Marty Pavelich

When you think of the great Detroit teams of the 1950s you automatically recall Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Red Kelly, Terry Sawchuk, Sid Abel....the list is seemingly endless. One of the names on that team that time seems to have forgotton is Marty Pavelich. That's our job here - to forever immortalize yesterday's heroes online.

Marty wasn't the most explosive scorer in the league but he put up respectable offensive totals and was a 4 time NHL All Star. But his job was more that of a defensive winger. He excelled in shutting down the other team's top gun.

So good was he at shutting down the opposition, Stan Fischler, a famous hockey author, ranked him as the 4th best defensive forward of all time in his book Hockey's 100. Only Claude Provost, Joe Klukay and Ed Westfall ranked ahead Marty

"Complementing the Production Line (Howe/Abel/Lindsay) on the awesome Detroit Red Wings of the 1950s was this slithery center (though he played mostly LW) who tormented the foe with his tenacious checking" wrote Fischler.

Probably Pavelich's best known opponent to shadow was Rocket Richard, who Pavelich held in high regard.

"Well, Richard, that was my job to check him for 10 years and to me, he was the greatest goal scorer of all time. Even anybody playing today. Richard would have scored … he had a knack of getting the puck to the net. He was a very determined hockey player. Very, very fierce competitor.

Pavelich also had high regard for several other players as well, as he told NHLPA.com.

"The two Bentleys (Max and Doug) and (Bill) Mosienko. That line had speed to burn. That was a real good hockey line. And of course big Milt Schmidt, one of my all-time favorites with Boston. He was an outstanding hockey player. And of course you had some in Toronto. You had Teeder Kennedy who was the big gun in Toronto at that time. Then I played against Syl Apps, too, and he was a pretty good hockey player in his day. There were a lot of good guys. A lot of guys that were very competitive and we would do battle all the time. And of course (Doug) Harvey, we always thought that without Harvey on that team we could beat Montreal because he really was controlling the puck back on that blueline. He'd pick it up and take his time, get it out, move it out, get the guy in the open and throw it to him and away they'd go. To me, he was one of the greatest defenceman to ever play."

Born in Sault Ste. Marie Ontario, Pavelich's hockey career began in Galt, Ontario. The left winger played three seasons of junior hockey with the Galt Red Wings where he recorded back-to-back 22-goal seasons before joining the NHL's Red Wings for the 1947-48 campaign. In Galt he got to know Gordie Howe (teammate) and Red Kelly and Ted Lindsay (opponents with the St. Mikes Majors) very well. The foursome all went on to be a huge part of the Detroit hockey scene.

Pavelich split his first NHL season between the Red Wings and the Indianapolis Capitals of the American Hockey League. He then played his first full NHL season with Detroit in 1948-49, recording 26 points in 60 games. The following year Marty helped the Wings capture the Stanley Cup, his first of four, and he played in his first NHL All-Star game (In this era it was customary for the Stanley Cup champions to play against a league all star team for the All Star game).

Marty enjoyed the same success in 1952. Again he played in the league's All-Star game and he also helped lead the Wings to another league championship. That year he also set career-highs with 17 goals and 36 points.

Pavelich enjoyed similar success in 1954 and 1955. In both of those seasons, Marty played in the All-Star game and, more importantly, he helped the Wings to back-to-back Stanley Cup victories.

Marty played two more seasons with the Wings before deciding to hang up the blades after the 1956-57 campaign. Over his career with the Wings, Pavelich had amassed 93 goals, 159 assists and 252 points in 634 regular season games.

Following retirement he and Ted Lindsay got into the plastics industry, supplying the automotive industry.

Times have changed a lot in the NHL since Pavelich played. Despite being on 4 Stanley Cup champions, there was never such a thing as a Stanley Cup parade in Detroit in those days. So when the Wings finally won another Cup in the 1990s, they invited former Wings including Pavelich to be a part of the Stanley Cup parade. You have got to love an organization that cares about the history of the team.