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Height:
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5-11 |
Weight:
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189 |
Shoots:
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L |
Position:
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G |
HHOF:
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1976 | ||||||
Those of us who remember when Bower first came to the New York Rangers probably wondered what a 34 year old guy was doing playing NHL hockey, let alone playing his rookie game of his NHL career. Bower first began his hockey career after receiving his discharge from the Canadian Forces in 1945. It didn't take Johnny long to establish himself as a league leader. In his first year he set the record for GAA of 2.57 while playing for the Prince Albert Black Hawks. Beginning in 1945-46, Bower spent the next 8 seasons with the AHL Cleveland Barons. During that time he set league highs for the most wins in 1949-50, 1950-51 and 1952-53 with 38, 44, and 40 wins respectively. He also set shut out records for the 1949-50 and 1952-53 seasons with 5 and 6 respectively. Bower played on the AHL Second All Star Team in 1951 and on the AHL First All Star Team in 1952, 53, 56, 57 and 58. In 1952, 1957 and 1958 he won the Harry "Hap" Holmes Memorial Award for the fewest goals against. He won the WHL Leading Goaltender award in 1955 and the Les Cunningham Award as the AHL's MVP in 1956, 57, and 58. So in 8 seasons Bower had 13 awards bestowed on him, and he was judged to be past his prime? Bower continued his assault in 1953-54 when he played the entire 70 game season for the Rangers setting NHL records at the time for the most games played in a season(70) and for most minutes played in a season(4200). The next 4 seasons saw Bower shuffled between the New York Rangers and several AHL teams. He kept his winning pace by setting then AHL records for most wins (45) in 1955-56 and for the lowest Goals Against Average(2.37) in 1956-57. Despite his success, the Rangers decided that they would release Bower to the Toronto Maple Leafs during the AHL Inter-League Draft in 1958. Bower
spent his first year as back up goalie to Ed Chadwick. Johnny wasted
little time before he became the top goaltender in the league. In
the 1960-61 season he set the League high for most wins(33) and
had the best Goals Against Average of 2.50, giving him the prized
Vezina Trophy. Beginning in 1961-62, Bower helped the Maple Leafs
to three consecutive Stanley Cups. In 1964 the Leafs acquired the
infamous Terry Sawchuk, and Bower and Sawchuk became the first goalie
duo to win the Vezina Trophy. 1967 saw the Leafs and Bower add yet
another Stanley Cup Championship to his impressive total. After
playing only 1 game in 1969-70, Johnny Bower retired. His career
totals list him with 250 wins in 552 games, with a lifetime GAA
of 2.52. Johnny was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1976.
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