Juho Albert Pudas (originally Putaansuu) (February 17, 1899 – October 28, 1976) was a

Finnish-Canadian Finnish Canadians are Canadian citizens of Finnish ancestry or Finns who emigrated to and reside in Canada. In 2016, 143,645 Canadians claimed Finnish ancestry. Finns started coming to Canada in the early 1880s, and in much larger numbers in the ...

ice hockey player and coach. He was the first Finnish-born hockey player in the National Hockey League and possibly in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. Following his hockey career Pudas was active in the capacity of

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

Biography

Pudas moved to Canada at the age of 18 months. He began his hockey career in Port Arthur, Ontario with the Pascoes, Ports, and later, the

Port Arthur Bearcats The Port Arthur Bearcats (Bear Cats) were a senior amateur ice hockey team based in Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada – now part of the city of Thunder Bay – from the early 1900s until 1970. Before settling on the nickname of Bearca ...

. On October 28, 1926, Pudas accepted a contract offer from the

Toronto St. Pats The Toronto St. Patricks (colloquially known as the St. Pats) were a professional ice hockey team which began playing in the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1919. The Toronto NHL franchise (league membership) had previously been held by the Toront ...

, along with fellow Bearcats Bill Brydge, Danny Cox and Lorne Chabot. Pudas was recalled December 29, 1926, by the Toronto St. Pats (renamed the Maple Leafs that same season on February 14, 1927) to play four games. These four games made Pudas officially the first Finnish-born player to play in the NHL. In 1936, Pudas coached the Port Arthur Bearcats who represented Canada in the Winter Olympics in

Garmisch-Partenkirchen Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; Bavarian: ''Garmasch-Partakurch''), nicknamed Ga-Pa, is an Alpine ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ''GAP''), in the O ...

Bavaria, Germany Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. Canada won a silver medal with Pudas as coach (the only medal Canada won at these games).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pudas, Albert 1899 births 1976 deaths Canada men's national ice hockey team coaches Canadian ice hockey forwards Finnish emigrants to Canada Finnish ice hockey players Ice hockey people from Ontario Ice hockey players at the 1936 Winter Olympics Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Canada Olympic silver medalists for Canada Sportspeople from Thunder Bay Toronto Maple Leafs players