Jerry Butler

This is Jerry Butler, the hockey player. He should not be confused with the football player, the soul singer turned politician or the porn star, so I've been told, by the same name.

This Jerry Butler made his name on the ice, as a terrific shadow and agitator. Just ask Wayne Gretzky. When 99 was breaking every record imaginable in the early 1980s, Butler earned a measure of fame by shutting him down for a stretch. It was a short stretch. Gretz scored more goals against the Canucks than anyone else.

Butler, a fine skater, was the 55th overall draft pick in the 1971 Amateur Draft courtesy of the New York Rangers. It would take three years of apprenticing in the minor leagues before Butler caught on with the Blueshirts full time in 1974-75. He scored 17 goals and 33 points that first full season.

Despite his inspiring play, the industrious winger was shipped to St. Louis in the summer of 1975 in exchange for star goaltender John Davidson. It turned out to be a good career move for Butler.

"St. Louis was a very good change for me," he told The Hockey News. "In New York they wanted a young guy who could skate, check and take the body, but the Blues saw me in a different light. It was a good mix of young and old there."

That different light allowed Butler to play more minutes. That first year he played on an effective line with Garry Unger and Bob MacMillan. Butler's own offensive totals stayed relatively the same (17 goals and 41 points), but he brought life and sandpaper to the Blues top line. The Blues even almost upset the heavily favored Buffalo Sabres in the playoffs.

Early in the 1977-78 season Butler found himself on the way home to Southern Ontario when the Toronto Maple Leafs acquired him in exchanged for the tarnished Inge Hammarstrom. Coach Roger Nielson was a big fan of Butler's mixture of speed and defensive play, and quickly Butler would become a big fan of his new coach.

"Roger was very technical in his approach. That team was the best team I played for in terms of everybody knowing their roles."

Butler played in over 2 and 1/2 seasons in Toronto. That was a very tumultuous time in Leafs history, with Punch Imlach and Harold Ballard hell bent on running the team their way, and essentially running it right into the ground.

"Everything under Ballard was strange. He had a good heart but there was so many things that were completely off the wall in Toronto, it was hard to keep track."

One was the Leafs determination to rid themselves of their heart and soul and leader in Darryl Sittler, who had a no-trade clause in his contract. To convince him to waive his no-trade clause, the Leafs began dismissing Sittler's close friends, such as a young Lanny McDonald and the popular Tiger Williams.

Butler was part of the big Tiger Williams trade in February 1980. The pair were sent to Vancouver in exchange for Bill Derlago and Rick Vaive.

"Butts" would play in parts of three seasons with the Canucks, earning temporary fame for keeping Gretzky quiet.

Butler would resurface with the Winnipeg Jets for the 1982-83 season, but retired at season's end. In 641 NHL games Jerry Butler scored 99 goals and 219 points.

One source suggests Jerry Butler went to school after retiring from hockey, and earned a 4 year Engineering degree. He then became an inspector for the city of Winnipeg.

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Vancouver Canucks Greatest Players

Greg "Gus" Adams Shawn Antoski Dave Babych Jim Benning Per Olov Brasar "King" Richard Brodeur Jiri Bubla Pavel Bure Jerry Butler Geoff Courtnall Russ Courtnall Ron Delorme Eddie Dorohoy John Garrett Martin Gelinas Dennis Kearns Orland Kurtenbach Igor Larionov Don Lever Doug Lidster Trevor Linden Phil Maloney Cesare Maniago Jack McIlhargey Kirk McLean

Larry Melnyk Garry Monahan Dana Murzyn Petr Nedved Chris Oddleifson Gerry O'Flaherty Gino Odjick Barry Pederson Pat Quinn Dave Richter Paul Reinhart Cliff Ronning Jim Sandlak Petri Skriko Stan Smyl Harold Snepsts Daryl Stanley Rich Sutter Steve Tambellini Tony Tanti Ryan Walter Tiger Williams Dunc Wilson

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John Garrett

John Garrett has enjoyed a very successful career as a popular hockey television analyst. But today's generation might not realize that he also enjoyed a lengthy career as a professional goalie.

John was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in 1971 but as a rookie he got caught in a numbers game. John recalled that 13 goalies were at the Blues camp in his rookie season. Needless to say it was quite a glut for goalies, especially since the Blues knew ahead of time that they would go with Ernie Wakely and Jacques Caron as their tandem. (Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante retired in the summer of 1971). John was sent to Kansas City to play his first season of pro hockey. He put up an impressive effort as a rookie in the CHL, including posting a league high 3 shutouts.

The following summer the Blues looked to lighten their load of goalies and shipped John to the Chicago Blackhawks organization in exchange for Christian Bordeleau. Obviously the news wasn't great for John's career as Chicago had Tony Esposito just embarking upon his incredible career and Gary "Suitcase" Smith was a more than capable back up. John was eventually sent to the Richmond Robins of the AHL where again he played solidly before his team was beaten badly in the playoffs.

With his shot at the NHL all but non-existent in the Hawks organization, Garrett signed with the WHA's Minnesota Fighting Saints. It was a great move for John. He not only got a hefty pay increase but also became a workhorse goalie in a league of higher caliber than the usual minor leagues.

"The WHA was good for me. They didn't pay much attention to defence. The good defencemen were well paid to stay in the NHL, so you had the John Arbors and Rick Smiths, guys who would the 5th or 6th defencemen in the NHL, and they were first or second on WHA teams."

Despite the weak defense, Garrett gained respect as a strong goaltender who would often play the bulk of the games. In the WHA he played in 323 career games, playing almost .500 hockey with a record of 148-151-15. He had 14 shutouts (including a league high 4 in 1976-77) and a career 3.52 GAA.

Garrett played 6 strong years in the WHA - almost three full seasons with Minnesota before a stint with the Toronto Toros, 2 years with the Birmingham Bulls and one final season with the New England Whalers. The Whalers claimed Garrett as a priority selection when the team merged with the NHL in 1979.

Garrett went on to help the Whalers for 2 and 1/2 seasons in the NHL. Though his stats are less than impressive, they aren't indicative of his play. Garrett played strongly, especially in the Whalers first NHL season when they made the playoffs.

Garrett was traded to Quebec in 1982. Larry Pleau had taken over the GM's role on the team and wanted to get rid of the Whaler's "old guard" and replace them with Pleau's handpicked men.

Garrett played parts of two seasons in Quebec but was happy to leave as it was tough for his wife and kids to be living in the mostly French town. He was traded to Vancouver which was better from a personal standpoint, but not necessarily a professional one.

"When I got there (Vancouver), I was the back up to Richard Brodeur and played in 50 games in two years. That was tough."

But as John goes on to explain, not as tough as the following years.

"The next year Harry's (GM Harry Neale) contract wasn't renewed. Jack Gordon took over and Tom Watt became the coach. Brodeur was getting to the end of the line and they wanted a younger goalie to be his back up. They didn't want two 33 year olds sharing the job. They had Frank Caprice and Wendel Young coming up."

John was eventually asked to go play in the American Hockey League, which he did for 3 games before he made up his mind to retire.

John retired with 207 NHL games under his belt. 68 of those games resulted in wins, with 91 losses and 37 ties. He had a bloated 4.27 GAA and just one shutout (with Vancouver)

Wayne Gretzky Stole Garrett's Car

One of the most famous stories involving John Garrett came during the 1983 All Star Game. Garrett was acquired by the Canucks less than a week prior to the game. However Richard Brodeur, the Canucks number one goalie and all star representative, suffered a broken eardrum courtesy of a Dan Daoust wild shot. As a last minute replacement, Garrett was asked to fill in for the Campbell Conference All Stars despite playing the whole first half in the Wales Conference.

Garrett had a great game too, and was the favorite to win game MVP honors, which of course earns you a brand new car, except a guy named Gretzky put on a goal scoring clinic in the third period. Gretzky's 4 goals in one period instantly became all star legend.

"I had about 15 saves total up to about the six minute mark of the third period" recalls John in Dick Irvin's great book In The Crease. "I knew Lanny McDonald from playing with him at the World Championships one year and he kept talking to me after I'd make a save: 'Hey Cheech, you got the tires....the glove compartment.....hey, great stop. Now you've got the steering wheel.' Then about the six minute mark Gretz scores and makes 4-2. On his next shift he scores again. 5-2. Lanny comes back to me after each goal, 'Oh oh, There go the tires...Oh oh, there goes the steering wheel.' The very next shift 99 scores again. Now he's got the hat trick. And then he gets another goal on his next shift. I mean, he takes four shifts and scores four goals. Guess what. I didn't win the car."

Surrendering to Mr. Hockey

Garrett is also the answer to a great trivia question as he was the goalie that gave up Gordie Howe's 1000th professional goal.

"We played them in Birmingham and Gordie was standing in front of the net and the pass came to him, a one hopper, and he picked it off about three inches above the ice and nailed it. I got a picture of the play with the puck in the net behind me, and Gordie signed it, 'Thanks for all the help!'"

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Eddie Dorohoy

They called him Pistol not because he was a sharpshooter but rather because of a gun twirling incident in Texas. They called him Brat because he was hard-headed, abrasive and believed in doing things his own way. They called him The Great Gaboo because he would never stop talking. In fact, he liked to talk so much that he took up driving cab in the off-season just to have a chance to talk to a lot of people more so than for the money.

With colorful nicknames such as these, you already know this man was quite the character. But he was also quite the hockey player. True, he only played in 16 goalless and pointless NHL games, but fans of the old 1950s and 1960s WHL, especially in Victoria and Vancouver, called Eddie Dorohoy one of the greatest hockey players they had ever seen.

Dorohoy was an fun if unusual skater to watch. He was said to have danced his way across the ice, using short, choppy, "running" strides to give him a head start on nearly everyone else on the ice. He wasn't a great technical skater by any stretch of the imagination, but he was effective.

The native of Medicine Hat was not over-poweringly big, but he was tenacious and tough. He did not back down from anyone during play, though he rarely got too involved in after the whistle scrums, even if he may have started more than a few.

He was a consistent top ten scorer in the old Western League. In 714 career games he scored 297 goals and 533 assists for 830 points, plus 42 more in the playoffs.

Yet he only had one stint in the NHL, and even then he was used sparingly. In 1948-49 Dorohoy participated in 16 NHL games with the Montreal Canadiens. But he saw very little ice time and never picked up a single point. He would soon be demoted to the minor leagues, never to return.

Legendary BC sports journalist Denny Boyd once explained why Dorohoy never stuck in the NHL:

"When Dorohoy was a brash 19 year old rookie trying out with the Montreal Canadiens, one of the first duties he assigned himself was setting out to correct what he felt were several serious deficiencies in the great Rocket Richard's game. That helped earn him a quick trip to the minors but before he left, he handed his practice sweater to a Canadiens' official and said, "Here, you may want to retire this."

Jon C. Stott, author of the great book Ice Warriors (The Pacific Coast/Western Hockey League 1948-1974) suggests another disruptive account buried him forever.

“Dorohoy saw little ice time in the 16 games he played for Montreal When the team got off to a slow start, coach Dick Irvin called a meeting. Here, Eddie became involved in another legendary incident, one that revealed his verbal rather than athletic dexterity. ‘He was going down the lines asking each player why he wasn’t scoring. When he got to me, I told him that I’d need a very long stick to score from where I was sitting on the bench.’ It wasn’t long after that when Dorohoy found himself with Dallas in the USHL."

Dorohoy never changed though. Once he accused Vancouver Canucks owner Coley Hall as being "so cheap, he wouldn't give you the sleeves off his vest."

Despite his abrassive attitude, he was well liked by his teammates, and by the fans. He played 7 seasons with the Victoria Cougars and parts of another 4 in Vancouver with the original Canucks.

Dorohoy was forced retire as a player in 1965. He was at home recuperating from a broken leg when somehow he fell down the stairs, badly re-breaking the leg and ending his career one the ice.

Dorohoy would try his hand at coaching, guiding junior teams like the Brandon Wheat Kings and Winnipeg Jr. Jets in the late 1960s. After briefly managing the Medicine Hat golf course, he served as an assistant coach with Los Angeles Kings from 1973 through 1976.

Eddie Dorohoy left us earlier in 2009, after a battle with leukemia. He was 80 years old. He had returned to Victoria after hockey and went back to driving cab in his later years.

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