Bill Shvetz - NHL Player?

[Benchwarmers]

I came across an interesting blog post while reading about this player that presents some compelling information that Bill Shvetz may have played a game in the NHL with the 1954/55 Chicago Blackhawks.
This is the blog post (from 2016)

to summarize:
Shvetz had a long minor league career but he may have played 1 game in the NHL, the season opener with the 1954/55 Chicago Blackhawks.

The post in question....

In an addendum to the article about Montreal's 4-2 season-opening win in the Gazette, there was one line that stated,"Bill Shvetz made only one appearance for the Hawks and nearly scored. His shot hit the post." (see below from the Oct 7, 1954 Montreal Gazette).

In addition, sports columnist 'Dink' Carroll made mention of Shvetz playing when he was promptly traded two days later.

One more mention of Shvetz in the October 7 opener is the boxscore from the Chicago Tribune the following day (below). He is clearly in the lineup, but did not collect an official statistic. Did he play that one shift or not?

One issue with verifying if Shvetz did play or not is the fact there is very little mention of him, especially when one may expect it. Below is a Chicago Tribune clip from the day of the game, it mentions the large influx of rookies into the Black Hawks lineup but makes no mention of Bill Shvetz. He had been selected in June 1954 by Chicago in the inter-league draft from Calgary of the Western League. He was only 24 at the time but like many others in the six-team NHL had not gotten his chance at the big time yet.
Chicago defender, Gus Mortson appears to have been a late scratch for this first game of the season and in fact played 65 of the 70 games that season. Is it possible that Shvetz was a late fill-in for Mortson and managed to get on the ice for at least one post-hitting shift? If Dink Carroll says he did, I'd like to believe him.

He presents some very compelling information here. Does anyone else have any more information about this story?

Click to read more...

 

[Primary Assist]

Great post! It seems as if Mr. Shvetz is not too far off from the NHL version of Moonlight Graham. Nice investigation work here.

 

[Theokritos]

Maybe we can get @Helen Edwards to join in on this question?

Helen Edwards has been a fan of professional hockey in Victoria since the 1950s when a local radio station offered tickets to Victoria Cougars games for a nickel. She was a season ticket holder for the Victoria Maple Leafs and later for the Victoria Salmon Kings. Spurred by the demise of the Salmon Kings and the death of Bill Shvetz who had played defence for the Victoria Maple Leafs, she embarked on an ambitious project to document the stories of the 483 men to play at least one game for a Victoria team.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I came across an interesting blog post while reading about this player that presents some compelling information that Bill Shvetz may have played a game in the NHL with the 1954/55 Chicago Blackhawks.
This is the blog post (from 2016)

to summarize:
Shvetz had a long minor league career but he may have played 1 game in the NHL, the season opener with the 1954/55 Chicago Blackhawks.

The post in question....

In an addendum to the article about Montreal's 4-2 season-opening win in the Gazette, there was one line that stated,"Bill Shvetz made only one appearance for the Hawks and nearly scored. His shot hit the post." (see below from the Oct 7, 1954 Montreal Gazette).

In addition, sports columnist 'Dink' Carroll made mention of Shvetz playing when he was promptly traded two days later.

One more mention of Shvetz in the October 7 opener is the boxscore from the Chicago Tribune the following day (below). He is clearly in the lineup, but did not collect an official statistic. Did he play that one shift or not?

One issue with verifying if Shvetz did play or not is the fact there is very little mention of him, especially when one may expect it. Below is a Chicago Tribune clip from the day of the game, it mentions the large influx of rookies into the Black Hawks lineup but makes no mention of Bill Shvetz. He had been selected in June 1954 by Chicago in the inter-league draft from Calgary of the Western League. He was only 24 at the time but like many others in the six-team NHL had not gotten his chance at the big time yet.
Chicago defender, Gus Mortson appears to have been a late scratch for this first game of the season and in fact played 65 of the 70 games that season. Is it possible that Shvetz was a late fill-in for Mortson and managed to get on the ice for at least one post-hitting shift? If Dink Carroll says he did, I'd like to believe him.

He presents some very compelling information here. Does anyone else have any more information about this story?

Personally, I would take the first quoted article as proof that he did indeed play in the game. It's one thing to show up in a box score (which may or may not be completely accurate) but to have that corroborated by a writer talking about a specific shift where he hit the post... that's as substantial as evidence can get without video proof.

 

[Benchwarmers]

Hey everyone, I'm happy to be closing out this post with a VERY happy ending!

After lots of additional research, I was able to find some compelling evidence to support Bill Shvetz having played in this game. The sum of it all, including statements from his family, really leave no question in my mind that he did play this game.
For any hockey history nerds, I quickly summed up this story here.
Here's a picture of the man himself with the Hawks:

And finally, the reason I say this story has a happy ending, is that I relayed all this information to Ralph Slate, who runs hockeydb.com. The result is that Shvetz's hockeydb.com profile now credits him for that game!

 

[CoryS]

Bill Shvetz chased me around with his truck on Gorge Road. He was mad because I beat up his son. We went to school together.
Woycheshin