Leonard Melvin Lunde (November 13, 1936 – November 22, 2010) was a professional

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 ...

player who played 321 games 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 ...

and 72 games in 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) si ...

. He played for the

Chicago Black Hawks (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

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 m ...

Vancouver Canucks The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, and play their home games at Rogers Arena. Bruce Bo ...

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 ...

, and Detroit Red Wings.

Playing career

Lunde was born in

Campbell River, British Columbia Campbell River, or Wiwek̓a̱m, is a city in British Columbia on the east coast of Vancouver Island at the south end of Discovery Passage, which lies along the 50th parallel north along the important Inside Passage shipping route. Campbell Rive ...

, and played junior hockey with the

Edmonton Oil Kings The Edmonton Oil Kings are a Junior ice hockey, major junior ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, that play in the Western Hockey League. As of July 2008, they are owned by Daryl Katz's Oilers Entertainment Group, which also owns t ...

of the WCJHL. A prospect of the Detroit Red Wings, he moved up to the Edmonton Flyer of the Western Hockey League, where he scored 39 goals during the 1957–58 season. The following season, he debuted in the National Hockey League, playing in 68 games for the Red Wings, and scoring 14 goals and 12 assists.Legends of Hockey, Len Melvin Lunde
/ref> He was a regular in the Red Wings' lineup though the 1960–61 season, when Detroit reached the Stanley Cup finals, but after spending a majority of the 1961–62 season in the minors was traded to Chicago in June 1962. With the Black Hawks, he notched six goals and 22 assists playing on a checking line with

Eric Nesterenko Eric Paul Nesterenko (October 31, 1933 – June 4, 2022) was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1951 until 1956 and for the Chicago Black Hawks from 1956 until ...

and Ron Murphy. Beginning in 1963–64, Lunde was chiefly a minor leaguer over the next few seasons. He did play a handful of games for the Hawks, Minnesota North Stars and Vancouver Canucks but saw most of his ice time as an offensive sparkplug in the American Hockey League, the

Western Hockey League The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a major junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior ho ...

and 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 ...

. His best year was 1964–65 when he scored 50 goals for the AHL's

Buffalo Bisons The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen Fie ...

and was voted on to the league's first all-star team. His last full season was 1973–74 with the Edmonton Oilers of the

, where he scored 26 goals and added 22 assists for 48 points. He also played in Finland with

Ilves Ilves (; Finnish for "Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Tampere Deck Arena. The colors of Ilves, green, yellow, and black, were taken from what was then the coat of arms of the c ...

in 1971–1972 and was head coach of the Finnish national team in World Championships 1973 in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. Lunde had initially retired in 1972 before playing for Edmonton Oilers. Lunde re-retired in 1974, but made a one-game return in 1979, when he played for

Mora IK Mora IK (or Mora Ishockeyklubb) is a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Mora in northern Dalarna. After failing the 2019 SHL qualifiers, Mora has been relegated for play in the second-tier league, HockeyAllsvenskan. Mora has previously ...

. Overall, Lunde scored 39 goals and 83 assists, and recorded 75 penalty minutes in 321 NHL games. He also scored three goals and two assists in 20 playoff games.

Post-playing career

Lunde was hired as a European scout of the Edmonton Oilers on August 10, 1979. Lunde died on November 22, 2010, of a heart condition in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Terri ...

.Legacy.com
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Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lunde, Len 1936 births 2010 deaths Buffalo Bisons (AHL) players Canadian ice hockey left wingers Chicago Blackhawks players Detroit Red Wings players Edmonton Flyers (WHL) players Edmonton Oil Kings (WCHL) players Edmonton Oilers (WHA) players Edmonton Oilers scouts Finland men's national ice hockey team coaches Ice hockey people from British Columbia Ilves players Minnesota North Stars players Mora IK players People from Campbell River, British Columbia Portland Buckaroos players Rochester Americans players St. Louis Braves players Vancouver Canucks players Vancouver Canucks (WHL) players