Ed Sandford

Ed Sandford

Sandford at St. Michaels, c. 1947
Born (1928-08-20) August 20, 1928
New Toronto, ON, CAN
Height 6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Weight 180 lb (82 kg; 12 st 12 lb)
Position Left Wing
Shot Right
Played for Boston Bruins
Chicago Black Hawks
Detroit Red Wings
Playing career 19461956

Edward Michael Sandford (born August 20, 1928) is a retired Canadian ice hockey forward. He played most of his professional career for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League.

Playing career

Sandford played his junior hockey for the St. Michael's Majors program, leading his team to the Memorial Cup playoffs in 1946 and 1947. In 1947, Sandford devastated the Ontario Hockey Association with 67 points in 27 games, adding a Gretzkyesque 52 points in nine OHA playoffs and ten Memorial Cup games en route to St. Michael's third Memorial Cup title. For his efforts, he was awarded the Red Tilson Trophy as the OHA's most valuable player.

Sandford was signed by the Bruins in 1947. In the low scoring era of the late 1940s and 1950s, Sandford was no sniper - save for the 1953 season, when he led all scorers in the playoffs with eight goals and eleven points - but proved to be an effective and tenacious defensive left winger, and was named to play in the NHL All-Star Game in five consecutive seasons starting in 1951.

His best scoring season was 1954, when he scored 16 goals and 31 assists for 47 points, finishing in the top ten in league scoring, and earned citation as a Second Team All-Star, one of the lowest scoring forwards to do so in the post-War era. The next season he was named to succeed the retiring Milt Schmidt as Bruins' captain.

He played eight seasons in all for the Bruins, only to be traded in the 1955 offseason in a blockbuster nine-player deal - the largest in NHL history to that date - which sent him to the Detroit Red Wings. After playing only four games in Detroit, the Wings promptly dealt Sandford to the Chicago Black Hawks where he finished out the season before retiring.

Retirement

Sandford finished his playing days with 106 goals and 145 assists for 251 points in 503 games, recording 355 penalty minutes.

For many years after his retirement, Sandford served in various off-ice capacities for the Bruins, as a goal judge, official scorer and eventually supervisor of off-ice officials. He became a curling enthusiast after his playing days and was one of the players of the Bruins' first alumni team.

In 2001, the Society for International Hockey Research, in collaboration with the Hockey Hall of Fame and The Hockey News, selected a list of would-be Conn Smythe Trophy winners for the NHL playoff MVP before the trophy was officially presented in 1965, and determined on Sandford's selection for his efforts in the 1953 playoffs.

Career statistics

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1943–44 St. Michael's Buzzers Big-10 Jr. B 3 1 0 1 0
1944–45 St. Michael's Buzzers Big-10 Jr. B 11 12 11 23 9 11 10 14 24 8
1945–46 Toronto St. Michael's Majors OHA-Jr. 26 10 9 19 28 11 5 5 10 12
1946–47 Toronto St. Michael's Majors OHA-Jr. 27 30 37 67 38 9 12 12 14 31
1946–47 Toronto St. Michael's Majors M-Cup 10 11 17 28 26
1947–48 Boston Bruins NHL 59 10 15 25 25 5 1 0 1 0
1948–49 Boston Bruins NHL 56 16 20 36 57 5 1 3 4 2
1949–50 Boston Bruins NHL 19 1 4 5 6
1950–51 Boston Bruins NHL 51 10 13 23 33 6 0 1 1 4
1951–52 Boston Bruins NHL 65 13 12 25 54 7 2 2 4 0
1952–53 Boston Olympics EAHL 2 1 0 1 0
1952–53 Boston Bruins NHL 61 14 21 35 44 11 8 3 11 11
1953–54 Boston Bruins NHL 70 16 31 47 42 3 0 1 1 4
1954–55 Boston Bruins NHL 60 14 20 34 38 5 1 1 2 6
1955–56 Detroit Red Wings NHL 4 0 0 0 0
1955–56 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 57 12 9 21 56
NHL totals 502 106 145 251 355 42 13 11 24 27

External links

Preceded by
Milt Schmidt
Boston Bruins captain
1954–55
Succeeded by
Fernie Flaman
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/16/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.