Eddie Shack obit

Shack, four-time Stanley Cup winner, dies at 83

He was not on the list.

Eddie Shack, adored by fans of the teams he played for while annoyingly driving opponents and their supporters around the bend, died Saturday night in a Toronto hospital following a battle with cancer. He was 83.

Nicknamed "The Entertainer," Shack was a flamboyant figure on and off the ice. Against long odds, the native of Sudbury, Ontario, carved out a 1,047-game career over 17 seasons and was a part of four Stanley Cup championship teams with the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 1960s.

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"He was around when I first joined the Leafs in 1970, and I can tell you he came by the nickname 'The Entertainer' honestly," Hockey Hall of Fame center Darryl Sittler said. "He was so much fun. We used to go snowmobiling together. Never a dull moment. He'll be missed."

Shack scored 465 points (239 goals, 226 assists) between 1958-59 and 1974-75 for six different teams, enjoying 20-goal seasons for five of them and scoring the Cup-winning goal for Toronto in 1963. He also piled up 1,431 career penalty minutes, the equivalent of almost 24 full games, playing a wild, helter-skelter game to the edge of the rules -- and often beyond them.

But Shack was best known for his quick lip, large beak, bushy moustache and brash personality off the ice, an advertising pitchman who for decades flogged myriad products on TV and in print while poking fun at himself.

His personality was extraordinary.

"I'll tell you why I'm not in the Hall of Fame; it's because of my mouth!" Shack said in his autobiographical "Eddie Shack: Hockey's Most Entertaining Stories," a 2019 stream of consciousness book written with Ken Reid. "If I would have just shut up, I could have been in the Hockey Hall of Fame. I guarantee you I could have been in there. But it's the idea that I would tell someone to go and stick it in their crease! Don't behave yourself, be yourself! That's what I always say."

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound left wing struggled in school as a boy, not learning to read or write. But those were just minor inconveniences, indeed badges of honor, for a go-getter who worked as a teenage butcher and truck driver, gaining the confidence to try out for and make Guelph of the Ontario Hockey Association in 1952.

Five seasons with the Guelph Biltmores, including a 104-point season in 1956-57 (47 goals, 57 assists in 52 games) brought him to the New York Rangers in 1958, after a one-season stop at the Providence Reds of the American Hockey League. But his offense went missing along the way; Shack scored seven goals in 67 games in his rookie season and eight in 1959-60.

After 12 games in his third season, his welcome by now worn out with Rangers coach Phil Watson, he was traded to the Detroit Red Wings on Feb. 5, 1960, with defenseman Bill Gadsby for then-defenseman Red Kelly and forward Billy McNeill. The deal was cancelled two days later when Kelly and McNeill refused to report to New York. Finally, on Nov. 7, 1960, Shack was shipped to the Maple Leafs for forwards Pat Hannigan and Johnny Wilson. He was reborn under Toronto coach Punch Imlach, a Tasmanian devil on blades who skated inelegantly around, over and through the opposition, often daring an entire bench to come out to fight.

An equal opportunity antagonist, Shack scrapped with the other team's heavyweights and steamrolled their biggest stars, playing his role of agitator, often with comic relief, to perfection.

He was even celebrated in song with "Clear The Track, Here Comes Shack," a 1966 novelty tune written by broadcaster Brian McFarlane that turned into a huge hit on Toronto radio. By then, Shack was on his way that 1966-67 season to his fourth Stanley Cup championship.

When you turned off the televised Maple Leafs game, you had to duck to avoid being hit by Shack commercials as he bellowed the virtues of, among other things, trash bags, razors, soft drinks and tires. He was loved increasingly for each one that he did, returning the affection by selling Christmas trees in Toronto for charity and attending endless banquets, sharing his colorful stories to the delight of anyone not offended by his salty tongue.

Shack's career took him to the Rochester Americans in 1965, the Boston Bruins in 1967, the Los Angeles Kings in 1969, Buffalo Sabres in 1970, Pittsburgh Penguins in 1971 and back to Toronto for two final seasons, 1973-75.

In the decades that followed his retirement, Shack remained hugely popular; he was voted No. 68 on the Maple Leafs' 2016 ranking of their top 100 players of all time.

"Eddie Shack had charisma that was above and beyond for a guy that was probably a third-line left-winger," Wayne Gretzky said in Shack's 2019 book. "People loved him because they could tell that he just played from his heart, and I think that's why fans and grandmothers and mothers loved him to death. They adored him because they enjoyed watching him play. … He's a character, and what you see is what you get."