Turk Broda played his entire NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and with all due respect to everyone else who wore the blue and white in between the pipes, it is Broda who is the most important.
Broda’s professional career began with the Detroit Olympics in the minor leagues, but his path to the NHL would not remain in the Motor City. The Olympics sold his contract to his hometown Maple Leafs, and he would become Toronto’s starting Goalie going into the 1936-37 season.
The Torontonian proved to be a top Goalie, and in the 1940-41 season, Broda won his first Vezina and would lead the Maple Leafs to a Stanley Cup win the year after. It was a special championship in sports, as the Maple Leafs became the first team to overcome a 3-0 Finals deficit to win the title. Broda’s work on the ice took a two-and-a-half-year detour due to World War II, but he returned better than ever.
Broda led Toronto to four Stanley Cups (1947, 1948, 1949 & 1951) in five years, winning a second Vezina in 1948. Age caught up to Broda in 1951, as he played in only 31 Games, and after appearing in only one contest in 1951-52, he retired from hockey with a career record of 304-222-102.
Broda was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1967, and in 1995, his banner was hung to the ACC's rafters. Toronto officially retired his number #1 in 2016.
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