Martin Nicholas Pavelich (born November 6, 1927 in Sault Ste. Marie

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Sault Ste. Marie is a city on the St. Marys River in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, with a population of 74,948. The community was founded as a French religious mission: Sault either means "jump" or "rapids" in...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

) is 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...

 former 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...

 left winger

Winger (ice hockey)

Winger, in the game of hockey, is a forward position of a player whose primary zone of play on the ice is along the outer playing area. They typically work by flanking the centre forward. Originally the name was given to forward players who went up and down the sides of the rink...

. He played ten seasons for the 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...

 of 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...

 from 1947 until 1957.

Early career

Pavelich played three seasons (1944–47) of junior-league hockey with the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) Galt Red Wings

Galt Red Wings

The Galt Red Wings were a junior ice hockey team based in Galt, Ontario, now a part of the city of Cambridge. They played in the Ontario Hockey Association from 1944 to 1947 and were operated as an affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings. Their home arena was the Galt Arena Gardens.The team was...

 in Galt, Ontario. He played 74 regular season games for the team, scoring 52 goals, with 66 assists for a total of 118 points.

NHL career

Pavelich joined the NHL Detroit Red Wings in 1947. He played a total of 634 regular season NHL games, scoring 93 goals and 159 assists for 252 points. His post-season record is 13 goals, 15 assists for 28 points in 93 games. The Red Wings won 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...

 four times (1950, 1952, 1954, 1955) during his career and he played in the NHL all-star games for those seasons.

Pavelich is regarded as an unsung hero of the early 1950s powerhouse Red Wing squad that also included Gordie Howe

Gordie Howe

Gordon "Gordie" Howe, OC is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey player who played for the Detroit Red Wings and Hartford Whalers of the National Hockey League , and the Houston Aeros and New England Whalers in the World Hockey Association . Howe is often referred to as Mr...

 and Ted Lindsay

Ted Lindsay

Robert Blake Theodore Lindsay is a former professional ice hockey player, a forward for the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League . He scored over 800 points in his Hockey Hall of Fame career, won the Art Ross Trophy in 1950, and won the Stanley Cup four times...

. Wings manager, Jack Adams, referred to Pavelich as "one of the four key men around whom we build our hockey club." Hockey journalist Stan Fischler

Stan Fischler

Stan Fischler is a hockey and New York City Subway historian, broadcaster, author and professor.For his hockey knowledge, Fischler promotes himself as “The Hockey Maven” in both local and national circles...

, ranked him as the 4th best defensive forward of all time in his book Hockey's 100: A Personal Ranking of the Best Players in Hockey History. Considered one of the best "shadows" of his time, his role was to check other team's top scorers, including the likes of Maurice "Rocket" Richard.

Post-NHL

Pavelich left the Red Wings at the end of the 1956-57 season. He and Ted Lindsay

Ted Lindsay

Robert Blake Theodore Lindsay is a former professional ice hockey player, a forward for the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League . He scored over 800 points in his Hockey Hall of Fame career, won the Art Ross Trophy in 1950, and won the Stanley Cup four times...

 ran a successful plastics manufacturing business together that supplied parts to the automotive industry. He currently resides in Big Sky, Montana

Big Sky, Montana

Big Sky is a census-designated place in Gallatin and Madison counties in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Montana. This unincorporated community straddles the two counties, is not considered a town, and has no town government. The primary industry of the area is tourism.Big Sky is...

.