47 jours avant la soirée d’ouverture : Gerry O’Flaherty (47e meilleur buteur de tous les temps)
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Krapshoot
@Canucks de Vancouver
47 jours avant la soirée d’ouverture : Gerry O’Flaherty (47e meilleur buteur de tous les temps)
—
Krapshoot
2 Comments
47. Gerry O’Flaherty — 435GP | 98G | 95A | 193P | 1973-1978
Gerry O’Flaherty was born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. His Father John “Peanuts” O’Flaherty was a professional hockey player who briefly played in the NHL for 21-games between 1940-1942 for the New York/Brooklyn Americans.
Gerry O’Flaherty was a 3rd Round Selection for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1970. He was a Left-Winger that played amateur hockey with the Kitchener Rangers. O’Flaherty only had one season with Toronto where he played in 2-games.
The following season he was claimed by the Vancouver Canucks in the intra-league draft (early concept for waivers). O’Flaherty went on to play six seasons with Vancouver. His most productive seasons were between 1973 to 1976, but O’Flaherty topped out at 42 points in two separate seasons.
O’Flaherty never got much of an opportunity to play in the playoffs, but he did get 4-points in 7-games. O’Flaherty did get a chance to represent the United States in the inaugural 1976 Canada Cup. Interestingly O’Flaherty always considered himself to be Canadian even though he was born in the US.
After O’Flaherty’s tenure ended with Vancouver in 1978, he signed with Minnesota as a UFA but his rights were sold to Atlanta three-months later. He went on to play one more NHL game with the Atlanta Flames before finishing his playing career with the Tulsa Oilers and Nova Scotia Voyageurs.
After his career, O’Flaherty became an active member of the Canucks Alumni group and opened a North Vancouver Muffler Shop in 1979. He then started a career as a scout in 1980 working for Montreal in the Western Canadian region. He held that role until 2003 when he joined Tampa Bay as a Pro Scout for the region. At 73-years old, he is still scouting the region for the Lightning.
O’Flaherty ranks 47th all-time in Canucks scoring.
Bonus Fact: According to Joey Kenward, he also holds the team record for fastest consecutive goals at 9s in a game against the Atlanta Flames on March 15th 1974.
The good ol days of hockey when men were men, there wasnt advertising ad nauseam, and no sports betting/gambling crap everywhere. That was good hockey.