of Mike Bossy (56-60-116), Jean Ratelle (45-59-104) and an aging Gerry Cheevers (22-18-6, 3.53).

Here is the career totals for Richard. In real life he played 978 games and had 965 career points.

[Tiger Fan]

The single season point leaderboard was dominated by Wayne Gretzky. The Great One played a season in the WHA with the Winnipeg Jets and then helped the Jets/Coyotes franchise win 7 Cups in 9 years. He was joined by Mark Messier and Ray Bourque as the Jets dominated the NHL.

88-89 had to be one of the best teams of all time as the Jets went 68-9-3 led by Gretzky (193 points), Messier (131), Bourque (101) and goalie Rick Wamsley (57-7-2, 2.67).

Here are the career and single season point leaders as well as Gretzky's year by year totals. Gretzky and Lemieux (who played his career with Quebec-Colorado) had a number of meetings in the Stanley Cup Finals. It took Gretz a few years to take off in Winnipeg but he was completely dominant in the 80's just as in real life.

[Tiger Fan]

If there are any players franchises you want me to post just let me know. For myself, I always want to see how my idol Borje Salming did.

He had a decent career in this sim but he did not develop into that number one d-man he was with the Leafs. Brian Burke would have loved him in this replay because he was certainly a lot more truculent here than in real life - amassing over 2300 career PIM's.

Taken 8th overall by St Louis in the 1972 draft he would play 9 and a half seasons with the Blues before ending his career in Washington.

The 72 draft was pretty deep as Salming heard his named called after the likes of Larry Robinson (#1), Guy Lafleur, Marcel Dionne, Craig Ramsay, Rick Kehoe and Rick Martin. The only real surprise ahead of Salming was Bill Hajt who went #2 to Vancouver.

One thing Salming did accomplish in this sim was win a Stanley Cup as the Blues won their first and only cup in 1975-76. Salming had just 33 points that season on a team led by Gil Perreault (31-70-101), Marc Tardif (45-52-97) and Don Luce (32-47-79).

The Blues dealt Salming to Washington midway through the 1982-83 season in exchange for Don Maloney.

[Tiger Fan]

Rob Ray is the single season penalty minute king for my NHL replay, amassing 426 minutes with Montreal in 95-96. (Bob Nystrom holds the WHA mark with 398 minutes in 75-76).

Ray was drafted 138th overall by the Islanders in 1986 but never played a game for them as he was released and signed by Montreal in 1992. In 2002 he was a throw-in in a deal with San Jose that saw Ray, Pierre Sevigney and Jason York dealt to the Sharks for Radek Bonk.


Any talk about penalty minutes and we have to look at Dave 'The Hammer' Schultz. As you can see below he had a couple of decent scoring seasons with the Flyers but despite having Bobby Clarke and Guy Lafleur the Flyers were never Cup contenders.

Schultz was taken by Philly with the 74th pick of the 1969 draft. He would last 5 seasons before being shipped off to Boston and then Pittsburgh. His best season came in 75-76 when he jumped to the WHA before finishing his career in Pittsburgh.

[CONN CHRIS]

What did the Hanson Brothers look like? (Jeff & Steve Carlson and Dave Hanson) - two of them passed through Hartford when I was a kid following the Whalers.

[Tiger Fan]

Originally Posted by CONN CHRIS

What did the Hanson Brothers look like? (Jeff & Steve Carlson and Dave Hanson) - two of them passed through Hartford when I was a kid following the Whalers.

Not much. Just had a minute to check before I went to work. Dave Hanson played about 15 games (11 WHA and 4 NHL if I recall correctly). Jeff and Steve never got out of the minors in this sim but their brother Jack played 1 career NHL game (for Colorado I think) and had 7 minutes in penalties.

[CONN CHRIS]

Originally Posted by Tiger Fan

Not much. Just had a minute to check before I went to work. Dave Hanson played about 15 games (11 WHA and 4 NHL if I recall correctly). Jeff and Steve never got out of the minors in this sim but their brother Jack played 1 career NHL game (for Colorado I think) and had 7 minutes in penalties.

Perfect! Thanks.

[Nuk]

Curious about a couple of my favourite Canucks growing up. Do you have stats on Thomas Gradin and Pavel Bure?

Also - that story about the Canucks draft Bill Hajt 2nd overall makes me worry the Canucks struggled in your sim - was that the case?

[Tiger Fan]

Originally Posted by Nuk

Curious about a couple of my favourite Canucks growing up. Do you have stats on Thomas Gradin and Pavel Bure?

Also - that story about the Canucks draft Bill Hajt 2nd overall makes me worry the Canucks struggled in your sim - was that the case?

Neither Bure or Gradin played for the Canucks in this replay.
Bure was selected 5th overall by the Leafs in 1990 (the Canucks took Robert Lang with the 4th pick that year). He played 13 seasons, all with Toronto, and had 360 goals and 735 points. Bure never approached the goal scoring numbers he put up in real-life with his best year coming in 00-01 when scored 43 times. Bure was a Cup winner though as he helped the Leafs claim the hardware in 1999-2000.

Gradin's career numbers were fairly close to real life (510 points in 708 sim games vs 593 points in 677 real games). Chicago selected him 18th overall in 1976 (he also went 17th to Quebec in the WHA draft). Midway through his third season with the Hawks he was dealt to the Rangers in exchange for Rogie Vachon. He had a huge year in 1981-82 notching 103 points but would never approach those totals again. Gradin narrowly missed out on a Cup as the Rangers won in 1985-86, but he played just 24 games that season and was sent to the reserve roster in March.

As for the Canucks they had a number of lean years early in their existance but it was all worthwhile when they hoisted their first and only Stanley Cup in 1981-82. The Canucks won the Cup that season despite finishing 3rd in the Smythe Division behind Colorado and Los Angeles. Ken Linseman led the team with 82 points, while Bob Bourne, Alan Haworth, Reed Larson and Don Luce all played key roles as did Mr Canuck - Lanny McDonald - who lit the lamp 30 times despite being limited to just 49 games because of injury. McDonald also scored 24 points in just 14 playoff games during the Cup run. The Conn Smythe that season went to Reed Larson, who had 24 points in 23 games and an average game rating in the postseason of 85.

McDonald, the 1974 rookie of the year is the all-time team leader in scoring and is clearly the face of the franchise.

Hajt would play over a decade in Vancouver before ending his career with the Islanders. He was still around and a key contributor on the Cup winning team. He played over 1000 career games and had just over 500 points.

[Rasmuth]

Hey...I'm good friends with Ric Seiling nowadays...can you tell me how he did?

[Tiger Fan]

Originally Posted by Rasmuth

Hey...I'm good friends with Ric Seiling nowadays...can you tell me how he did?

Did not play as much as he did in real life but did have two decent seasons with the Edmonton Oilers in the WHA winning the Avco Cup in the final year of the WHA. Selected 24th overall by the Oilers and also taken 21st by Minnesota in the 1977 NHL draft.

After the merger the Stars traded his rights to the Rangers in exchange for Ross Lonsberry. Later moved to Winnipeg for a couple of superstars kids in Syl Apps Jr and Danny Geoffrion before being dispatched to the Blackhawks in exchange for Jorgen Pettersson.

Suffered a knee injury in 85-86 and spent rest of his career in the minors (reserve roster in game).

His older brother Rod kicked around for a number seasons with Chicago, Vancouver, Boston and Cleveland but never really established himself as an NHL regular. Rod had 244 points in 554 games but that was scattered over 15 seasons.

[Leafs67]

Hey! This is amazingly awesome. Thanks so much for posting all this! Could I please see how the careers of Bill Cowley, Joe Sakic, and Teeder Kennedy (one of my all time favorite Leafs) panned out?

[Tiger Fan]

Originally Posted by Leafs67

Hey! This is amazingly awesome. Thanks so much for posting all this! Could I please see how the careers of Bill Cowley, Joe Sakic, and Teeder Kennedy (one of my all time favorite Leafs) panned out?

Thanks.

Cowley was selected 3rd overall by the Rangers in the 1932 draft. He followed Turk Broda and Toe Blake in that draft class. In real life he played 508 games, all with Boston, and had 536 total points. He played 550 games for the Rangers in the sim but was not quite as productive, tallying just 394 career points. He did win a pair of Cups with the Rangers in 1939 and 1940.

Sakic was drafted second overall by the Whalers (behind Brendan Shanahan to Edmonton) and spent his entire career with that organization playing in 1526 career games. He finished 7th all-time in points, 8th in goals and 9th in assists. He was a teammate of Steve Yzerman for much of his career and the two helped the Whalers win a Cup in 1986. Sakic got a second Cup after Yzerman had left and the team moved to Carolina in 2004. He also won the Conn Smythe that year to add to the 4 Hart Trophy's and 4 scoring titles he won during his career.

After the Leafs took Allen Stanley with the first pick Teeder Kennedy was selected second overall by Chicago in 1944. However, he was dealt to Montreal before ever playing a game for the Black Hawks. Later in his career he would be moved to Detroit for 5 players including Floyd Smith. He won a pair of best defensive forward awards but was not the offensive threat he was in real life with the Leafs. Kennedy played more games in the sim than in real life (886 vs 696) but scored 75 less points. He won 4 Cups with the Canadiens including 3 straight in the early 1950s.

[BlackIce]

Nice write ups Tiger!

[speels]

These are awesome. I would love to hear how Owen Nolan did as well as if Dale Purinton even made the NHL.

[George_Bell]

I'm sure this is answered somewhere, but for a historical replay like you did, do the players develop with the sim engine, or do they play each season based on how they really did, and end up retiring when they really did retire?