Marcel Pronovost

At 84 years old, Marcel Pronovost has this physical status:

Joseph René Marcel Pronovost (June 15, 1930 – April 26, 2015) was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman and mentor.

Between 1950 and 1970, he appeared in 1,206 games during 20 National Hockey League (NHL) seasons for the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Pronovost, a top defenceman, was selected to four pre-season NHL All-Star Teams and appeared in 11 All-Star Games.

He was a member of four Stanley Cup championships with the Red Wings, the first in 1950, and the Maple Leafs won their fifth title in 1967.

In 1978, Pronovost was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a member. Pronovost began coaching in 1969 and spent several seasons behind the bench of junior Hull Olympiques and Windsor Spitfires.

In 1972-73, he was head coach of the Chicago Cougars in the World Hockey Association's inaugural season, coached 104 games in the NHL for the Buffalo Sabres from 1977 to 1978, and was briefly an assistant coach of the Red Wings.

Pronovost served with the NHL Central Scout Bureau for five years until 1990, when he was hired as a scout for the New Jersey Devils, with whom he was a member of three Stanley Cup championships, most recently in 2003.

Stanley Cup records date back to 1953, the first championship and the most recent.

Early life

Pronovost was born in the Quebec community of Lac-à-Tortue on June 15, 1930. He was the third of Leo and Juliette Pronovost's third generation, nine boys, and three girls. Leo was a building worker who specialized in aluminum and occasionally moved around; by the time Marcel was five years old, the family was settled in Shawinigan Falls, a nearby town.

Pronovost's first sport was cross-country skiing, but he soon developed a passion for hockey. He started skating at the age of three years and was playing competitive hockey by age five. Pronovost played and studied at College Immaculate Conception Superior School (CIC) in Shawinigan Falls, where he played center and left wing. In 1944–45, his team won the Quebec provincial midget hockey championship. Pronovost was discovered by National Hockey League (NHL) scouts in CIC. Marcel Côté, the Detroit Red Wings' scout, was sent by the Red Wings to join Larry and John Wilson at a Quebec tournament. Larry suggested that Pronovost observe in Côté. As a result, he was also signed to the Red Wings.

Three of Marcel's brothers followed him to the NHL, while Jean was a goaltender who played three games and Jean played nearly 1,000 at forward. Marcel argued that the NHL having only six teams before 1967 barred some of his other brothers from participating in the league.

Personal life

Pronovost adopted Windsor as his home after playing or working near the city for the majority of his career. He earned a degree in electrical engineering and spent time with Molson in the off-seasons. Cindy is his first husband, who played with her brother on a softball team in Shawinigan. Michel (Marie), Brigitte, and Leo died on March 28, 1952, when they were married in 1951. (Tina) Tannis, Melissa, and Ryan were all grandchildren. Cindy died of cancer in 1993. In 1994, Pronovost married Eva, his second wife, and fought his own battle with bladder cancer in 2012. After a brief illness, Pronovost died on April 26, 2015.

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Playing career

Pronovost with the Windsor Spitfires, one of their junior teams in the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA), began in 1947–48. The Spitfires were a dominant team this season, with Windsor having the best record in the OHA but losing the championship series to the Barrie Flyers after Detroit was forced to recall Terry Sawchuk, Windsor's goaltender, to one of the team's minor league teams. If the Spitfires had won the league title and gone on to play for the Memorial Cup if they hadn't lost Sawchuk, Pronovost thought they'd have won the league championship and gone on to play for the Memorial Cup. Pronovost also played for the Detroit Auto Club team in the International Hockey League (IHL). The majority of players were affiliated with the Red Wings at the time, when the IHL was a youth league. Pronovost was preparing for the rigors of an NHL schedule, having appeared in the two leagues. He appeared in 52 games this season, and 51 in 1948-1949. During his time with the Spitfires, Pronovost switched to defence for the rest of his life.

Pronovost was assigned to the Omaha Knights of the United States Hockey League by the Red Wings from 1949-1950, beginning his career in 1949-50. (USHL). He appeared in 69 games for the Knights and scored 13 goals and 52 points. Pronovost set a scoring record for a defenceman and was named the USHL's rookie of the year. He was also selected to the first All-Star team. Pronovost was compared to legendary defenseman Eddie Shore and Detroit coach Jack Adams as "one of those guys who comes around every 20 years."

Pronovost was shipped by the Red Wings to Detroit at the end of his USHL season. Gordie Howe had been hurt early in Detroit's 1950 Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Toronto Maple Leafs, prompting the team to shift Red Kelly to forward and Pronovost to the bench at defense. In the fifth game of the season, he made his NHL debut on April 6, 1950. In nine playoff games, Pronovost defeated the Maple Leafs, recovered from a 3–2 series deficit in the final two games of the season, and defeated the New York Rangers to win the Stanley Cup.

The defending champion would meet a team of the remaining players in an NHL All-Star Game format at the time. Pronovost was defeated 7–1 by Detroit in the 1950 All-Star Game, which was played prior to the 1950–51 season. It was the first of 11 All-Star Games that he would eventually play. Pronovost had been praised as the Red Wings' next great defenseman, but he suffered a broken cheekbone and a cracked ankle bone in his ankle during separate events during the season. He didn't want to let the team down, but the Red Wings demoted him to their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Indianapolis Capitals, in December 1950. Pronovost played 32 points in 34 games with Indianapolis before being recalled by the Red Wings back to the league. Despite the fact that he spent just a half-season with the Capitals, he was named as an AHL Second Team All-Star on defense. In 37 games with Detroit, he scored his first NHL goal on goaltender Jack Gelineau on February 19, 1951. It was a last-minute call that ended a 2–2 tie against the Boston Bruins.

In 1951–52, the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup again, defeating the Montreal Canadiens in the final. It was Pronovost's first full season in the NHL; he appeared in 69 regular season games and eight in the playoffs. The Red Wings set a record for the post-season by winning all eight games played – four of which were postponed – and the Legend of the Octopus was born. Pronovost was the only one able to pick it up and remove it when an octopus was thrown onto the ice near the end of the clinching game (the eight tentacles were supposed to represent the eight victories required to win the Stanley Cup at that time). After each victory, he won his third and fourth Stanley Cup championships in 1953-54 and 1954-55. Prostost's 34 points from 1954-55 were the most notable in his NHL career. He appeared in an ill-fated game in Montreal on March 17, 1955, when fan outrage over Maurice Richard's suspension caused the Richard Riot. Pronovost and the Red Wings won their final game of the season, beating Montreal and Montreal, for their seventh straight season.

Pronovost had earned a reputation as one of the NHL's best defensemen by the 1956-57 season. He was named as the team's alternate captain of the team, a position he held until 1965. He was selected to represent the NHL All-Star Game in 1957, the first of five consecutive appearances, and was named to the Second All-Star team in both 1958 and 1959. Pronovost scored a career high 11 goals in 1958-59 and was named to the first All-Star team in both 1959–60 and 1960–61. On March 5, 1960, the Canadiens honored him by staging "Marcel Pronovost Night," which included gifts and applause from the opposing Montreal crowd. It was reported as the first time in NHL history that a team honoured an opposing player.

Pronovost's first six seasons, the Red Wings were unable to repeat Pronovost's championship triumph. Pronovost spent those playoffs as an analyst for Hockey Night in Canada, missing the postseason entirely in 1959. In 1961, the team advanced to Chicago and lost the Stanley Cup Finals. Pro Prosecutors suffered a fractured ankle that required him to miss two games of the series and play the remainder in intense pain. According to Toronto owner Harold Ballard, Detroit may have won the series if Pronovost had been healthy. Pronovost lost in the 1963 and 1964 finals, giving the team eight appearances in the final. He is also one of four players in NHL history to play in four game 7's in a Stanley Cup Final.

Prosperost's time with the Red Wings came to an end on May 20, 1965, when he was active in an eight-player trade. He was traded to the Maple Leafs with Aut Erickson, Larry Jeffrey, Eddie Joyal, and Lowell MacDonald in exchange for Andy Bathgate, Billy Harris, and Gary Jarrett. Prote, who heard about the trade on the radio before being approached by either team, was shocked to learn that he was being kicked away from an organisation he had worked with for 18 years. He adapted quickly and reached a career high in the 1965-1966 season. In a November 28, 1965, match against the Rangers, Pronovost became the seventh player in NHL history to play 1,000 regular season games. Since colliding with Earl Ingarfield, he missed 16 games due to strained knee ligaments. It was the first of several knee injuries that would have an effect on Pronovost's career; he also missed games early in the 1966-1967 season due to strained knee ligaments.

The Maple Leafs' 1966-67 roster had the longest roster in the NHL and became known as the "Over the Hill Gang." At one point, the team lost ten games in a row, but they qualified for the 1967 Stanley Cup playoffs in third place. In the semi-final and the Canadiens final, the Maple Leafs were considered underdogs against both the Chicago Black Hawks and the Canadiens. So much so that the organisers of Expo 67 in Montreal arranged a presentation space for the Stanley Cup in anticipation of winning before the series began. Pete Axthelm, a sports Illustrated writer, named Pronovost the best defenseman of the finals; he and defensive partner Larry Hillman were both on the ice for only one goal against at even strength during the entire season. Prosote was also a key shorthanded goal in a 4–1 victory in the fifth game of the series, and Toronto clinched the Stanley Cup with a 3–1 victory at home in game six. It was also his 134th and ultimately decisive playoff game. Only Red Kelly (164) and Gordie Howe (150), at the time, had appeared in more.

In 1967–68, Pronovost appeared in 70 games for the Maple Leafs, scoring 20 points, but the following season, he was limited to only 34 games. He missed the majority of the season due to injuries, and Maple Leafs president Conn Stafford Smythe suggested that Pronovost be installed as a player-coach of one of Toronto's minor league affiliates. He was given a Tulsa Oiler of the Central Hockey League (CHL), but the Oilers were able to convince Pronovost and his wife to relocate to Oklahoma City, despite initially being hesitant to go. He played and coached for most of the year in Tulsa, but he was briefly called back to Toronto during the 1969–70 NHL season. In seven games with Toronto, his last game in his NHL career, he had one assist.

Coaching career

Pronovost appeared in 53 games for the Oilers from 1969-1980 to 2010, where he was aided by Tulsa's general manager Ray Miron, who assisted him behind the bench, and guided the team to a 35–27–10 record. He ended his playing career after playing in 17 games for Tulsa in 1970–71 and coached two additional seasons for the Oilers before taking his first major league position. Pronovost, the Chicago Cougars of the newly formed World Hockey Association (WHA), reported that he had signed a two-year deal to serve as the franchise's first head coach on July 6, 1972. He played in Chicago for a single season before being fired as the Cougars posted a 26–52 record in 1972–73.

Pronovost returned to coaching in 1975 after being hired mid-season to take over the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's Hull Festivals. (QMJHL) He stayed with Hull, the Olympiques, for two seasons before being hired by the Buffalo Sabres to coach the Buffalo Sabres in 1977–78. Pronovost was reluctant to take the job, but did so only after Hull general manager Norm Baril's encouragement.

Pronovost and the Sabres' first season as president in franchise history, beating the Philadelphia Flyers in 1977 was one of the highlights for the team's first regular season victory. In its first 17 visits, Buffalo lost 15 games and two ties (not counting the 1975 Stanley Cup Finals, in which the Sabres won two and lost four). In the Adams Division, the Sabres posted a 44–17-19 record and ended second. In the first round of the playoffs, they defeated the Rangers before being eliminated by Philadelphia. However, the Sabres' first 24 games in 1978–79 saw only eight victories, and general manager Punch Imlach fired Pronovost and general manager Punch Imlach. Pronovost returned to Hull almost immediately, but he left the team in 1979 to work as an assistant to head coach Bobby Kromm in Detroit. When Kromm was fired late in the 1979–80 season, general manager Ted Lindsay and Pronovost took over as the team's coaches. Lindsay was the team's official coach for the final nine games of the season, but Pronovost was behind the bench as the Red Wings lost only two games and lost seven others. Pronovost served as Lindsay's assistant in the 1980-81 season, but after Detroit started with a 3–14–3 record, he was fired.

Pronovost was hired as the head coach of the Windsor Spitfires in junior hockey. In 1981–82, the team went 22–44–4, but Pronovost described the following season as a "disaster." Since being banned from a game and then suspended as Windsor's coach after the team lost only two of its first 15 games, he was given a ten-game suspension for verbally assaulting the authorities and continuing to coach from the stands. Pronovost's last season as a coach was 1984-1985, when he led the junior C Belle River Canadiens to their first league title and a Clarence Schmalz Cup victory as Ontario provincial champions.

Scouting career

When Proscout joined the NHL Central Scout Bureau in 1985, he moved to scouting. He had some knowledge of the role as a coach in Tulsa, which included looking for people to develop his team. Pronovost spent five years with the Scouting Bureau in North America. In 1990, he joined the New Jersey Devils as one of the team's scouts. Pronovost was a member of three Stanley Cup champions in 1995, 2000, and 2003 during his 24th NHL appearances. Martin Brodeur, the Devils' goaltender for all three championships, was the Devils' first pick in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft.

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