Flash Hollett
Encyclopedia
Frank William "Bill, Flash" Hollett (April 13, 1912 in North Sydney, Nova Scotia
– April 20, 1999 in Mississauga, Ontario
), was a Canadian
professional
ice hockey
defenceman
who played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League
for the Toronto Maple Leafs
, Ottawa Senators
, Boston Bruins
and Detroit Red Wings
.
as he was playing lacrosse with then-Leafs captain Lionel Conacher
. He apprenticed in the minor leagues before being loaned to the Senators for the 1933–34 NHL season. After that - which was the original Senators' final season in Ottawa - Bill played for the Leafs for a season and a half before being sold to the Bruins for $16,000, at the time one of the highest prices ever paid for a player.
Known for his swift skating stride and strong puckhandling ability, Hollett became one of the top offensive defencemen of his day. He played for eight seasons in Boston, and was a star defenceman
on the Bruins' Stanley Cup
championship teams of 1939 and 1941. In 1942, he set a record for goals by a defenceman with 19, a mark he tied the following season, after which he was named to the league's Second All-Star Team.
Hollett was traded to the Red Wings midseason in 1944, and the following year broke his own mark for goals in a season by a defenceman with 20 en route to a citation on the league's First All-Star Team; this record would stand for a quarter-century before being surpassed by Bobby Orr
.
NHL regaining many former stars. In the wake of an acrimonious contract dispute with Detroit general manager Jack Adams, he was traded to the New York Rangers
, but following his wife's wishes to live closer to home in Ontario, Hollett retired from the NHL.
He played for five more seasons in senior leagues, most notably for the Toronto Marlboros
, which he led to the Allan Cup
in 1950, his last in organized hockey. He coached the Marlboros for a single season in 1951, recording a 19–12–1 record.
Hollett retired having scored 132 goals and 181 assists for 313 points in 565 NHL games; at the time of his retirement, he was the highest scoring defenceman in league history. In 79 NHL playoff games, he added 8 goals and 26 assists for 34 points. Hollett was the last member of the original-era Ottawa Senators still active at the time of his retirement.
North Sydney, Nova Scotia
North Sydney is a community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.Located on the north side of Sydney Harbour, along the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island, North Sydney is an important port in Atlantic Canada as it is the western terminus of the Marine Atlantic ferry service...
– April 20, 1999 in Mississauga, Ontario
Mississauga, Ontario
Mississauga is a city in Southern Ontario located in the Regional Municipality of Peel, and in the western part of the Greater Toronto Area. With an estimated population of 734,000, it is Canada's sixth-most populous municipality, and has almost doubled in population in each of the last two decades...
), was a Canadian
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...
defenceman
Defenceman (ice hockey)
Defence in ice hockey is a player position whose primary responsibility is to prevent the opposing team from scoring...
who played 13 seasons 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...
for the Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
, Ottawa Senators
Ottawa Senators (original)
The Ottawa Senators were an amateur, and later, professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934...
, 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...
and Detroit Red Wings
Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League , and are one of the Original Six teams of the NHL, along with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, New York...
.
Playing career
Hollett was first noticed by Maple Leafs' owner Conn SmytheConn Smythe
Constantine Falkland Cary Smythe MC was a Canadian businessman, soldier and sportsman in ice hockey and horse racing. He is best known as the principal owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League from 1927 to 1961 and as the builder of Maple Leaf Gardens...
as he was playing lacrosse with then-Leafs captain Lionel Conacher
Lionel Conacher
Lionel Pretoria Conacher, MP , nicknamed "The Big Train", was a Canadian athlete and politician. Voted the country's top athlete of the first half of the 20th century, he won championships in numerous sports. His first passion was football; he was a member of the 1921 Grey Cup champion Toronto...
. He apprenticed in the minor leagues before being loaned to the Senators for the 1933–34 NHL season. After that - which was the original Senators' final season in Ottawa - Bill played for the Leafs for a season and a half before being sold to the Bruins for $16,000, at the time one of the highest prices ever paid for a player.
Known for his swift skating stride and strong puckhandling ability, Hollett became one of the top offensive defencemen of his day. He played for eight seasons in Boston, and was a star defenceman
Defenceman (ice hockey)
Defence in ice hockey is a player position whose primary responsibility is to prevent the opposing team from scoring...
on the Bruins' 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 teams of 1939 and 1941. In 1942, he set a record for goals by a defenceman with 19, a mark he tied the following season, after which he was named to the league's Second All-Star Team.
Hollett was traded to the Red Wings midseason in 1944, and the following year broke his own mark for goals in a season by a defenceman with 20 en route to a citation on the league's First All-Star Team; this record would stand for a quarter-century before being surpassed by Bobby Orr
Bobby Orr
Robert Gordon "Bobby" Orr, OC is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Orr played in the National Hockey League for his entire career, the first ten seasons with the Boston Bruins, joining the Chicago Black Hawks for two more. Orr is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest...
.
Retirement
After his record-setting season, Hollett's offensive numbers declined sharply in 1946, with the previously war-depletedWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
NHL regaining many former stars. In the wake of an acrimonious contract dispute with Detroit general manager Jack Adams, he was traded to the New York Rangers
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
, but following his wife's wishes to live closer to home in Ontario, Hollett retired from the NHL.
He played for five more seasons in senior leagues, most notably for the Toronto Marlboros
Toronto Marlboros
The Toronto Marlborough Athletic Club, commonly known as the Toronto Marlboros, was founded in 1903. It operated a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey Association and Ontario Hockey League from 1904 to 1989...
, which he led to the Allan Cup
Allan Cup
The Allan Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the national senior amateur men’s ice hockey champions of Canada. It has been competed for since 1909. The current champion is the Clarenville Caribous hockey club of Newfoundland and Labrador.-History:...
in 1950, his last in organized hockey. He coached the Marlboros for a single season in 1951, recording a 19–12–1 record.
Hollett retired having scored 132 goals and 181 assists for 313 points in 565 NHL games; at the time of his retirement, he was the highest scoring defenceman in league history. In 79 NHL playoff games, he added 8 goals and 26 assists for 34 points. Hollett was the last member of the original-era Ottawa Senators still active at the time of his retirement.
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 | ||
| 1932–33 | Syracuse Stars Syracuse Stars The Syracuse Stars were a minor professional ice hockey team from Syracuse, New York, existing for 10 season from 1930 to 1940. The Stars name had previously been used by sports teams, including several Syracuse Stars baseball teams from the 19th century.... |
IHL | ? | 0 | 2 | 2 | 16 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1933–34 | Buffalo Bisons | IHL | ? | 5 | 4 | 9 | 8 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1933–34 | Toronto Maple Leafs Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League... |
NHL | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1933–34 | Ottawa Senators Ottawa Senators (original) The Ottawa Senators were an amateur, and later, professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934... |
NHL | 30 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 21 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1934–35 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 48 | 10 | 16 | 26 | 38 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||
| 1935–36 | Syracuse Stars | IHL | ? | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1935–36 | Boston Cubs | CAHL Canadian-American Hockey League The Canadian-American Hockey League, popularly known as the Can-Am League, was a professional ice hockey league that operated from 1926 to 1936. It was a direct ancestor of the American Hockey League.... |
? | 6 | 15 | 21 | 24 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1935–36 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 11 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 8 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1935–36 | 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 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1936–37 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 47 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 22 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 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... |
Boston Bruins | NHL | 48 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 54 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 1938–39 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 47 | 10 | 17 | 27 | 27 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | ||
| 1939–40 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 44 | 10 | 18 | 28 | 18 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | ||
| 1940–41 1940–41 AHL season The 1940–41 AHL season was the fifth season of the American Hockey League, which had operated the previous four seasons as the "International-American Hockey League." Nine teams played 56 games each in the schedule.The Cleveland Barons won their second F. G... |
Hershey Bears Hershey Bears The Hershey Bears Hockey Club is a professional ice hockey team playing in the American Hockey League, and is currently the top affiliate of the NHL Washington Capitals. The hockey club is based in the unincorporated town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, located within Derry Township some 14 miles east of... |
AHL American Hockey League The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League... |
5 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1940–41 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 42 | 9 | 15 | 24 | 23 | 11 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 8 | ||
| 1941–42 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 48 | 19 | 14 | 33 | 21 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 1942–43 1942–43 NHL season -NHL awards:-All-Star teams:-Scoring leaders:Note: GP = Games played, G = Goals, A = Assists, PTS = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes-Leading goaltenders:... |
Boston Bruins | NHL | 50 | 19 | 25 | 44 | 19 | 9 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 4 | ||
| 1943–44 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 25 | 9 | 7 | 16 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1943–44 | Detroit Red Wings Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League , and are one of the Original Six teams of the NHL, along with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, New York... |
NHL | 27 | 6 | 12 | 18 | 34 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||
| 1944–45 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 50 | 20 | 21 | 41 | 39 | 14 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 6 | ||
| 1945–46 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 38 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 16 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | ||
| NHL totals | 565 | 132 | 181 | 313 | 350 | 80 | 8 | 26 | 34 | 38 | ||||