Bob Pulford, a key contributor to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ four Stanley Cup-winning teams in the 1960s and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, died Monday. He was 89.
Born in Newton Robinson, Ontario, on March 31, 1936, Pulford excelled as a junior with the Toronto Marlboros of the Ontario Hockey Association before being promoted to the Maple Leafs for the 1956-57 season. He quickly proved to be one of the best two-way players in the NHL, exhibiting a knack for shutting down some of the League’s top scorers while contributing offensively.
“Pulford is one of my private headaches,” Detroit Red Wings star Gordie Howe once said, “because he has to be classed as one of hockey’s greatest forecheckers. There’s a deep knowledge of the game in his forechecking, hook, poke check, strength of arms, quickness, the whole bundle of wax.”
Pulford scored at least 17 goals each season from 1961-62 to 1967-68 and helped Toronto win the Stanley Cup in 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1967. Perhaps his most important goal came when he scored 8:26 into the second overtime to give the Maple Leafs a 3-2 victory against the Montreal Canadiens in Game 3 of the 1967 Final, a series Toronto won in six games.
After 14 seasons with Toronto, Pulford played two for the Los Angeles Kings after being traded for Garry Monahan and Brian Murphy on Sept. 3, 1970. He had 643 points (281 goals, 362 assists) in 1,079 NHL games, including 563 points (251 goals, 312 assists) in 947 games with the Maple Leafs.
Pulford retired in 1972 and was immediately named coach. The Kings were 178-150-68 during his five seasons and he won the 1975 Jack Adams Award voted as the NHL coach of the year after Los Angeles hard 105 points, a franchise record shared with the 2024-25 team. He then moved to the Chicago Blackhawks as coach and general manager in 1977 and had multiple stints in each job during the next three decades.
Pulford was elected to the Hall of Fame as a player in 1991 and is the father-in-law to Dean Lombardi, who was GM of the Kings during their Stanley Cup championships in 2012 and 2014.
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