Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Glenn Hall died Wednesday, the NHL announced.
Hall, who played for the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues, died in a Stony Plain, Alberta, hospital at 94 years old, the league said. Hall had mainly lived on his farm there since retiring as a goalie.
‘Glenn Hall was the very definition of what all hockey goaltenders aspire to be,’ NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. ‘Aptly nicknamed ‘Mr. Goalie,’ Glenn was sturdy, dependable, and a spectacular talent in net.’
Hall’s record of 502 consecutive regular-season NHL games is a league record that very likely won’t ever be broken. From Oct. 6, 1955, to Nov. 4, 1962, he did not miss one match. Each of those seven seasons had 70 games, and in 1962-63 when his streak ended due to a back injury, he only missed four games.
That makes Hall the ironman of NHL goaltenders. Considering teams nowadays almost always play backup goalies once during back-to-back games and on other occasions to give the No. 1 netminder a rest, Hall will likely be the NHL ironman goalie forever. And as Bettman said, Hall recorded that streak without wearing a mask.
‘Glenn was a true star, whose career was filled with accomplishment and accolades,’ Bettman said. ‘From the moment he stepped foot in an NHL crease, Hall excelled. He won the Calder Trophy with the Red Wings, earned every win for the Blackhawks in their run to the 1961 Stanley Cup, and captured a Conn Smythe Trophy despite losing in the final with the St. Louis Blues.’
The NHL credited Hall as the ‘pioneering grandfather of the butterfly style of goaltending,’ dropping to his knees to stop low shots instead of standing up.
After retiring as a goaltender, Hall was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1975 and the St. Louis Blues Hall of Fame in 2023. As a goaltending consultant for the Calgary Flames, Hall won the Cup again in 1988-89.
Hall’s No. 1 is retired by the Blackhawks. The team and chairman-CEO Danny Wirtz called Hall one of the most influential goaltenders in the history of hockey and a franchise cornerstone.
‘On behalf of the Wirtz family and the entire Chicago Blackhawks organization, we extend our deepest condolences to Glenn’s family, friends, and the countless teammates and supporters who loved him,’ Wirtz’s statement said. ‘We are grateful for his extraordinary contributions to hockey and to our club, and we will honor his memory today and always.’