Nels Stewart
Encyclopedia
Robert Nelson "Old Poison" Stewart (December 29, 1902 – August 21, 1957) was a Canadian
professional
ice hockey
player who played for the Montreal Maroons
, New York Americans
and Boston Bruins
in the National Hockey League
. He is an Honoured Member of the Hockey Hall of Fame
.
, Quebec
, Stewart began play as an amateur at age 18 for the Cleveland Indians of the United States Amateur Hockey Association, leading the league in goals scored in four out of the five seasons he played before he and Babe Siebert
were signed by the expansion Montreal Maroons
of the NHL in 1925. Nicknamed "Old Poison," and with Siebert and veteran stars Clint Benedict
, Punch Broadbent
and Reg Noble
, he would lead the Maroons to the Stanley Cup
championship that season. Stewart himself led the league in goal- and point-scoring that year, and become one of the few rookies in history to win the Hart Memorial Trophy
as the NHL's Most Valuable Player
.
Stewart would later centre the legendary "S Line
", with Hooley Smith
and Siebert, and star for the Maroons for seven seasons in all, winning a second Hart Trophy in 1930, having led the league once more with 39 goals in 44 games. As the Great Depression
deepened, though, the Maroons had increasing financial problems — eventually folding in 1938 — and sold Stewart to the Boston Bruins
for cash. His glittering play continued for the Bruins, finishing second in team scoring each of his three full seasons with the team, despite being moved back to defence a fair bit.
In 1935 he was traded to the New York Americans
, for whom he played for most of his final five seasons in the league. Stewart starred through his penultimate season (in which he was fourth on the Amerks in scoring) with 35 points in 46 games at age 36. The season following, in 1939, his foot speed (never regarded as fast) deserted him entirely. He retired thereafter as the NHL's career leading goal scorer, a mark he set in the 1937 season and held until Maurice Richard
broke it in 1952.
On August 21, 1957, he was found dead at his summer home near Toronto, apparently of natural causes, possibly a heart attack.
Nels was inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame
in 1962. In 1998, he was ranked number 51 on The Hockey News
list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
professional
Professional
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...
ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
player who played for the Montreal Maroons
Montreal Maroons
The Montreal Maroons was a professional men's ice hockey team in the National Hockey League . They played in the NHL from 1924 to 1938, winning the Stanley Cup in 1926 and 1935...
, New York Americans
New York Americans
The New York Americans were a professional ice hockey team based in New York, New York from 1925 to 1942. They were the third expansion team in the history of the National Hockey League and the second to play in the United States. The team never won the Stanley Cup, but reached the semifinals...
and Boston Bruins
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The team has been in existence since 1924, and is the league's third-oldest team and its oldest in the...
in the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
. He is an Honoured Member of the Hockey Hall of Fame
Hockey Hall of Fame
The Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup...
.
Playing career
Born in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Stewart began play as an amateur at age 18 for the Cleveland Indians of the United States Amateur Hockey Association, leading the league in goals scored in four out of the five seasons he played before he and Babe Siebert
Babe Siebert
Albert Charles "Babe" Siebert was a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger and defenceman who played 14 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Montreal Maroons, New York Rangers, Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens...
were signed by the expansion Montreal Maroons
Montreal Maroons
The Montreal Maroons was a professional men's ice hockey team in the National Hockey League . They played in the NHL from 1924 to 1938, winning the Stanley Cup in 1926 and 1935...
of the NHL in 1925. Nicknamed "Old Poison," and with Siebert and veteran stars Clint Benedict
Clint Benedict
Clinton Stevenson "Praying Bennie" Benedict was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played for the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Maroons. He played on four Stanley Cup-winning squads. He was the first goaltender in the National Hockey League to wear a face mask...
, Punch Broadbent
Punch Broadbent
Harold Lawton "Punch" Broadbent was an ice hockey player for the Ottawa Senators, Montreal Maroons and the New York Americans, and generally regarded as one of the first true power forwards in National Hockey League history.-Personal life:Born in Ottawa, Ontario...
and Reg Noble
Reg Noble
Edward Reginald Noble of Collingwood, Ontario) was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward and defenceman who played 17 professional seasons in the National Hockey Association and National Hockey League for the Toronto Blueshirts, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto St. Pats, Montreal Maroons,...
, he would lead the Maroons to the Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
championship that season. Stewart himself led the league in goal- and point-scoring that year, and become one of the few rookies in history to win the Hart Memorial Trophy
Hart Memorial Trophy
The Hart Memorial Trophy, originally known as the Hart Trophy, the "oldest and most prestigious individual award in hockey", is awarded annually to the "player adjudged most valuable to his team" in the National Hockey League . The Hart Memorial Trophy has been awarded 86 times to 53 different...
as the NHL's Most Valuable Player
Most Valuable Player
In sports, a Most Valuable Player award is an honor typically bestowed upon the best performing player or players on a specific team, in an entire league, or for a particular contest or series of contests...
.
Stewart would later centre the legendary "S Line
S Line
The S Line was an early National Hockey League forward line that played for the now-defunct Montreal Maroons. It was a highly potent line back in its glory years in the "Crazy Twenties", just when the NHL was beginning and developing....
", with Hooley Smith
Hooley Smith
Reginald "Hooley" Smith was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who played for the Ottawa Senators, Montreal Maroons, Boston Bruins and New York Americans. He won the Stanley Cup twice, with Ottawa and Montreal...
and Siebert, and star for the Maroons for seven seasons in all, winning a second Hart Trophy in 1930, having led the league once more with 39 goals in 44 games. As the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
deepened, though, the Maroons had increasing financial problems — eventually folding in 1938 — and sold Stewart to the Boston Bruins
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The team has been in existence since 1924, and is the league's third-oldest team and its oldest in the...
for cash. His glittering play continued for the Bruins, finishing second in team scoring each of his three full seasons with the team, despite being moved back to defence a fair bit.
In 1935 he was traded to the New York Americans
New York Americans
The New York Americans were a professional ice hockey team based in New York, New York from 1925 to 1942. They were the third expansion team in the history of the National Hockey League and the second to play in the United States. The team never won the Stanley Cup, but reached the semifinals...
, for whom he played for most of his final five seasons in the league. Stewart starred through his penultimate season (in which he was fourth on the Amerks in scoring) with 35 points in 46 games at age 36. The season following, in 1939, his foot speed (never regarded as fast) deserted him entirely. He retired thereafter as the NHL's career leading goal scorer, a mark he set in the 1937 season and held until Maurice Richard
Maurice Richard
Joseph Henri Maurice "the Rocket" Richard, Sr., was a French-Canadian professional ice hockey player who played for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League from 1942 to 1960. The "Rocket" was the most prolific goal-scorer of his era, the first to achieve the feat of 50 goals in 50...
broke it in 1952.
On August 21, 1957, he was found dead at his summer home near Toronto, apparently of natural causes, possibly a heart attack.
Nels was inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame
Hockey Hall of Fame
The Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup...
in 1962. In 1998, he was ranked number 51 on The Hockey News
The Hockey News
The Hockey News, commonly abbreviated to THN, is a North American ice hockey magazine published by Transcontinental. The Hockey News was founded in 1947 by Ken McKenzie and Bill Côté, and has since been the most recognized hockey publication in North America...
list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.
Career achievements and facts
- Won the Hart Trophy in 1926 and 1930.
- Played in the first NHL All-Star Game in 1934.
- Led the playoffs in scoring in 1926 with six goals, three assists and nine points in eight games.
- Led the league in penalty minutes in 1927 with 133.
- Holds the NHL record for fastest two goals (four seconds apart) set on January 3, 1931, against the Boston Bruins (matched by Deron QuintDeron QuintDeron Timothy Quint is an ice hockey defenseman currently playing with Traktor Chelyabinsk of the Kontinental Hockey League...
in 1995–96)
Career statistics
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season Season (sports) In an organized sports league, a season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session. For example, in Major League Baseball, one season lasts approximately from April 1 through October 1; in Association football, it is generally from August until May In an... |
Team | League | GP | G Goal (ice hockey) In ice hockey, a goal is scored when the puck completely crosses the goal line between the two goal posts and below the goal crossbar. A goal awards one point to the team attacking the goal scored upon, regardless of which team the player who actually deflected the puck into the goal belongs to... |
A Assist (ice hockey) In ice hockey, an assist is attributed to up to two players of the scoring team who shot, passed or deflected the puck towards the scoring teammate, or touched it in any other way which enabled the goal, meaning that they were "assisting" in the goal. There can be a maximum of two assists per goal... |
Pts Point (ice hockey) Point in ice hockey has three official meanings:* A point is awarded to a player for each goal scored or assist earned. The total number of goals plus assists equals total points. In some European leagues, a goal counts as two points, and an assist counts as one... |
PIM Penalty (ice hockey) A penalty in ice hockey is a punishment for inappropriate behavior. Most penalties are enforced by detaining the offending player within a penalty box for a set number of minutes, during which, the player can not participate in play. The offending team usually may not replace the player on the ice,... |
GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | ||
| 1925–26 | Montreal Maroons Montreal Maroons The Montreal Maroons was a professional men's ice hockey team in the National Hockey League . They played in the NHL from 1924 to 1938, winning the Stanley Cup in 1926 and 1935... |
NHL National Hockey League The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States... |
36 | 34 | 8 | 42 | 119 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 9 | — | ||
| 1926–27 | Montreal Maroons | NHL | 43 | 17 | 4 | 21 | 133 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| 1927–28 | Montreal Maroons | NHL | 42 | 27 | 7 | 34 | 104 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 13 | ||
| 1928–29 | Montreal Maroons | NHL | 44 | 21 | 8 | 29 | 74 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1929–30 | Montreal Maroons | NHL | 44 | 39 | 15 | 55 | 81 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 1930–31 | Montreal Maroons | NHL | 43 | 25 | 14 | 39 | 75 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 1931–32 | Montreal Maroons | NHL | 38 | 22 | 11 | 33 | 61 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 1932–33 | Boston Bruins Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The team has been in existence since 1924, and is the league's third-oldest team and its oldest in the... |
NHL | 47 | 18 | 18 | 36 | 62 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | ||
| 1933–34 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 48 | 22 | 17 | 39 | 68 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1934–35 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 47 | 21 | 18 | 39 | 45 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 1935–36 | New York Americans New York Americans The New York Americans were a professional ice hockey team based in New York, New York from 1925 to 1942. They were the third expansion team in the history of the National Hockey League and the second to play in the United States. The team never won the Stanley Cup, but reached the semifinals... |
NHL | 48 | 14 | 15 | 29 | 16 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||
| 1936–37 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 6 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1936–37 | New York Americans | NHL | 33 | 20 | 10 | 30 | 31 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1937–38 1937–38 NHL season -European tour:After the Stanley Cup final finished, the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Canadiens played a nine-game exhibition series in Europe, becoming the first NHL teams to play outside North America. Six games were played in England, three in France... |
New York Americans | NHL | 48 | 19 | 17 | 36 | 29 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | ||
| 1938–39 | New York Americans | NHL | 46 | 16 | 19 | 35 | 33 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1939–40 | New York Americans | NHL | 35 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| NHL totals | 652 | 324 | 191 | 515 | 943 | 46 | 9 | 10 | 19 | 37 | ||||