Punch Imlach
Hockey Hall of Fame, (Coach) 1984[1]
Punch Imlach with the Maple Leafs (c. 1964)
Born	(1918-03-15)March 15, 1918 Toronto,Ontario, Canada
Died	December 1, 1987(1987-12-01) (aged 69) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Height	5 ft 8 in (173 cm)
Weight	161 lb (73 kg; 11 st 7 lb)
Position	Centre
Shot	Right
Played for	Toronto Young Rangers Toronto Goodyears Toronto Marlboros Quebec Aces
Playing career	1941–1949

George "Punch"Imlach (March 15, 1918 – December 1, 1987) was a Canadian ice hockeycoach andgeneral manager best known for his association with theToronto Maple Leafs and theBuffalo Sabres. He is a member of theHockey Hall of Fame, and theOntario Sports Hall of Fame (2004).^[2]

Born in Toronto, Imlach attendedRiverdale Collegiate Institute and played junior hockey in theOHA for theToronto Young Rangers (1935–38) and senior hockey with the Toronto Goodyears (1938–40) and theToronto Marlboros (1940–41). He enlisted in theCanadian Army during World War II, where he coached for the first time, with an army team inCornwall, Ontario. He was invited to training camp by theDetroit Red Wings after being discharged, but felt he had put on too much weight and declined.

Imlach played for theQuebec Aces of theQSHL from 1945 to 1949 and spent 11 seasons with the team, becoming coach and then general manager, and then vice-president and part-owner of the franchise. After the 1956–57 season, Imlach moved to professional hockey, hired by theBoston Bruins as general manager of theirSpringfield Indians farm team. Before the season ended, Imlach had made himself head coach as well. After the season, team ownerEddie Shore took back control of the team, leaving Imlach without a job, although he was still under contract to the Bruins.

In July 1958, at the age of 40, theToronto Maple Leafs hired Imlach as one of the team's two assistant general managers, along withKing Clancy. However, the Leafs did not have a general manager, and Imlach instead reported to a seven-member committee headed byStafford Smythe which oversaw the team's business operations. In November, Imlach was named general manager—only the third full-time general manager in the team's 40-year history. Only a week after his hiring, he fired coachBilly Reay. Reay had been offered the manager job before Imlach was hired, but turned it down. Initially, Imlach said he was replacing Reay withBert Olmstead as player-coach, but almost immediately, he changed his mind and made himself head coach.

Imlach was known as a harsh taskmaster who frequently abused his players verbally and physically. He had a preference for older players, many of whom were his strongest supporters as they felt Imlach was giving them their last chance at winning theStanley Cup. By contrast, many younger players, such asFrank Mahovlich, chafed at Imlach's autocratic coaching style.

Imlach took over a team that had finished lastthe previous season and was mired in last place again at the time he took over for Reay. However, the team staged a strong run late in the season and finished a point ahead of theNew York Rangers for fourth place, allowing them to squeeze into the playoffs. They defeated the favouredBoston Bruins in the first round before losing to the league-leadingMontreal Canadiens in five games in the Stanley Cup Finals. Three years later, Imlach led the Leafs to their first Stanley Cup in 11 years. He coached three more Cup-winning teams, in 1963, 1964 and 1967.

In February 1964, he tradedDick Duff,Bob Nevin and three young prospects –Rod Seiling,Arnie Brown andBill Collins – to the Rangers forAndy Bathgate andDon McKenney. Nevin played a major role in the Rangers' resurgence in the late 1960s, while Duff won four more Cups with the Canadiens. The players acquired by the Leafs were both gone following the next season. In the 1965 intra-league draft, Imlach leftGerry Cheevers, a young goaltending prospect, unprotected. He was snapped up by theBoston Bruins and went on to have a Hall-of-Fame career there.

Followingexpansion of theNHL from six teams to 12 for the 1967–68 season, the Leafs struggled and Imlach responded by pulling off another big trade. In February 1968, he sent Mahovlich, 20-year-oldGarry Unger,Pete Stemkowski and the rights toCarl Brewer to theDetroit Red Wings forPaul Henderson,Norm Ullman andFloyd Smith. Two months later, he sent 28-year-oldJim Pappin to theChicago Black Hawks, where he would become one of that team's top scorers.

In December 1968, Imlach was asked byStafford Smythe to give the coaching job toJohn McLellan, but Imlach refused and told Smythe to fire him or leave him alone. During the season,Mike Walton walked out on the team, saying he wouldn't play for Imlach again. He returned about a week later. On April 6, 1969, minutes after an early and embarrassing playoff elimination at the hands of theBoston Bruins, Imlach was fired by the Leafs. He still had a year remaining on his contract, which paid him about $35,000 a year. In the dressing room after the announcement was made, veteran LeafsJohnny Bower andTim Horton both said they would leave with Imlach (they both returned the following season, although neither would remain with the Leafs for long). Imlach's assistant, Clancy, had previously said that he would walk away if Imlach was fired, but he was persuaded to stay with the team. Jim Gregory was immediately announced as Imlach's replacement as general manager.

After being fired by the Leafs, it was expected that Imlach would join the NHL's new Vancouver franchise. Imlach,Joe Crozier, andFoster Hewitt had become partners in theVancouver Canucks of theWestern Hockey League and were in line to become owners of the Vancouver NHL team. But they didn't have the financial resources to buy the team, which went to Medical Investment Corporation (Medicor). Medicor bought the WHL Canucks for $2.8 million, with Imlach making a reported gain of more than $250,000. He was offered a job with the NHL Canucks, but instead accepted an offer from the NHL's other expansion team, theBuffalo Sabres, as their first coach and general manager in 1970.

In the team'sfirst draft, it was a foregone conclusion that the first selection would be junior phenomGilbert Perreault. The first pick would go to the team that won the spin of aroulette wheel. Imlach opted to take numbers 11–20 on the wheel, since 11 was his favourite number. When league presidentClarence Campbell spun the wheel, he initially thought the pointer landed on 1. However, while Campbell was congratulating the Vancouver delegation, Imlach asked Campbell to check again. As it turned out, the pointer was actually on 11. Imlach promptly selected Perreault, who would go on to play 17 years with the Sabres and still holds every major offensive record in Sabres history. (Perreault, incidentally, would himself be assigned the number 11 for his entire career in Buffalo - the same number he had worn for his three seasons with the Montreal Jr. Canadiens - a number that has since been retired by the Sabres organization.)^[3]

Imlach suffered aheart attack on January 7, 1972, and stepped down as Sabres coach in May after being told by doctors that fatigue would put his health at risk. Joe Crozier filled in as interim coach after Imlach's heart attack and was given the job outright for the 1972–1973 season.

In the1974 entry draft, Imlach—frustrated with the excessive tedium and length of that year's draft proceedings—deliberately selected an imaginary Japanese centre,Taro Tsujimoto, supposedly of the Tokyo Katanas, in the 11th round (183rd overall). Only after weeks had passed did the league discover that Tsujimoto did not in fact exist. Today, the league officially records the 183rd selection of the 1974 entry draft as an "invalid claim"; the Sabres still list Tsujimoto among the team's alumni.^[4]

During the1974–75 NHL season, the Sabres, coached by one of Imlach's former players, Floyd Smith, made the Stanley Cup finals in only their fifth year of existence. With notable exceptions likeGilbert Perreault andRick Martin, many Sabres players feuded with Imlach, particularlyJim Schoenfeld, Sabres' captain from 1974 to 1977, whom Imlach criticized publicly. After being eliminated in the second round of the playoffs in 1978, Imlach promised sweeping changes to the roster, but the changes never came. With the team off to an 8–10–6 record, Imlach was fired by the Sabres on December 4, 1978, along with coachMarcel Pronovost. Nevertheless, he was one of the inductees in the inaugural class of the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame.^[5]

In July 1979, Imlach returned to the Leafs as general manager and the right-hand man of ownerHarold Ballard, his longtime friend. It was a controversial return, one that involved the dismantling of a team that had faced theMontreal Canadiens in both the 1978 and 1979 playoffs and was viewed by many as having a promising future. On his first day with the team, Imlach told the media that the Leafs only had five or six good players and the rest of the team needed to be improved.

Imlach implemented a dress code requiring that all players wear a jacket and tie when in the Leafs' offices.Tiger Williams was fined $250 for not wearing a tie, and the fine would have doubled for a second offence. Players were no longer allowed to drink beer on plane and bus rides back from road games.

Imlach quickly butted heads with team captainDarryl Sittler, using confrontational tactics to try to undermine his influence on the team. Imlach also disliked Sittler's prominent role in theNHL Players Association; during Imlach's first stint with the Leafs, he was well known as an ardent foe of the union and its executive director,Alan Eagleson. In September, Imlach went to court in an unsuccessful attempt to get an injunction to stop Sittler and goaltenderMike Palmateer from appearing on the TV showShowdown. Sittler had a no-trade clause in his contract and, through his agent Eagleson, insisted on $500,000 to waive it. With Sittler apparently untouchable, Imlach instead traded Sittler's best friendLanny McDonald to the moribundColorado Rockies on December 29, 1979. An anonymous player told theToronto Star that Ballard and Imlach made the trade specifically to undermine Sittler's influence on the team. In protest, prior to the Leafs' first game following the trade, Sittler removed the captain's "C" from his sweater, and resigned as team captain after the game. Eagleson called the trade "a classless act."^[6]

Imlach offered Sittler to the Sabres in return for Perreault, but was turned down. He also rejected an offer from thePhiladelphia Flyers who were said to be willing to tradeRick MacLeish andAndré Dupont for Sittler.^[7] In March 1980, after Floyd Smith was injured in a car accident and acting coachDick Duff led the team to two lopsided defeats, Imlach named himself as coach, though it would actually be assistant coachJoe Crozier who would direct the team from behind the bench for their last ten regular season games. Imlach and Crozier were able to get the Leafs to squeak into the playoffs, albeit with a record five games under .500—the first of 13 straight seasons without a winning record. Imlach named Crozier as his full-time successor after the season.

It looked like the Leafs were ready to accept an offer for Sittler from theQuebec Nordiques when Imlach had another heart attack in August 1980. Ballard used the opportunity to name himself acting general manager and hold talks with Sittler, and the two agreed that Sittler would return to the team as captain for the 1980–81 season. Ballard also signed defencemanBörje Salming to a new contract with terms that Imlach had refused to offer. Before the end of 1981, Imlach was back running the Leafs as general manager.

During the Leafs' training camp in September 1981, Imlach suffered a third heart attack, which was followed by quadruplebypass surgery atToronto General Hospital. Ballard became interim manager and told the media that Imlach's poor health meant that "he's through as general manager." Imlach was never officially fired, but when he tried to return to work in November, he found that his parking spot atMaple Leaf Gardens had been reassigned andGerry McNamara had been made acting general manager. Imlach never returned to work and his contract was allowed to expire.

He suffered a fourth heart attack in November 1985 at a casino while on vacation in Las Vegas and died after a fifth heart attack in Toronto on December 1, 1987, at the age of 69.^[8] Over his career, Imlach amassed a coaching record of 423 wins, 373 losses and 163 ties to go along with four Stanley Cups. His 365 wins with the Leafs are still the most in franchise history. He was inducted into theHockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 1984.

• Biographical information and career statistics fromEliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or Legends of Hockey, or The Internet Hockey Database

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