Bobby Hull

At 85 years old, Bobby Hull has this physical status:

Robert Marvin Hull, OC (born January 3, 1939) is a Canadian former ice hockey player who is regarded as one of the best players of all time.

His blonde hair, legendary skating agility, end-to-end rushes, and his ability to shoot the puck at a high rate all brought him the nickname "The Golden Jet."

His talents were so high that one or two opposing players were often assigned just to shadow him, a nodistribution to his explosiveness.

Brett Hull, a former hockey player, is the father of the boy. Hull played for the Chicago Black Hawks, Winnipeg Jets, and Hartford Whalers in his 23 years in the National Hockey League (NHL) and World Hockey Association (WHA).

While assisting the Black Hawks in 1961, he earned the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player twice and the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's top point scorer three times.

In 1976 and 1978, he led the Winnipeg Jets to the Avco Cup championships.

He led the NHL in goals seven times, the second most prolific player in history, and he led the WHA in goals for the second time in history, while still being the WHA's Most Valuable Player two times.

He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, and in 2003, he was named winner of the Wayne Gretzky International Award.

In 2017, Hull was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.

Early life

Hull was born in Pointe Anne, Ontario. He was the son of Lena Cook and Robert Edward Hull, a cement company foreman. In the fall of 1954, he played his minor hockey in Belleville and then Junior B hockey for the Woodstock Warriors. The Warriors were Ontario champions during the 1955 Sutherland Cup. Hull led the Warriors to the 1955 Sutherland Cup. He played for the Galt Black Hawks and the St. Catharines Teepees in the Ontario Hockey Association until joining the Chicago Black Hawks in 1957 at the age of 18.

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Playing career

Hull's debut in the Calder Memorial Trophy came in second place. Hull wore numbers 16 and 7 as a Black Hawk, but later switched to his new number 9, a nodo to his childhood hero Gordie Howe. He led the league in goal- and point-scoring by his third season (1959–66), a double feat that he also achieved in 1961–62 and 1965–66. In 1961, he led Chicago to the Stanley Cup for the third time and first in 23 years. He came in second in point-scoring three times.

The Golden Jet became the first NHL player to score more than 50 goals in a season on March 12, 1966, defeating Maurice Richard's, Bernie Geoffrion's, and his own record of 50 goals. The Chicagoaptes' 51st goal, scored on Cesare Maniago of the New York Rangers, earned him a seven-minute standing ovation from the Chicago faithful. Hull's highest single-season total of the Original Six era was 54 goals this season. Hull set the most points in a season this year with 97, one more than the previous record set by Dickie Moore 7 years ago. Stan Mikita's point total was tied for the next year, but Phil Esposito wears them out three years later. During the 1960s, Hull led the league in goal scoring seven times. Despite Hull's goals in a season record of four goals (netting 58%) and posting a career high of 107 points (second in the league this year), the Hawks missed the playoffs for the first time since his rookie season. He had scored 50 goals or more in his last NHL season, a record five timesificating. This was just one time less than half of all other players in NHL history combined up to this point in time.

Heboc voted the First-Team left winger ten times and the Second-Team Left winger twice in his 15 full NHL seasons. His slapshot was once clocked at 118.3 kilometers per hour (190.5 km/h), and he could skate 29.7 mph (47.8 km/h). Hull's wrist shot was reported to be harder than his slapshot during his rush to reach the 50-goal mark.

Hull, who was furious over his poor pay as one of hockey's top players, reacted angrily to the Winnipeg Jets' inception in 1972 by boasting that he would jump to them for a million dollars, which was previously considered ridiculous. Gathering the other league owners together to contribute to the unprecedented sum on the grounds that inking such a big name gave instant credibility to the young rival league that was playing directly against the established NHL, Ben Hatskin decided to the sum and signed Hull as a player/coach for a $1.75 million salary increase over ten years plus a $1 million signing bonus. Despite the fact that Hull's initial appearance in Winnipeg was delayed due to the NHL's involvement, the league's best player since 1972–73 and 1974–75, he became the WHA's best player in 1972–73 and 1974–75. Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, his Swedish linemates, together with Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, he created one of the 1970s' most durable forward lines (known as "The Hot Line"), winning two AVCO Cups during his time with the Jets. His best result in the point-scoring competition in the Western Hockey Association was during his 77 goals to set a new career record while still having 65 assists for a total of 142 points, five behind the league leader, one of two times he came in second. He was named a First-Team All-Star thrice and a Second-Team All-Star twice in five WHA seasons, despite tallying 50 goals and 100 points four times per season.

Hull was not allowed to represent Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series, which pitted Canada's best NHL players against the USSR's national team, since he participated in the rival league. Hull and other top WHA players (including Gordie Howe, who had been suspended from the league at the time of the initial Summit Series) met against the Soviet national team two years later. Despite Hull's seven goals, the WHA lost the series four games to one (three ending in a tie). He was a key member of the Canadian squad that triumphed the 1976 Canada Cup, but he had five goals and three assists in seven games.

Hull and teammate Stan Mikita were both catalysts for the 1960s craze in which players bent the blades of their hockey sticks, which later became popularly known as "banana blades." Hull is the player who was most attributed to the law banning this activity due to the danger to goalies, many of whom never wore masks in that period. The puck's course was unpredictable due to the curved blade. The law limited the blade curvature to between one-quarter and three quarters of an inch in 1970, although it was set at one-half inch. The curvature of the curvature is currently limited to three quarters-inch according to NHL Rule 10.1.

Hull played only a few games in the WHA's final season of 1978–79, slowed due to injuries and age. Hull, however, came out of retirement to play again for the NHL Jets following the 1979 merger between the two leagues (including the Jets) and reportedly in financial hardship. He appeared in eighteen games before being traded to the Hartford Whalers for future considerations, bringing the two-time Gordie Howe Trophy champion and the 51-year-old Howe himself together (who, after Hull's first game with the Whalers, "the kid looks good in his first game"). Hull continued to play in nine games (two goals and five assists) as well as three playoff games before returning to care for his partner, who had been hospitalized in an automobile crash.

Hull tried one last comeback with the New York Rangers in September 1981, at the suggestion of Rangers coach Herb Brooks, who wanted to try reuniting Hull with his former Jets teammates, Hedberg and Nilsson. Hull had one goal and one assist in five exhibition games before deciding that it was best to bring an end to the comeback. It was the second time Hull's career he had attended exhibition games with the Rangers; in 1959, the Rangers and the Boston Bruins had been sent on an exhibition tour of Europe; then-emerging star Hull and Eddie Shack were added to the Rangers' roster for the tour; in 1959, after missing the playoffs the previous spring. The Rangers were led by Hull and Shack in scoring, with each scoring 14 goals on their 23-game tour.

Hull retired after playing in 1,063 NHL games, totaling 560 goals, 560 assists, 1,170 points, 640 penalty minutes, three Art Ross Trophies, two Hart Memorial Trophies (he finished second or third in the voting an additional six times), a Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, and a Stanley Cup Championship, with 67 points in 119 playoff games. mia in 411 WHA games, scoring 303 goals, 335 assists, and 638 points, totaling a total of 638 points, with 43 goals and 37 assists in 60 playoff games. His North American major league career total of 1,018 goals (NHL and WHA inclusive of playoffs) is the third most significant of all replicas after Wayne Gretzky (1,109) and Gordie Howe (1,071), although the NHL does not recognize scoring data from the WHA in players' career totals.

Post-playing career

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1978. Hull's no. 88 has no. 2 in addition to his Hall of Fame induction. The Black Hawks, the Jets, and their replacement team, the Arizona Coyotes, have all retired 9 jerseys. Brett Hull's son, who joined the Coyotes, had to wear the number for him during his brief stay there to honor his father. Evander Kane, the new Winnipeg Jets franchise's number 9, applied for and received Hull's permission to wear the number.

Hull was embroiled in controversy in 1998 after he reportedly made pro-Nazi remarks. According to The Moscow Times, he was quoted as saying, "Hitler, for example, had some good thoughts." He just went a little bit too far." Hull denied congratulating Hitler and said journalists had raised the issue. The incident occurred on the Canadian news comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, with Rick Mercer reading a spot saying Hull had been misquoted, and had to claim, "Sittler had some good suggestions."

In 2003, he was appointed figurehead commissioner of a new World Hockey Association, which never came into existence, and the club's subsequent operations in numerous ephemeral low-minor leagues and unanctioned Tier II junior leagues. "When it comes to Bobby, specifically, we jointly agreed earlier this season that he would step down from any official team position," Hull said.

Career statistics

* Stanley Cup Champion.

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Awards and achievements

• Art Ross Trophy winner (1960, 1962, and 1966)
• NHL First All-Star Team Left Wing (1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, and 1972)
• Stanley Cup champion (1961)
• NHL Second All-Star Team left wing (1963 and 1971)
• Hart Memorial Trophy winner (1965 and 1966)
• Lady Byng Memorial Trophy winner (1965)
• Lester Patrick Trophy winner (1969)
• Became third hockey player to appear on the cover of Time magazine
• NHL All-Star game MVP (1970, 1971), only player to win consecutive All-Star game MVP awards
• WHA First All-Star Team (1973, 1974, and 1975)
• WHA Second All-Star Team (1976 and 1978)
• WHA Most Valuable Player (1973 and 1975)
• Avco Cup (WHA) Championships (1976, 1978, and 1979)
• Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983
• Retired as the second leading goal scorer and ninth leading point scorer in NHL history (currently 17th and 50th respectively)
• Second in WHA history in goals, sixth in assists and third in points.
• In 1998, he was ranked number 8 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players, the highest-ranking left winger
• Honoured member of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame
• Member of the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame
• Inaugural member of the World Hockey Association Hall of Fame.
• Honoured member of the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame
• In 2011, statues of Hull and Stan Mikita were installed outside the United Center, where the Blackhawks currently play