Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay Random
Ah, Le Gros Bill.
Jean Béliveau played two games for the Habs in 1950-51, and scored two points. Then he had to be sent down because he was still an amateur and the Canadiens did not have him under contract.
In 1952-53, the Habs called on Béliveau again. He played three games this time, and scored five goals. Again they had to send him down, much against their wishes.
[...]
In 1953, Frank Selke, the GM of the Canadiens, decided he had had enough. He got his bosses at the Canadian Arena Company (which owned the Canadiens at that time) to do the one thing that would absolutely compel Béliveau to turn pro.
They bought the QSHL.
All of it.
The entire league.
And when they had bought it, they officially turned it into a professional league. Now Béliveau was a professional player, whether he liked it or not, and he had to report to the Habs.
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The only other notable player I know of who plied his trade in the QSHL, signed a 'B' form, and similarly refused to turn pro was a kid named Jacques Plante. However, the Habs convinced him to turn pro in 1952, months before taking over the QSHL and turning the entire league pro.
Plante made his NHL debut in the '52-'53 season in a three-game try-out, similar to Beliveau. He went 2-0-1, allowing only four goals. In the 1953 playoffs the Habs were down 3-2 in their semi-finals series against the Black Hawks and they called on Plante to replace their regular starter, Gerry McNeil. Plante shut the Hawks out in game six, and let only one goal in in game seven to take the Habs to the finals.
In the finals Dick Irvin kept playing Plante, who won game one allowing only two (powerplay) goals, but lost game two 4-1. The Canadiens went back to Gerry McNeil and with three straight victories he finished out the series and won the Cup.
Plante backed up McNeil in the '53-'54 regular season but when McNeil went down with injury in February he took over as starter, right up through game four of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Red Wings. Down 3-1 in the series Dick Irvin went back to McNeil, who shut out the Wings in game five and held them to only one goal in game six to force the winner-take-all game seven. The game went to OT tied 1-1 and unfortunately for Gerry McNeil one of the flukiest Cup-winning goals of all time went past him at 4:29 when the puck took a goofy bounce off teammate Doug Harvey's glove. The goal, credited to Tony Leswick, clinched the Red Wings' sixth Stanley Cup; their third in five years.
McNeil said his nerves had become so frayed playing hockey that he couldn't sleep at night, and given that anxiety and a desire to spend more time with his family he officially retired at Canadiens' training camp in September of '54, aged only 28. He was convinced to return to hockey at a lower level, playing in the QHL for the Royals and in the '57-'58, '58-'59 and '60-'61 seasons in the AHL for the Rochester Americans and Quebec Aces, but only ever played in the NHL again for nine games at the beginning of the '56-'57 season, in relief of an injured Plante. Though he was only nominally carried as a "spare" goalie, McNeil had his name engraved on the Cup in '57 and '58 (Charlie Hodge was by then Plante's regular backup).