Height: 5-9
Weight: 165
Shoot: R
Born: 1 Apr 1949, Toronto ON (d. 2022)
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | New England | |||||||||||
| 1974-75 | New England | |||||||||||
| 1975-76 | New England | |||||||||||
| Calgary | ||||||||||||
| Totals (2 teams) | ||||||||||||
| Totals: |
• Winner, Lou Kaplan Trophy (Rookie of the Year), 1972-73.
• Missed the 1973-74 season due to knee injury.
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Terry, the Boston Terror • by Dick Dew • The Hockey Spectator • March 2, 1973
The World Hockey Association rule eliminating players with 25-game NHL experience from the Rookie-of-the-Year race could pretty much make the Whalers' Terry Caffery a skate in. And if the New England scoring leader does capture the freshman title, it will be a victory in two separate areas. In the first place, the 23-year-old Caffery. who played in only 14 games during two NHL bids. would be duplicating a title he won in the American Hockey League just last season while playing for Cleveland. Of equal or even more importance to us regular sized guys would be the triumph of a little man over those big. muscular characters who so often dominate professional sports awards. The book says Caffery is 5-9 and weighs 165 pounds. But don't believe everything you read. The fact Caffery is among the scoring leaders is a tribute to his determination and guts according to two Whalers spokesmen. "He has to be a prime candidatem" Whaler skipper Jack Kelley said of his vest-pocket sharpshooter. "He had been considered too small by a lot of people, but look what he's been doing for us." Caffery wasn't within earshot when Kelley made his comments, but Terry must have gotten the word. In a matter of hours, he scored two goals and picked up a pair of assists, shooting past the 30-goal mark and running his point total well into the 80s. "He's clever with the stick and as quick to get his shots off as anybody in the league," Kelley said. "He's playing against guys who are almost invariably bigger than he is, but he doesn't let their checking bother him. Terry will take a check to make a play. If they knock him down, he'll bounce bounce back up twice as hard. And that's the key to his success. Sometimes, not very often, you find a man who plays much bigger than he is. That's the way Terry does it." Kelley is new to professional hockey, so if you want to check his assessment with a grizzled veteran, you turn to defenseman Ted Green, the Whalers playing captain. This is a guy who played for many years with the Boston Bruins. That establishment club had a couple of Rookie-of-the-Year trophy winners move into the lineup while Green was around. Guys named Bobby Orr and Derek Sanderson. Teddy, is Caffery the best rookie in this league? "I can't see anybody beating him out," Green responds promptly. "He's got too many moves. He's a very good hockey player. Terry is at his best in front of the net. He's not strong enough to withstand the checks; he probably couldn't beat his way out of a wet paper bag." "But if they knock him down, he bounces right back up. He's got the guts to stay there in the slot no matter how they handle him, how many times they hit him. I just can't see anybody beating him out. He's earned his way." |
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