Most Important People In Hockey History...

[seventieslord]

...that weren't players at any high level, or in any executive position (coach, GM, owner, commissioner, etc)

The first two that come to mind are Frank Zamboni and Lord Stanley of Preston.

Click to read more...

 

[seventieslord]

I should also add Charles Coleman, whose work on The Trail Of the Stanley Cup series may seem like small potatoes by our information age standards, but back then was the mother of all hockey books.

 

[Derick*]

This is a hard one... someone involved in stats and analysis that changed the way we looked at the game. You?

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

He's not nearly as important as the two guys you mentioned, but Arthur Chidlovski is pretty important to us internet era people.

 

[Dreakmur]

...that weren't players at any high level, or in any executive position (coach, GM, owner, commissioner, etc)

The first two that come to mind are Frank Zamboni and Lord Stanley of Preston.

I'd be surprised if many top-flight rinks use Zambonis anymore.


Allan Eagleson did a lot of good things for hockey... before he did a lot of bad

 

[Hertl Power]

James George Aylwin Creighton

Credited with organizing and creating the rules of the first indoor hockey game. He also played in the game.

The true creators of the sport have been lost in time so the most important figures will never really be known.

 

[Derick*]

James George Aylwin Creighton

Credited with organizing and creating the rules of the first indoor hockey game. He also played in the game.

The true creators of the sport have been lost in time so the most important figures will never really be known.

You're from California, therefore you know nothing about hockey, therefore this post I'm reading must be a hallucination.

 

[seventieslord]

I'd be surprised if many top-flight rinks use Zambonis anymore.


Allan Eagleson did a lot of good things for hockey... before he did a lot of bad

Eagleson would count as a guy who was in an executive position.

 

[VMBM]

Allan Eagleson did a lot of good things for hockey... before he did a lot of bad

I'm certainly glad that someone mentioned him, since I was too embarrassed to do so myself. Saying something positive about him seems to be like the hockey version of saying something positive about Hitler.

But heck, he did a lot for international hockey, and I don't even care about his motivation, i.e. whether it was 'sincere' or not.

 

[Ola]

WALTER GRETZKY, and Phyllis Gretzky, for, you know, doing it around the 15th aprile 1960 (most likely the 16th aprile 1960 which was a saturday).

 

[overpass]

This is a hard one... someone involved in stats and analysis that changed the way we looked at the game. You?

For stats and analysis, HHOF Builder Jim Hendy.

Clarence Campbell: "Jim never scored a goal in organized hockey and he never made any real money for himself. But he was the real founder of hockey statistics which are the life blood of the game's publicity and the yardstick of player evaluation."

He was an executive with the Cleveland Barons for a few years, but that's not his legacy.

 

[MXD]

James Creighton, René Lecavalier, Foster Hewitt.

 

[Alpine]

The guy who brought a frozen cow pattie to a frozen pond, lake, river, creek and said Game On some centuries ago.
Or the guy that produced the first full boot skate that replaced the strap on bob-skate or maybe the guy that made the 1st bob-skate.
Anybody else on here old enough to remember learning how to skate on the 2 bladed bob skate straped on over your sno-moblile boots on an outdoor frozen surface at about 4 or 5 years old.