Puckdoku Profiles: 4 Blast from the Past Blackhawks

My favorite part of playing Puckdoku is trying to find as obscure of a match as I possibly can for teams. Say for instance, Sunday’s all Original Six teams and it made for fun to sit and try to pair it all up.

But after looking at the number of players who have played throughout the organization, what about some obscure names that could get the uniqueness score at ridiculous levels. (C’mon, don’t tell me that you didn’t play Max Bentley yesterday. That was gold right there).

Now, we look at some more names that either had a short stop off in Chicago but may have also been well traveled. Two of the last four days on Puckdoku have featured the Blackhawks. Some are even you may recognize, one in particular who would become more world famous for his success outside of Chicago.

Forward Pit Martin
Blackhawks Career: 740 Games (Goals-Assists-Points; 243-384-627)

A great hockey name and played for three other NHL teams in his career. Martin didn’t have a lot of hardware but was a consistent contributor who was on the Stanley Cup Final runners up in the early 70’s.

Other Teams: Detroit; Boston; Vancouver

Defenseman Al Arbour
Blackhawks Career: 180 Games (Goals-Assists-Points; 6-17-23)

So this is one of those fun little nuggets that features a guy better known later on but one who floated around the league as a player. Arbour is in the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder, renowned for the four Stanley Cups he won as the head coach of the New York Islanders who won four straight Stanley Cups. He would have won five had it not been for Wayne Gretzky and the upstart Edmonton Oilers.

Other Teams: Detroit; Toronto; St. Louis

Forward Steve Sullivan
Blackhawks Career: 370 Games (Goals-Assists-Points; 118-185-303)

Sullivan was a scrappy forward who found ways to score the greasy goals but could also show a flash of skill that would cause jaws to drop. He appeared in one playoff run with the Hawks–the five-game loss to St. Louis during the 2001-02 season. He tallied a goal, one of the few Blackhawks who could actually beat Brent Johnson in that series.

Other teams: Nashville, Toronto, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Arizona

Goalie Jeff Hackett
Blackhawks Career: 173 games (Record: 63-75-25)

Hackett’s time started with the Hawks being good and then ended as they started their late 90’s descent. At one point, he looked like the goalie of the future in 1996-97, where the Blackhawks flipped long time netminder Eddie Belfour to the San Jose Sharks. Only two seasons after that, Hackett would find himself dealt to Montreal.

Other teams: Montreal, New York Islanders, San Jose Sharks, Boston, Philadelphia

Previous Puckdoku Profiles: July 13  (Denis DeJordy; Sergei Krivokrasov; Paul Coffey) | July 14 (Eddie Olczyk, Marc Bergevin, Bob Sauvé) | July 15 – The Blackhawks Nemeses: Ciccarelli and Torres | July 16 – Blackhawks Record Holders