HIGH ACHIEVERS: Talented multi-sport youth athlete Wayne Thomas spent 45 years in pro hockey

By Martin Cleary

Wayne Thomas was way ahead of his time. For that matter, so were all his sporting peers.

As some of today’s best athletes focus on one sport while the elite athletes above them encourage diversification for their development, Thomas was a man for all sports more than 65 years ago.

When the seasons changed, so did Thomas. High school tackle football was played in the fall, followed by hockey and basketball in the winter, then track and field in the spring and finally baseball in the summer.

Thomas not only played all those sports plus regular neighbourhood pick-up sports, he excelled at them. He was simply a natural athlete and born to run, shoot, save, pitch and hit.

All the years of his youth sport experience, which produced many memorable moments, served as the backdrop to his future – 45 years of excellence in professional hockey as a player, coach and executive in the National Hockey League and the minor leagues.

Thomas won a Stanley Cup as a goalkeeper with the Montreal Canadiens, captured an IHF Turner Cup championship as a head coach with Salt Lake Golden Eagles and spent 22 years as a San Jose executive. He passed away July 16 at home in Falmouth, Massachusetts from cancer at age 77.

A private memorial service has already been held, but a public celebration of his life will be staged in mid August in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

As a youth, Thomas was a star athlete in his west-end Ottawa neighbourhood. But he balanced that by being “humble, kind and skill talented,” childhood friend Al Dawson wrote in an online tribute.

“By far one of the most successful and talented homegrown athletes,” Dawson added. “Fond memories of our Babe Ruth LL (Little League) days and junior hockey together.

“With Wayne in nets, as a D’man (defenceman), we were always confident nothing was getting past him.”

On the baseball diamond, Thomas could hit with power and pitch with precision.

He helped the Wildcats win the West End Babe Ruth Baseball League championship one year. In a game against the Angels, he smacked a game-winning, three-run home run in the seventh and final inning to give the Wildcats a 4-2 decision.

Woodroffe Little League baseball records will show Thomas tossed a pair of no-hitters in his majors-level career. His first no-hitter came when he was only 10 years old.

While pitching for the Grey Sox on May 16, 1960, Thomas, 12, didn’t allow the Blue Sox any hits in a 12-0 victory. He notched 12 strikeouts in the six-inning game, but allowed five walks and hit one batter.

Thomas was a running back for Woodroffe High School in the Ottawa Interscholastic Football League. In a game against Bell, he rambled for a pair of touchdowns.

When it came time to present the interscholastic athletic honours at Woodroffe, Thomas was recognized not only for football, but also track and field and basketball.

Doug Matatall grew up with Thomas. They were good friends and neighbours, high school classmates and enjoyed the pick-up games outside of organized sports.

“(We) played a lot of road hockey in a buddy’s lane on Byron Avenue and played pond hockey at the nearby outdoor rink,” Matatall wrote in an email tribute.

“Wayne was an exceptionally talented individual playing high school football, basketball and still (found) time for hockey. He was quiet, humble, yet able to carry on a friendly conversation with anyone.

“He knew at a very young age where he wanted to go in life and more importantly was able to fulfill all his dreams.”

Hockey was the engine that drove his athletic life. In an edition of the Woodroffe High School yearbook, he wrote he wanted to earn an athletic scholarship to an American university. He realized that pursuit by attending the University of Wisconsin under noted head coach Bob Johnson.

Thomas more than helped his cause with his three years of solid junior play with the Ottawa Capitals and Ottawa Montagnards in the Central Canada Hockey League. He was selected the league’s top goalie in the 1965-66 season.

During a Capitals exhibition game against the London Nationals, Thomas stopped 45 shots, which overwhelmed Walter (Turk) Broda, a former great goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“The kid has all the tools and appears to know how to use them. His reflex action is great,” Broda said after the game.

When Thomas made his debut at Wisconsin in 1968, he did it in style by posting an 11-0 shutout over the University of Pennsylvania. Two years later, he helped Wisconsin reach its first Frozen Four national championship tournament for the country’s top four teams. Wisconsin lost its semifinal 2-1 to eventual champion Cornell University, but defeated Michigan Tech 6-5 to finish in third place.

While Thomas was at Wisconsin, NHL teams were fully aware of his talents and accomplishments. His rights were originally held by the Toronto Maple Leafs, but the Leafs traded him to the Los Angeles Kings in 1968. He was traded again in 1970 to Montreal.

After playing three seasons in the AHL with the Montreal Voyageurs and Nova Scotia Voyageurs and winning the Calder Cup league championship in 1972, Thomas joined the Montreal Canadiens for the 1972-73 season.

Just as he did with Wisconsin, Thomas earned a shutout in his debut game with Canadiens, a 3-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks. At the time, he was the 10th NHL goalie to achieve that feat.

Thomas continued to impress that season by winning his first seven consecutive home starts in the former Montreal Forum. He only played 10 games that season, but had impressive statistics – an 8-1 record, a 2.37 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage. He also finished the season with a Stanley Cup celebration.

For the 1973-74 season, Thomas became the No. 1 goalie for the Canadiens, after starter Ken Dryden sat out the entire campaign because of a contract dispute.

Thomas delivered a goals-against average of 2.77, which was the fourth-best in the NHL, a 23-15-5 win-loss-tie record and a .905 save percentage. He also set a club record for most saves in a single game at 53 during a 5-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

But when Dryden returned to the team and Michel (Bunny) Larocque arrived as a backup goalie, Thomas dropped to No. 3 on the depth chart. He never played a game the entire 1974-75 season and the unhappy Thomas realized his days as a Canadien were complete.

“I was very upset in November. I could have caused problems in the team. I complained on a regular basis every two weeks to the general manager (Sam Pollack),” Thomas said in late March 1975.

“Then I just realized that I wasn’t going to do the club any good, if I was going to be an upset person trying to break up the team and ruin morale. I just accepted my position and hoped something would happen.

“I’m not happy, but I’m satisfied. I expect they will trade me at the end of the season.”

That certainly happened as Montreal traded Thomas to Toronto in June, 1975 for a first-round draft pick. The 1975-76 season was a personal-best for him as he played 64 games for the Leafs, posted 29 wins and was named to the NHL All-Star team.

But after two seasons with the Leafs, the New York Rangers claimed Thomas in the 1977 Waiver Draft and Thomas joined goalie John Davidson in the Big Apple. He spent the final four years of his nine-year NHL career with the Rangers, playing fewer games every season as he went from 41 in 1977-78 to 10 in 1980-81.

Thomas posted a career regular-season record 103 wins, 93 losses and 34 ties with a 3.34 goals-against average and 10 shutouts.

After retiring as a player in 1981, the Rangers hired Thomas as one of the first goaltender coaches in the NHL. He stayed in New York for four seasons, which included being an assistant coach for the last three.

He earned his first head coaching assignment with the Salt Lake Golden Eagles of the defunct International Hockey League. In the second year of his two-year assignment, Thomas led the Golden Eagles to the Turner Cup league championship and he was selected the winner of the Commissioner’s Trophy as coach of the year for the 1986-87 season.

Thomas returned to the NHL in 1987-88 to serve as an assistant coach with the Chicago Blackhawks before having two uninspiring seasons as head coach of the IHL’s Peoria Rivermen from 1988-90.

In 1990-91, he bounced back to the NHL as an assistant coach with the St. Louis Blues from 1990-93 and the San Jose Sharks from 1993-96. When he was on the Blues’ staff, the Ottawa Citizen wrote a story listing Thomas as one of 10 candidates for the job of general manager for the expansion Ottawa Senators, who returned to the NHL in 1992-93.

Once in San Jose, Thomas never left as he served a total of 22 years as an assistant coach focused on the goalies, an assistant general manager or a vice president. He retired from the Sharks in 2015 as vice president/assistant general manager.