Harold Lang Winkler (March 20, 1894 – May 29, 1956) 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 ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

. He played in the

Western Canada Hockey League The Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925 and disbanded in 1926. The WCHL's Victoria C ...

and

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 ...

between 1921 and 1928.

Biography

Winkler started his professional hockey career with the

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

of the

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera ...

. He would also play with the

Calgary Tigers The Calgary Tigers, often nicknamed the ''Bengals'', were an ice hockey team based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada from 1920 until 1927 as members of the Big-4 League, Western Canada Hockey League and Prairie Hockey League. The Tigers were revived i ...

. In 1926, he moved to the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its hom ...

of the

. He would also play with the Boston Bruins who acquired him from the Rangers in a cash transaction on January 17, 1927. According to Winkler's obituary in the May 31, 1956 edition of the Montreal Gazette, he was given the unflattering nickname "Baldy" because he had lost his hair at an early age. Winkler wore a modified baseball cap in goal partly because rival fans often threw objects at his hairless pate. Winkler recorded 15 shutouts in 44 games for the Bruins in 1927–28. Despite the NHL's regular season almost doubling in length from what it was in 1927–28, Winkler's mark is a single-season team record that still stands. Winkler recorded two playoff shutouts for Boston during the 1927 Stanley Cup playoffs. Both games were scoreless ties. During the 1957–58 season the

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup playoffs, playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchis ...

was redone. Winkler's name was added to the Stanley Cup as a member of the

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

Bruins. He played the whole season in the minors, as teams carried only one goaltender the backup goaltender would play for the teams minor league affiliate, for Winkler this was the Minneapolis Millers the Boston Bruins minor league team in the AHA. His death at age 62 (wrongly reported as age 64 in the Montreal Gazette), came after "a lengthy illness." Winkler died at the Winnipeg General Hospital.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Awards and achievements

* WCHL All-Star Team (1923)

External links

* 1894 births 1956 deaths Boston Bruins players Boston Tigers (CAHL) players Calgary Tigers players Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Canadian people of German descent Edmonton Eskimos (ice hockey) players Ice hockey people from Manitoba Minneapolis Millers (AHA) players New York Rangers players People from Pembina Valley Region, Manitoba Seattle Eskimos players Stanley Cup champions Winnipeg Hockey Club players Winnipeg Monarchs players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States {{Canada-icehockey-goaltender-stub