Roy Conacher

Roy Gordon Conacher (October 5, 1916 – December 29, 1984) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who was a left winger for 11 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Black Hawks. He was the NHL's leading goal-scorer in 1938–39, his first season in the league. Conacher was a member of two Stanley Cup winning teams with the Bruins and scored the championship winning goal in 1939. He won the Art Ross Trophy in 1948–49 season as the NHL's leading point scorer and was named a first team All-Star.

Conacher was a member of the Memorial Cup winning West Toronto Nationals in 1935 as Canadian junior champions and was a member of the Ontario Hockey Association senior champion Toronto Dominions in 1937. Playing in the shadow of his more famous brothers Charlie and Lionel, Roy was known as the "forgotten Conacher". He was posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1998, following his brothers to become the only trio of siblings so enshrined.

Roy Conacher was born October 5, 1916, along with his twin brother Bert, to Benjamin and Elizabeth Conacher. They were the youngest of ten siblings: five boys and five girls. The family grew up in the Toronto neighbourhood of Davenport, which his brother Charlie described as "one of Toronto's higher class slums". His father was a teamster, and struggled to earn enough money to support the family. In the winter, he ploughed the snow off outdoor skating rinks to earn additional money.

All ten children were encouraged to participate in sports by the principal of Jesse Ketchum School, who felt that such pursuits would keep his students from getting into trouble. Roy joined his elder brothers in playing hockey, and having started younger than they had, was regarded as a better skater. Roy went on to join his brothers Lionel and Charlie in professional hockey. Bert was also an aspiring hockey player but his professional hopes were ended when he lost an eye in his late teens to a freak accident while the brothers were playing street hockey in front of their home.

Conacher played his minor hockey with the Toronto Marlboro organization and was a member of Ontario provincial championship winning teams at the bantam and midget age groups. He next played junior hockey with the West Toronto Nationals in the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) junior league between 1933 and 1936. In his third season, 1935–36, Conacher led the OHA junior league in scoring with 12 goals in 10 games. The Nationals, led by Roy and Bert Conacher, won the OHA title and reached the 1936 Memorial Cup final against the Saskatoon Wesleys. In 12 Memorial Cup playoff games, Roy Conacher recorded eight goals and five assists. West Toronto won the best-of-three final in two consecutive games, 5–1 and 4–2, to capture the Dominion junior championship. Conacher played two seasons of senior hockey, first with the Toronto Dominions of the OHA senior league in 1936–37 where he was an all-star for the OHA senior championship winning squad. He then played with then the Kirkland Lake Hargreaves of the Northern Ontario Hockey Association.

The Boston Bruins invited Conacher to their amateur camp in 1935 where the then 17-year-old made a good impression on manager Art Ross. Following his two seasons of senior hockey, the Bruins signed Conacher to a contract on October 23, 1938. He made his National Hockey League (NHL) debut in the 1938–39 season and recorded 37 points in 47 games. Conacher scored four goals in Boston's 8-2 victory of Chicago on February 21, 1939. His 26 goals were the most in the league; it would be 54 years before another rookie, Teemu Selänne, would lead the league. Conacher added ten points in 12 playoff games, including both goals in a 2–0 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in the fourth game of the 1939 Stanley Cup Finals, and he scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal in the deciding contest.

Conacher remained a leading offensive threat throughout his tenure with Boston; he was one of the NHL's top ten scorers in his first four seasons, including the 1939–40 season despite missing 16 games due to a broken wrist. He also finished second in goals in both 1940–41 and 1941–42 with 24 goals in each campaign. By 1941, he had joined with Eddie Wiseman and Bill Cowley to form the "Three Gun Line", so named because all three players were considered top scoring threats. Conacher had only one goal during the 1941 Stanley Cup playoffs, but the Bruins were the NHL's dominant team and swept the Detroit Red Wings in the Final to win their second Stanley Cup in three years.

In 1942, Conacher left the Bruins to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force for the duration of the Second World War where he served as a physical training instructor. He continued to play hockey in the Canadian military leagues, playing first for the Saskatoon RCAF team in 1942–43, then with the Dartmouth RCAF for the following two seasons. He led the Halifax city league with nine goals in 1943–44. Toward the end of the war, Conacher was deployed to England where he continued to play with military teams, but the deployment also meant he was unavailable to return to the Bruins at the start of the 1945–46 season like many of his teammates did. He appeared in only four games late in the season following his discharge from the military.