Height: 5-10
Weight: 185
Shoot: L
Born: 18 May 1944, Steinbach MB
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | New York | |||||||||||
| 1973-74 | New York-Jersey | |||||||||||
| 1974-75 | San Diego | |||||||||||
| Indianapolis | ||||||||||||
| Totals (2 teams) | ||||||||||||
| 1975-76 | Indianapolis | |||||||||||
| 1976-77 | Indianapolis | |||||||||||
| 1977-78 | Indianapolis | |||||||||||
| 1978-79 | Indianapolis | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
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Block Back in N.Y. • by Hugh Delano • The Hockey Spectator • November 24, 1972
After an absence of eight years, Ken Block is playing hockey here again. But it isn't with the Rangers, the team which once owned him, and it certainly isn't with the defunct New York Rovers, with whom he spent the 1964-65 season as a kid defenseman in the Eastern League with hopes of someday playing with the Rangers in Madison Square Garden. Block is playing in the Garden with the New York Raiders. After a nine-year professional career which offered travel to Baltimore, Minnesota, Omaha, Rochester, Memphis and Vancouver, he's finally reached the major league level. So far, there are no complaints from Block or the Raiders. The 28-year-old rearguard has been among the brightest performers on the backline for Coach Camille Henry's new WHA team. He's been skating in tandem with another veteran, Kent Douglas, and his league-leading 13 assists in the team's first 10 games indicate he's been setting up such high scorers as Bobby Sheehan, Ron Ward and Wayne Rivers with shots or passes from the blue line. Raider forwards enjoy being on ice when Block is playing defense. Ken's blue line drivers often result in deflection or rebound goals since goaltenders must react swiftly to the shot and can't recover fast enough to block the tip-ins or rebound shots. "He's got a very low, hard shot that stays two inches or less off the ice," explains Ward, the Raiders' high-scoring center and a former minor league teammate of Block. "I can't think of many players who are so consistently low and accurate on the net with their shots from the point," said Ward, who has deflected several of Block's slap shots into the cage. The 5-10, 185-pounder from Manitoba never has been a big scorer in a pro career starting in 1964-65 with the American League Baltimore Clippers. But he's always had a high ratio of assists and statistically is much in the mold of the Rangers' Rod Seiling and Jim Neilson or the Black Hawks' Pat Stapleton. Block is a product of the Ranger organization. He went to the Los Angeles Kings in the 1967 expansion draft and it appeared he finally would get his chance in the NHL. The Kings, however, ended those heady thoughts by trading him to Toronto for Red Kelly (now the Pittsburgh Penguins coach). The Maple Leafs were well stocked with defensemen and farmed Block out. Until the WHA came along, all he had to show for a major league career was one game in 1970-71 with the Vancouver Canucks. The situation has improved considerably since the Raiders acquired him. |
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Excerpts from Pro Hockey, WHA 1975-76 (by Dan Proudfoot)
Mobility is a quality all teams look for in defencemen, but seldom find. Racer GM Jim Browitt feels the 31-year-old Block has that essential mobility, allowing him to lug the puck out of the defensive zone. "We're counting heavily on Kenny to make our defence one of the best in the league," said Browitt. Goaltender Andy Brown hopes so, too, because Racers' original squad of defenders had a startling tendency to grow tangle-footed when trying to clear the puck. |
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Excerpts from Zander Hollander Complete Hockey Handbook, 1975-76 (by Reyn Davis)
Valued highly by Indianapolis general manager Jim Browitt, who came to know him while troubleshooting for the WHA in New York when the Raiders were languishing there ... Considered by many to be the Racers best all around defenseman ... Obtained from San Diego Mariners in exchange for rugged Jim Hargreaves ... Racers renegotiated his contract, listing him as one of their priority players for the future ... Has a knack for breaking up two-on-one rushes. |
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Excerpts from Pro Hockey, WHA 1976-77 (by Dan Proudfoot)
When Racer coach Jacques Demers talks about his ideas of what a defenseman should do, Ken Block provides the perfect example. Block, 32, goes unnoticed most of the time. He seldom rushes the puck out of the Racer zone, for instance, and that's in perfect accordance with what the coach wants. "If the defenseman has to carry the puck out, sooner or later he's going to get in trouble," says Demers. "I want the play made in our own zone. Now, Kenny isn't the flashy type. He's not offensively minded and he doesn't get many points. But I'll tell you that he gets a lot of those 'third assists.' Know what I mean? Block starts the play that leads to the goal, but they only give two assists so his role goes unnoticed. "He's the most underrated defenseman in the WHA because he's among the top few defensively and nobody notices. One-on-one against an attacker, there's nobody better in the league." |
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