Stan Mikita

All you want to know about Stan Mikita

Position Centre
Shot Right
Height
Weight		 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
169 lb (77 kg/12 st 1 lb)
Pro clubs Chicago Black Hawks
Nationality  Canada
Born May 20, 1940 (1940-05-20) (age 68),
Sokolce, Slovakia
Pro career 1958 – 1980
Hall of Fame, 1983

Stanislav "Stan" Mikita (born May 20, 1940) is a Slovak born, Canadian retired professional ice hockey player, generally regarded as the best center of the 1960s. In 1961 he won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Black Hawks.

Contents

Early life

Mikita was born in Sokolče, Slovakia as Stanislav Guoth, but moved to Ontario, Canada, as a young boy to avoid the political troubles in the area due to Communist control. He was adopted by his aunt and uncle who gave him their surname, Mikita.

Playing career

After three starring junior seasons with the St. Catharines Teepees of the Ontario Hockey Association, Mikita was promoted for good to the parent Chicago Black Hawks in 1959. In his second full season, the Hawks won their third and most recent Stanley Cup, and the young centre led the league in goals in the playoffs with six.

The following season was his breakout year as a star, and centring the famed "Scooter Line" (with right wing Ken Wharram and left wingers Ab McDonald and Doug Mohns), became the most-feared centre of the Sixties, and with superstar teammate Bobby Hull, the Black Hawks had the most powerful offense of the decade, generally leading the league in goals scored. Combining skilled defense and a reputation as one of the game's best faceoff men with his innovative curved stick, Mikita led the league in scoring four times in the decade, tying Bobby Hull's single-season scoring mark in 1966–67 with 97 points (a mark broken two years later by former teammate Phil Esposito and currently held by Wayne Gretzky).

In his early years, he was among the most-penalized players in the league, but he then decided to play a cleaner game and went on to win the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanlike conduct twice. Mikita's drastic change in behavior came when he returned from a road trip one night. His wife told him that while their daughter was watching the Black Hawks' last road game on television, she turned and said, "Mommy, why does Daddy spend so much time sitting down?" The camera had just shown Mikita in the penalty box serving a penalty.

Retirement

His latter years marred by chronic back injuries, Mikita finally retired during the 1980 season. Upon his retirement he had the second-highest career scoring point total of any NHL player, after Gordie Howe, and had played in the seventh most games of any player at the time.

Mikita was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983 and into the Slovak Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002.

Career statistics

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM +/- PP SH GW GP G A Pts PIM
1958–59 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 3 0 1 1 4 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
1959–60 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 67 8 18 26 119 -- -- -- -- 3 0 1 1 2
1960–61 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 66 19 34 53 100 -- -- -- -- 12 6 5 11 21
1961–62 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 70 25 52 77 97 -- -- -- -- 12 6 15 21 19
1962–63 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 65 31 45 76 69 -- -- -- -- 6 3 2 5 2
1963–64 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 70 39 50 89 146 -- 14 1 0 7 3 6 9 8
1964–65 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 70 28 59 87 154 -- 8 0 6 14 3 7 10 53
1965–66 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 68 30 48 78 58 -- 11 1 1 6 1 2 3 2
1966–67 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 70 35 62 97 12 -- 8 1 5 6 2 2 4 2
1967–68 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 72 40 47 87 14 -3 13 2 8 11 5 7 12 6
1968–69 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 74 30 67 97 52 +17 7 3 2 -- -- -- -- --
1969–70 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 76 39 47 86 50 +29 7 0 8 8 4 6 10 2
1970–71 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 74 24 48 72 85 +21 7 0 4 18 5 13 18 16
1971–72 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 74 26 39 65 46 +16 5 0 6 8 3 1 4 4
1972–73 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 57 27 56 83 32 +31 7 1 5 15 7 13 20 8
1973–74 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 76 30 50 80 46 +24 6 2 1 11 5 6 11 8
1974–75 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 79 36 50 86 48 +14 12 0 6 8 3 4 7 12
1975–76 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 48 16 41 57 37 -4 6 0 1 4 0 0 0 4
1976–77 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 57 19 30 49 20 -9 6 1 4 2 0 1 1 0
1977–78 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 76 18 41 59 35 +18 6 0 2 4 3 0 3 0
1978–79 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 65 19 36 55 34 +3 4 0 1 -- -- -- -- --
1979–80 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 17 2 5 7 12 +2 0 0 0 -- -- -- -- --
22 years Totals NHL 1394 541 926 1467 1270 +159 127 12 60 155 59 91 150 169

Awards and accomplishments

  • Currently 29th all-time in games played, 27th in goals, 16th in assists, and 13th in points (at end of 2007-08 season).
  • Won the Hart Memorial Trophy as most valuable player in 1967 and 1968.
  • Won the Art Ross Trophy as leading scorer in 1964, 1965, 1967 and 1968.
  • Won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy in 1967 and 1968.
  • Named to the NHL's First All-Star Team in 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967 and 1968.
  • Named to the NHL's Second All-Star Team in 1965 and 1970.
  • Played in NHL All-Star Game in 1964, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1975.
  • Won the Lester Patrick Trophy in 1976.
  • The only player in NHL history to win the Hart, Art Ross, and Lady Byng trophies in the same season, doing so in consecutive seasons, in 1966–67 and 1967–68.
  • Only Alex Delvecchio and Steve Yzerman had a longer career playing for only a single team.
  • Was named to Team Canada for the 1972 Summit Series, but only played two games due to injuries.
  • Inducted into the Slovak Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002.
  • In 1998, he was ranked number 17 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players, making him the highest-ranked player born outside of Canada, although he was trained in Canada.

Notes

  • His name was used in Wayne's World as the name of a doughnut shop, as a parody reference to the Canadian chain Tim Hortons. A restaurant named "Stan Mikita's" and closely resembling the movie's version was opened in 1994 at the Virginia amusement park Kings Dominion and at Paramount Carowinds in Charlotte. The Virginia restaurant was later converted into a Happy Days theme.
  • Reportedly the first player to ever use a curved blade on his stick and was one of the first practitioners of the slapshot.
  • In 1973, Stan teamed up with Chicago business man Irv Tiahnybik to form the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association (AHIHA), to bring together deaf and hard-of hearing hockey players from all over the country.
  • Also known as "Stosh"
  • Is the main character in the book ["My Man Stan"][2] by Tim Wendel.
  • His daughter is married to the caddie of golfer David Toms.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ [1]

External links

Preceded by
Pit Martin		 Chicago Black Hawks captains
1976–77		 Succeeded by
Keith Magnuson
Preceded by
Bobby Hull		 Winner of the Hart Trophy
1967, 1968		 Succeeded by
Phil Esposito
Preceded by
Bobby Hull		 Winner of the Art Ross Trophy
1967, 1968		 Succeeded by
Phil Esposito
Preceded by
Gordie Howe		 Winner of the Art Ross Trophy
1964, 1965		 Succeeded by
Bobby Hull
Preceded by
Alex Delvecchio		 Winner of the Lady Byng Trophy
1967, 1968		 Succeeded by
Alex Delvecchio
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Mikita"

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