Candidates for election as Honoured Members in the player category shall be chosen on the basis of their playing ability, sportsmanship, character and their contribution to their team or teams and to the game of hockey in general
The next person to cover for their basis to be in the Hall of Fame is perhaps the most scrutinized candidate ever in the Hall of Fame’s history. Paul Henderson, hero of the 1972 Summit Series against the USSR, can spark a lot of debates about hockey history. Though the greatest question can be seen in the debate on whether Henderson should be in the Hall of Fame because the Selection Committee must ask themselves, “How important is one moment or an eight game tournament in relation to an entire career?”.
Before we delve into the pure uniqueness of Henderson’s situation, we should talk about his entire career. Henderson’s youth was a day in and age where the draft did not exist yet. Therefore, NHL teams had to compete with each other to sign prospects to be a part of their organizations. These forms often made those players that team’s property for the duration of their careers, unless they are traded. In Henderson’s case, he had Detroit and Boston competing for his services, where Detroit won due to the fact that the Red Wings minor league club, Hamilton, was close to his home town of Lucknow.
In Hamilton, Henderson was able to lead his team to a Memorial Cup Championship in 1962, in which again, he scored the series winning goal. The next year, he led the Ontario Hockey Association (now the OHL) with 49 goals in 48 games and was called up by Detroit for two NHL games. In the 1964 season, Henderson did not make it make the Red Wings right away, however by January 1st he became a regular in the Red Wings’ line up. In the remaining 32 games of the season he contributed 6 points and during their playoff run another 5. However, the Red Wings would lose to the Maple Leafs in seven games.
As a full time NHLer, the Detroit coaches cast Henderson as a defensive forward, thus limiting his ice time. Due to this he only scored 8 goals and 21 points in the 1965 season. The next year, the Wings put him in a more offensive role where Henderson began to blossom, scoring 22 goals in the regular season and 3 in the playoffs, including game one’s winner of the Stanley Cup Final. Montreal got the last laugh though and won the Cup in 6 games. His final season with the Red Wings in 1967 limited Henderson to 49 games due to injury and a contract dispute. Despite all that he still managed 21 goals.
Henderson’s exit from Detroit was part of one of the biggest trades in NHL history at the time. Henderson was traded along with Floyd Smith and Hall of Famer Norm Ullman to Toronto for another Hall of Famer, Frank Mahovlich, Gary Unger, and Pete Stemkowski. In Toronto, Henderson started off really well considering he played at least one full season with an injury. In his first full year with the Leafs he had 27 goals and 59 points in 74 games. In 1970, where his injured groin came into play, he still had 20 goals for 42 points in 67 games. That offseason, it came time to negotiate a new contract. According to Henderson, the Leafs ignored the fact that they asked him to play hurt in negotiations, thus hurting his view of team management in regards to their players. He responded to this by having a career season with 30 goals and 60 points, followed up with 38 goals for 57 points. These numbers is what led him to his selection to Team Canada in the series of the century.
For the few who don’t know the story, it went like this. This series was the first time NHL players, or Canada’s best, would get to play against the USSR’s best. This had been a point of contention in international competitions because NHL players were not allowed to participate due to their status as professionals. The hockey prognosticators in Canada, and even in the USSR, felt that Canada would win this series, it was just a matter of by how much. However this wasn’t the case. In game one of the eight game series in Montreal, Canada went up 2-0 very quickly however the USSR team turned it on and won 7-3. Canada won the next game in Toronto 4-1, however they went on to tie the 3rd game 4-4 in Winnipeg, and then lose the fourth in Vancouver 5-3.
It was in Moscow when Henderson took over the series. The first game in Moscow, Henderson scored a goal to make the score 4-1 for Canada. However he was tripped up going to the boards, which led to a concussion and knocked him unconscious. He did finish the game but the USSR came back to win that game 5-4. In order for Canada to win the series, they would have to take the next 3 games in Moscow. Henderson scored the winning goals in both game 6 (3-2), and game 7 (4-3), tying the series leading up to the pivotal game 8. In game 8, Canada was down 5-3 in the second intermission. In the third period, Phil Esposito scored early to make the score 5-4, then later Yvan Cournoyer scored to tie the game at 5. With less than a minute left, Team Canada was informed that the USSR would win the series if it remained tied due to the USSR scoring more goals. Right after this information was known, with 34 seconds left… this happened:
Here’s a shot… Henderson made a wild stab for it and fell… here’s another shot, right in front they SCORE! HENDERSON HAS SCORED FOR CANADA!
With that final nail in the series, Paul Henderson had become a national hero. Everyone who was alive back then in Canada remembers where they were when Henderson scored that goal. Businesses and schools were halted during the duration of Game 8. Essentially the country shut down. Henderson’s goal in game 8 was declared by the Canadian Press as the “sports moment of the century”. The team was named the “team of the century” by the Hockey Hall of Fame. The moment he scored in game 8 has been depicted on coins and stamps in Canada. Needless to say, it was a unique moment in sport history.
Henderson’s stick that scored the GWG that was on display at the HHOF during the 40th anniversary of the Summit Series
This ended up being the highlight of Henderson’s career as he had some trouble dealing with his new found fame. Henderson let the stress of Harold Ballard’s interference of the team get to him which led to an ulcer and depression. The depression also led to a problem with alcohol. That 1972-73 season he only had 6 goals and played in only 40 games. After this season, Henderson signed a 5 year deal with the Toronto Toros of the WHA, despite the fact that there was one year left on his deal with the Maple Leafs. The deal was structured that he would get a bonus based on his final year with the Leafs. In that final year with the Leafs, he scored 24 goals and Ballard tried to re-sign Henderson to the same terms, where he told him to “shove it”.
In the WHA, they had a similar series with the Russian in 1974. However, Henderson wasn’t as successful this time around with only 3 points in 8 games. Throughout his career in the WHA, Henderson played for the Toros, which became the Birmingham Bulls, over five years. During that period of time he had 140 goals and 283 points over 360 games before the NHL and the WHA merged. Once merged, the Bulls were not invited in the NHL, so he started off his season in the Central Hockey League with the team. Later in the season he returned to the NHL with the Atlanta Flames where he had seven goals and 13 points in 30 games. When the Flames ended up moving to Calgary the next year, Henderson preferred to stay in Birmingham with the Bulls where he ended his playing career.
Looking at Henderson’s over all stats, they are not all that impressive. In the NHL he had 236 goals and 477 points over 707 games. In the WHA, he also contributed 140 goals and 283 points in another 360 games. The combination of the two does not dictate a Hall of Fame career, which he admitted himself in an interview with the Montreal Gazette. His exact quote was, “So many Canadians get upset that I’m not in the Hall of Fame, and I tell them all the time if I was on the committee, I wouldn’t vote for me… quite frankly, I didn’t have a Hall of Fame career.”
The thing with Henderson’s situation is that there is no other situation like it in sports. In no other sport did they have a single shot, goal, touchdown, or run scored that united that particular sport’s world like Henderson did against the USSR in 1972. This creates the debate that I mentioned earlier as to how much one moment has in relation to an entire career. The answer to that question is that it is subjective. Everyone will feel different about it, and when in a committee, there will not be a consensus.
The series itself has its own questions which could have changed Henderson’s status. If Bobby Orr, Bobby Hull, and Gordie Howe were available to the Canadian team would Henderson have made it? If the Canadian team had the same amount of time as a team together as the Russians did would the series have started as lopsided as it did? Same thing with when they played the series, in September when the NHL players were not in shape, as opposed to January or in the summer after the season. The reason I ask those questions is because I wonder if the series went the way everyone expected, the entire course of hockey history would have been changed.
I’m not going to say whether he should or should not be inducted into the Hall as he is such a unique case. If you look at my last blog on Kerry Fraser, many of the comments spoke of the one mistake that Fraser made in a non-call against the Maple Leafs. I believe in that moment, I don’t think his entire career should be defined by that. One would have to wonder if the reverse is the case, should one positive moment define his entire career. Not I, you, or anyone outside of the Selection Committee can answer that question. We can only offer an opinion.
Feel free to give me your opinion on whether Henderson should be inducted or if there is someone else you think should be in. You can make your comments in the comment section or:
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