Height: 6-2
Weight: 195
Shoot: L
Born: 18 Feb 1936, Winnipeg MB (d. 2018)
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | Winnipeg | |||||||||||
| 1973-74 | Winnipeg | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
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Know A Good Jet Captain? • by Reyn Davis • Winnipeg Free Press • February 13, 1973
Know a good eating spot in Los Angeles? See Ab McDonald. Know a good shoe store in Boston? See Ab McDonald. Know how not to get lost in New York? See Ab McDonald. Call him counsellor, gourmet, guide or consultant, but the Jabber is one whale of a captain on and off the ice for Bobby Hull and the other successful members of the Winnipeg Jets. "One of the brightest moves Bobby made this season was giving Ab the C," said general manager Annis Stukus from behind his desk Tuesday afternoon. "Between Ab and Sudsy (Bill Sutherland) we signed a couple of guys whose savvy alone had to be worth anything we could pay them. Their play this season has been a bonus." McDonald, unlike Sutherland, has been healthy since the campaign began. Sudsy, the dean of the Jets, is 38 years old and Ab is four days away from his 37th. Both signed one-year contracts. The record book says MeDonald is well into his 18th professional season and if Ned Harkness could see him now maybe he would bite his tongue for ever suggesting Ab was spent and ready to pasture. Matter of fact, it was the Jabber himself this summer who Clarence Campbell cited as the example of the "sort of hockey player who could play out his option — providing, of course, he wasn't offered a contract — under the scheme the National Hockey League has tried to adopt as a guise to say they have no reserve cause. McDonald knew exactly where he wanted to play when the concept of the World Hockey Association came along with Winnipeg actively invested as one of the 12 franchise cities. It wasn't an accident that the Jets won a pair of games Saturday and Sunday with McDonald playing an active part in both wins. When you are the club’s fifth-leading scorer, chances are that you will play a role in most wins. Ab scored his 15th goal Saturday afternoon, swatting Danny Johnson's pass from a corner behind George Gardner to pull the Jets into a 4-4 tie, halfway through the third period. Then a day later, he took passes from Steve Cuddie and Sutherland to iced Johnson perfectly with long passes as he stood unguarded at the edge of the Los Angeles net for two goals in a 3-0 win. "I was getting pretty excited standing there with no one but the crowd noticing me," said Johnson. "Everybody but the crowd and Ab, that is." Ab currently holds the club's second highest number of power-play goals (6), next to Hull's 10. Stationed normally along left-wing with Johnson at centre and Jean-Guy Gratton on right-wing, McDonald has the distinctiun of scoring the Jets' first ever goal, chopping a rebound behind Gary Kurt in New York last October 12. He's having a great season. For a guy supposedly over the hill as far as the NHL is concerned, he's set out to climb a mountain in the familiar range of home. And for a giant of a man, it's a task of sheer delight for himself and his fans alike. |
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Excerpts from Zander Hollander's Guide to Pro Hockey, 1973-74 (by Reyn Davis & Charley Hallman)
A Winnipeg native, Ab had twelve seasons in the NHL before joining the Jets in 1972-73 ... Notched five 20-goal seasons in the NHL ... Best year was 61 points and 20 goals with Chicago in 1962-63 ... Captain of the Jets, who popped in seven clutch points in the playoffs ... Played junior hockey in Saint Catherines, having 49 goals in 48 games his last year ... Also had five twenty-goal seasons in the minors. |
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