It’s almost time for the Stanley Cup playoffs, so here are some facts about some notable standouts from NHL history. (Check out our previous pieces on the NFL, NBA, and baseball.)
Tallest
Longtime Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara has a lot of acocmplishments in his 20-year NHL career. He’s won the Stanley Cup, the Norris Trophy (for defensive player of the year), and played in the NHL All-Star Game. He’s also the tallest player in NHL history, at 6’9”. He’s so big that during power plays, he can simply stand in front of the net and prevent goals being scored.
Shortest
Roy Woters was a goaltender in the 1920s and 1930s. Reasonably nicknamed “Shrimp,” he was a mere 5’3” tall. But even though he couldn’t block the net with his size alone, he got the job done, because he’s in the Hall of Fame.
Biggest
It’s probably not very pleasant for opposing players to get checked against the boards by enforcer John Scott. Listed at 270 pounds, he’s the largest player the NHL has ever seen.
Smallest
Once again, it’s Shrimp Waters. His listed weight: 135 pounds.
Youngest
In Canada, kids start playing hockey early, so its routine that teenagers enter the NHL. (Even The Great One himself, Wayne Gretzky, entered the pro hockey just before his 18th birthday.) But the absolute youngest: 16-year-old Armand “Bep” Guidolin. He laced up his skates and took the ice for the Boston Bruins at the beginning of the 1942 season.
Oldest
As players start playing hockey young, pros often last well into their 40s. The oldest man to play regularly was Maurice Roberts, who retired in 1951 less than a month before his 46th birthday. Hockey legend Gordie Howie retired in 1971 at age 43, only to comeback at age 45 to play in the NHL competitor World Hockey Association. But then in 1969, as something of a publicity stunt, he played in one game for the Detroit Vipers of the IHL. Howe was 69 at the time.