Daniel Michael Lawson (October 30, 1947 — September 15, 2008) was a Canadian

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

right winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who played in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL) from 1968 to 1972 and the

World Hockey Association The World Hockey Association (french: Association mondiale de hockey) was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) ...

(WHA) from 1972 to 1977. He led the WHA in goal scoring in its inaugural season.

Junior career

Lawson played junior for the

Hamilton Red Wings The Hamilton Red Wings were a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey Association from 1960 to 1974. The team was based in Hamilton, Ontario, at the Barton Street Arena, also known as the Hamilton Forum. History The Hamilton Tiger Cubs we ...

of the

Ontario Hockey Association The Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) is the governing body for the majority of junior and senior level ice hockey teams in the Province of Ontario. The OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern Ontario Hockey As ...

, who were sponsored at the time by the

Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...

of the

. Lawson was with the Hamilton team when they went to the

Memorial Cup The Memorial Cup () is the national championship of the Canadian Hockey League, a consortium of three major junior ice hockey leagues operating in Canada and parts of the United States. It is a four-team round-robin tournament played between t ...

finals in 1967. Lawson's individual offensive totals gradually improved each year until in 1967-68, his last year, when he finished second in the league in goal-scoring with 52 and led his team in points. He was also named to the OHA's First All Star team.

Pro career

Lawson played a single game with the Detroit Red Wings in the 1967–68 season, before becoming a full-time professional the

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, shuttling between the Wings and the minor-league

Fort Worth Wings The Fort Worth Texans were a professional ice hockey team based in Fort Worth, Texas. They started play in 1967 as the Fort Worth Wings, a minor league affiliate for the Detroit Red Wings. They were part of the Central Hockey League and played t ...

of the

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

. Before season's end he was traded to the

Minnesota North Stars The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the team's colors for ...

, serving the role of a defensive forward on the third and fourth lines. He spent the next two years with the North Stars, further splitting his time between the parent club and the minor leagues, before a trade in the 1971 offseason to the

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team was established in 1970, along w ...

. It was with Buffalo that Lawson finally received substantial ice time, albeit in a checking role shadowing other teams' offensive stars. It was to be his first complete season in the NHL without any time spent in the minors. He would finish the 76 games scoring 10 goals. In 1972 the WHA came into existence and the upstart league was stealing from the NHL both their superstars and players to simply fill their rosters. Lawson made the jump and signed with the Philadelphia Blazers. Although having had a five-year career in the NHL under his belt, it was not until moving to the WHA that his scoring abilities were fully realized. In the WHA’s inaugural season, despite the presence of superstar

Bobby Hull Robert Marvin Hull OC (born January 3, 1939) is a Canadian former ice hockey player who is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. His blonde hair, skating speed, end-to-end rushes, and ability to shoot the puck at very high veloc ...

, it was Lawson who on February 22 became the first player to score 50 goals. Playing on a line with Don Herriman and Andre Lacroix, by season’s end he led the league in goals with 61. Lawson capped that season by being selected to the WHA All Star Team's First Team. Lawson remained a star in the WHA, almost entirely with the Blazers' franchise through moves from Philadelphia to Vancouver and finally to Calgary. Midway through the 1977 season he was traded to the Winnipeg Jets and reached the

Avco Cup The Avco World Trophy, also known as the Avco Cup, is the playoff championship trophy of the defunct World Hockey Association (1972–1979). The trophy's naming rights were sold to the former Avco Corporation (a name originally derived from "Avia ...

final, where the Jets lost to the

Quebec Nordiques The Quebec Nordiques (french: Nordiques de Québec, pronounced in Quebec French, in Canadian English; translated "Quebec City Northmen" or "Northerners") were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The Nordiques played in the W ...

, after which Lawson retired. In the NHL, Lawson appeared in 219 games, scoring 28 goals and 29 assists. However, in the WHA he played in 392 games, scoring 218 goals and adding 204 assists. Despite not participating in the final two seasons of the WHA's existence he still finished at #8 in all-time WHA goals.

Post NHL

In August 1986, at age 39, Lawson attempted a comeback in the NHL, attending the

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. They play their home games at Rogers Place, which ...

training camp, but was released by the club in September. Lawson then found employment in German hockey. For the 1986-87 season he played with the third division team EC Hedos Munich helping the team move up to the second division. The next season, he coached SV Bayreuth and the team finished fourth out of ten teams in the southern division. On September 15, 2008, Lawson died of cancer.

Honours

In 2010, he was elected as an inaugural inductee into the

World Hockey Association Hall of Fame The World Hockey Association Hall of Fame is an independent organization dedicated to honoring the World Hockey Association (WHA) which operated from 1972 to 1979 as a major professional ice hockey league. Officially partnered with the United Stat ...

.WHA Hall of Fame Members
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Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lawson, Danny 1947 births 2008 deaths Buffalo Sabres players Calgary Cowboys players Canadian ice hockey right wingers Cleveland Barons (1937–1973) players Detroit Red Wings players Fort Worth Wings players Hamilton Red Wings (OHA) players Ice hockey people from Ontario Iowa Stars (CHL) players Minnesota North Stars players Philadelphia Blazers players Sportspeople from Toronto Vancouver Blazers players Winnipeg Jets (WHA) players