| Halloffame: | 1981 |
| Birth Date: | 12 May 1935 |
| Birth Place: | Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |
| Height Ft: | 6 |
| Height In: | 0 |
| Weight Lb: | 215 |
| Position: | Left Wing |
| Shoots: | Left |
| Played For: | Detroit Red Wings Boston Bruins |
| Career Start: | 1955 |
| Career End: | 1978 |
John Paul "Chief" Bucyk (born May 12, 1935) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Having played most of his career with the Boston Bruins, he has been associated in one capacity or another with the Bruins' organization since the late 1950s. Bucyk was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in 2017.[1]
Bucyk was a skilled left winger who was the largest of his day.[2] While he never was regarded as the best at his position (being a contemporary of superstars Bobby Hull and Frank Mahovlich), he had a long and stellar career, and retired as the fourth leading point scorer of all time and having played the third-most games in history, and recorded sixteen seasons of scoring twenty goals or more. Despite his reputation for devastating hip checks,[3] he was a notably clean player who won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship in 1971 and 1974. Bucyk was the senior assistant captain of the Bruins when they won Stanley Cups in 1970 and 1972.
Bucyk was born in Edmonton to Sam and Pearl Bucyk, Ukrainian immigrants from the village of Butsiv, in what is now Yavoriv Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine.[4] The family was poor, with Pearl working two jobs and his father, Sam, was unemployed for over four years. His father died when Bucyk was 11 years old.[3] Poverty prevented Bucyk from owning a pair of ice skates until he was 13 years old.[5]
During the offseason, Bucyk returned to Edmonton and worked at the car dealership that sponsored his junior team.[6]
Bucyk played junior hockey for four seasons for his hometown Edmonton Oil Kings before signing with the Detroit Red Wings in 1955.[2] Bucyk was originally an awkward skater, and Oil Kings coach Ken McAuley arranged for Bucyk to train offseason with a figure skater until his technique improved.[3] He went on to be one of the leading scorers on a strong Oil Kings squad that included future Hall of Famer Norm Ullman. Bucyk and the Oil Kings went to the 1954 Memorial Cup final against the St. Catharines Teepees, with Bucyk scoring a blistering 28 goals in 21 playoff games to lead the WCHL, as well as 14 goals in 14 Memorial Cup games to lead all scorers that season.[7]
Following the Memorial Cup final, Bucyk signed a professional contract with the Edmonton Flyers of the Western Hockey League, the minor league affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings. There, he was reunited with junior teammate Ullman, and paired on a line with future Bruins teammates Bronco Horvath and Vic Stasiuk.[8] It was during this time that Horvath was responsible for nicknaming Bucyk "Chief," purportedly out of Horvath's admiration for how Bucyk used his stick like a tomahawk to fight for pucks along the boards.[3] In 1955, his lone full season with the Flyers, he finished second on the team to Horvath with 30 goals, 58 assists and 88 points as the Flyers won the league championship.[9] [10]
Following the 1955 WHL playoffs, Detroit called Bucyk up for the 1955 Stanley Cup playoffs. Practicing with the team as a so-called "Black Ace," [3] he saw no game action, as Detroit defeated the Montreal Canadiens four games to three for the Cup. Unusually, his first NHL game was in the 1955 All-Star Game, played in October between the defending Cup champion Red Wings and an all-star team from the rest of the league.[11] He saw only spot duty in his rookie season of 1956, and had modest production on the third and fourth lines the year following.
Going into the 1958 season, the Boston Bruins had acquired Horvath and Stasiuk, and general manager Lynn Patrick believed that reuniting them with Bucyk would recapture the success they had in Edmonton.[3] Detroit dealt him to the Bruins in a surprising deal for Terry Sawchuk, one of the greatest goaltenders of the day.[12]
Bucyk became the top left wing in Boston playing with his "Uke Line" partners of Stasiuk and Horvath, who had previously played together in Edmonton.[8] The trio had an immediate impact, leading the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Finals, with Horvath finishing fifth in league scoring, and Bucyk and Stasiuk each scoring 21 goals.[13] The moniker "Uke Line" came from the trio's purported Ukrainian background (in fact, Stasiuk was of Hungarian origins). Bucyk's first hat trick was scored in one of the first nationally televised games, a 7-4 over the New York Rangers.[14]
Bucyk and his Uke Line linemates continued to star together (Horvath losing the league scoring championship to Bobby Hull by a single point in 1960), but by the 1961 season, the trio's defensive deficiencies caused coach Milt Schmidt to break the lineup.[15] Bucyk was paired with Stasiuk and Jerry Toppazzini, before the Ukes were reunited, but the line was permanently broken up with Stasiuk and Horvath both being traded by the 1961 offseason, with the team missing the playoffs for a second straight year.
Boston fell on hard times in the 1960s, finishing in last place five straight seasons, during which time Bucyk — generally paired with centre Murray Oliver and winger Tommy Williams as the "BOW" line[16] — led the team in scoring several times. As one of the team's only stars, he was named to play in All-Star Games in 1963, 1964 and 1965. He went on to score his 200th goal in the 1967 season (during which he was named team captain), the eighth straight year—a then-league record—in which the Bruins would miss the playoffs.[17]
Assembling a team behind the acquisitions of Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito, Boston rocketed to the playoffs in 1968, with Bucyk finishing second behind Esposito in team scoring (and ninth in league scoring), being named to his fifth All-Star Game, and being selected as the league's Second Team All-Star.[18] [12] Bucyk proved particularly effective playing on the left side on Boston's greatly feared power-play unit, which featured Phil Esposito, John McKenzie, Bobby Orr and Fred Stanfield. He also was a highly accurate shooter, finishing in the top ten in the league in shooting percentage in eleven seasons, and leading the league in 1971, 1973, and 1974.[12]
Two seasons later, the Bruins won their fourth Stanley Cup, with Bucyk finishing fourth in team scoring and second in goal scoring in the playoffs, and being named to play in the 1970 NHL All-Star Game.[19] While he had not been the team's captain after 1967, as the senior assistant captain, he had the honor of being the first to ceremonially skate the Stanley Cup around the Boston Garden ice.
The 1970–71 season saw the Bruins break 37 individual and team league records en route to the best record in league history.[20] Bucyk had his best season, being the 5th player in league history to score 50 goals (on March 16, 1971)[21] and the 5th to score 100 points (on March 13, 1971).[22] He was named to play in his seventh All-Star Game,[12] and further honored by being named as the league's First Team All-Star and being awarded his first Lady Byng Memorial Trophy as the league's most gentlemanly player. At age 35, he was the oldest player in league history to score 50 goals (a record that stood until 2022 when broken by Alexander Ovechkin),[23] broke the league record for assists and points by a left winger, and remains the oldest player ever to score 50 goals for the first time. He ultimately finished third in league scoring (behind Orr and Esposito), and second in goals and power-play goals. Among Boston's numerous records was having four hundred point scorers (Esposito, Orr, Bucyk, and Ken Hodge) finishing 1-2-3-4 in league scoring, the first time either had happened, and the only time save for the Edmonton Oilers in 1983 and the Bruins in 1974, respectively.
Bucyk played for his second and final Stanley Cup-winning team in 1972, finishing eighth in league scoring. He would remain a star for most of the 1970s, being named team captain again in 1973, winning the Lady Byng again in 1974, and finishing in the top ten of the league scoring twice more. In 1977, he was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for contributions to hockey in the United States.
Bucyk starred into his penultimate season (during which he surrendered his team captaincy, while suffering an injury, to Wayne Cashman), and ended his playing career after the 1978 season, after which the Bruins retired his number #9 jersey in 1980.[24]
At the time of his retirement, Bucyk was fourth all-time in points (behind Gordie Howe, Esposito and Stan Mikita) (currently 28th) and in goals (currently 27th), third in games played behind Howe and Alex Delvecchio (currently 17th), and was the leading career point scorer among left wings, a record since surpassed by Luc Robitaille.[12]
He scored 545 goals as a Bruin, which remains the most in franchise history. Only Ray Bourque has subsequently passed his team marks for points, games played, and assists.[25]
Bucyk received numerous honors after his retirement. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1981. In 1998, he was ranked number 45 on The Hockey News list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. In 2017, Bucyk was part of the first group of players to be named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history by the National Hockey League.[26] Among the Bruins' team awards is the John P. Bucyk Award, presented each year to the Bruins player who provides exceptional off-ice charitable contributions.[27]
Bucyk remains affiliated with the Bruins, serving on various occasions as a radio broadcaster and in the front office. He previously served as the team's director of road services and is now listed by the team as an ambassador, being known as the "unofficial mayor of TD Garden".[28] As part of Boston's coaching and administrative staff, Bucyk had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup for a third time with the Bruins in 2011, his 53rd consecutive season with the organization. As of the 2023 season, Bucyk's 69 years in professional hockey is the longest such tenure on record.[6]
His nephew Randy Bucyk played for the Northeastern University Huskies and the Montreal Canadiens and Calgary Flames organizations, earning a Stanley Cup ring with Montreal in 1986. Randy Bucyk also played for the Canadian national team in 1989. Bucyk also played with his older brother William Bucyk, a defenseman for the Oil Kings who played several seasons in the minor league Western Hockey League in the late 1950s.[29]
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | League | GP | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | |||||
| 1951–52 | Edmonton Maple Leafs | AJHL | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1951–52 | Edmonton Oil Kings | WCJHL | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1952–53 | Edmonton Oil Kings | WCJHL | 39 | 19 | 12 | 31 | 24 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 14 | ||
| 1953–54 | Edmonton Oil Kings | WCJHL | 33 | 29 | 38 | 67 | 38 | 21 | 28 | 17 | 45 | 30 | ||
| 1953–54 | Edmonton Flyers | WHL | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1953–54 | Edmonton Oil Kings | M-Cup | — | — | — | — | — | 14 | 14 | 10 | 24 | 10 | ||
| 1954–55 | Edmonton Flyers | WHL | 70 | 30 | 58 | 88 | 57 | 9 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 7 | ||
| 1954–55 | Edmonton Flyers | Ed-Cup | — | — | — | — | — | 7 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 22 | ||
| 1955–56 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 38 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 18 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | ||
| 1955–56 | Edmonton Flyers | WHL | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1956–57 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 66 | 10 | 11 | 21 | 39 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 1957–58 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 68 | 21 | 31 | 52 | 57 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 16 | ||
| 1958–59 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 69 | 24 | 36 | 60 | 36 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | ||
| 1959–60 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 56 | 16 | 36 | 52 | 26 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1960–61 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 70 | 19 | 20 | 39 | 48 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1961–62 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 67 | 20 | 40 | 60 | 32 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1962–63 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 69 | 27 | 39 | 66 | 36 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1963–64 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 62 | 18 | 36 | 54 | 36 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1964–65 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 68 | 26 | 29 | 55 | 24 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1965–66 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 63 | 27 | 30 | 57 | 12 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1966–67 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 59 | 18 | 30 | 48 | 12 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1967–68 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 72 | 30 | 39 | 69 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 1968–69 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 70 | 24 | 42 | 66 | 18 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 0 | ||
| 1969–70 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 76 | 31 | 38 | 69 | 13 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 19 | 2 | ||
| 1970–71 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 78 | 51 | 65 | 116 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 0 | ||
| 1971–72 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 78 | 32 | 51 | 83 | 4 | 15 | 9 | 11 | 20 | 6 | ||
| 1972–73 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 78 | 40 | 53 | 93 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | ||
| 1973–74 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 76 | 31 | 44 | 75 | 8 | 16 | 8 | 10 | 18 | 4 | ||
| 1974–75 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 78 | 29 | 52 | 81 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 1975–76 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 77 | 36 | 47 | 83 | 20 | 12 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 0 | ||
| 1976–77 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 49 | 20 | 23 | 43 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1977–78 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 53 | 5 | 13 | 18 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| NHL totals | 1,540 | 556 | 813 | 1,369 | 493 | 124 | 41 | 62 | 103 | 42 | ||||
Statistics via Hockey Reference[12]