Height: 6-1
Weight: 195
Shoot: L
Born: 29 Oct 1936, Kapuskasing ON (d. 2016)
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | Los Angeles | |||||||||||
| 1973-74 | Los Angeles | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
Regular Season & Playoff Coaching Record
| Regular Season | Playoffs |
| year | team | finish | finish | |||||||||
| 1973-74 | Los Angeles | DNF | ||||||||||
• Coached from November 18, 1973 to February 3, 1974; Succeeded, and succeeded by, Terry Slater.
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The Long Long Road of Ted McCaskill • by Walt Marlow • The Hockey Spectator • January 5, 1973
From the Kitchener Canucks to the Los Angeles Sharks, with a lot of stops over 18 years in between, Edward Joel McCaskill, a balding 36, long ago dismissed any hopes of playing in hockey's major leagues. But then along came the WHA, and suddenly Ted McCaskill has a reputation for being one of the finest penalty-killers in the game. He also has a reputation, well earned, for being one of hockey's most physical practitioners. When the Sharks were intimidating the league earlier this season, they were known in some quarters as McCaskill's Raiders. At 6' 1" and 200 pounds, the Captain of the Sharks backs off from no one. "Sometimes a little tiff will fire a team up," he says. "It's all part of the game." And McCaskill, who despite all his years, has been a pro only for six, has experienced his share of the rough stuff. His pro career clocking amounts to 741 minutes. It was that total that caught Coach Terry Slater's attention when he was evaluating talent prior to the WHA player draft last February. Slater was looking for hard-hitting, aggressive players who weren't afraid of taking some time in the penalty box. "I want him," said Slater, "He is big and rough and he's a leader, He's my kind of guy." To be sure, McCaskill, whose only NHL experience consisted of a cup of coffee (four games) with the Minnesota North Stars in 1967, has displayed those leadership qualities on a number of occasions. When tempers start to explode, McCaskill is usually the first one on the scene. He's also been known to ignite a few explosions, witness a two-game suspension back in November for a run-in with Winnipeg's Dune Rousseau. Angry while on the ice, he seemingly had forgotten the incident by the time he reached the dressing room, a trip courtesy of Referee Bill Friday. "It was nothing," he quietly observed. "Maybe this will fire them up." For all of his mild hostility, though, you suspect Ted has been cooling it this season. Perhaps it's the responsibility of his captainship, but through 31 games, his penalty clocking was a permissable 50 minutes. "How can I kill penalties if I'm in the box?" he asks. Before his four-game trial with Minnesota, McCaskill had served five years with the Nashville Dixie Flyers in the Eastern League. The North Stars dispatched him to Memphis, where he served the better part of two seasons, and then it was on to Vancouver (Western League variety) for two winters followed by a two-year stop in Phoenix. "I had really given up much thought about playing in the majors," recalled McCaskill, "And when Slater approached me about playing for the Sharks, 1 had to give it some serious thought. My family was quite happy in Phoenix, but I couldn't resist the opportunity." The family, it can be said, is quite happy in California, too. Wife Mae and the three McCaskill children now live on the beach at fashionable Newport. McCaskill is a firm believer that a player not dedicated to winning shouldn't be playing. "Determination is the key to victory," he says. With that kind of philosophy, it's understandable why he regards Gordie Howe the greatest of them all, When his playing days are over, it's McCaskill's intention to join the coaching ranks. Undeniably, he has the credentials, What about bitter rivals, the guys he's fought with on the ice? Does the bitterness exist outside the arena? "Certainly not," replies McCaskill, "When you're playing that guy's taking money out of your pocket, After the game, I'll buy him a beer. Why not? Next season, we may be teammates." |
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WHA Roundup (excerpt) • The Hockey News • January 14, 1974
Reliable reports indicate Sharks' new coach Ted McCaskill was fired for a brief time in December. The way the story goes, McCaskill walked into general manager Terry Slater's office with a list of players who had to go, plus other changes. Slater hit the roof when the first name on the list was his brother Pete, who has since been loaned out to Denver of the WHL. McCaskill also wanted to promote forward Earl Heiskala and defenseman Jim Watson, who had been in Slater's bad books, to assistant captains. Slater had earlier demoted Hetskala to Sharks' Greensboro farm club and when Watson refused to go down he was ordered to come into the office every day and sharpen pencils. No lie. Slater apparently retracted his firing of McCaskill after considering the public reaction to unloading a coach who had won six games and lost only once. The Shark players, who disliked playing for the caustic Slater, hold McCaskill, a former teammate, in high regard. |
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