Martin Joseph "Pat" Egan (April 25, 1918 – June 3, 2008) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

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 ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

, most notably for the

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...

and

New York Americans The New York Americans, colloquially known as the Amerks, were a professional ice hockey team based in New York City from 1925 to 1942. They were the third expansion team in the history of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the second to play ...

of 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 ...

. He went on to coach the

Springfield Indians The Springfield Indians were a minor professional ice hockey franchise, originally based in West Springfield, Massachusetts and later Springfield, Massachusetts. The Indians were founding members of the American Hockey League. They were in existen ...

of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

to three straight

Calder Cup The Calder Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the playoff champions of the American Hockey League. It was first presented in 1937 to the Syracuse Stars. The cup is made of sterling silver mounted on a base of Brazilian mahogany. In its curr ...

championships, the only time that has ever been done.

Playing career

Born in Blackie,

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 Ter ...

, Egan started his professional career with the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

of the

Pacific Coast Hockey League The Pacific Coast Hockey League was an ice hockey minor league with teams in the western United States and western Canada that existed in several incarnations: from 1928 to 1931, from 1936 to 1941, and from 1944 to 1952. PCHL 1928–1931 The firs ...

in 1938, recording 185 penalty minutes in only 44 games. The next season he played mostly for Springfield, but was recalled to make his NHL debut for the

, playing in ten games that season. He played two more seasons with the Americans' franchise before serving in the military in 1942–43. Egan was back in pro hockey in the 1944 season, but as the Americans' franchise had folded, his rights were acquired 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 ...

. After only half a season with Detroit, the hardrock defenseman was traded to the Boston Bruins for star offensive defenseman Flash Hollett. Egan would anchor the Bruins' defense corps for six seasons in all, before being traded 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 home ...

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

, for whom he would play two seasons. By

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

, Egan was slowing down, and was sent down to the minor leagues for good. He played nine more years in the minors, principally for the

Providence Reds The Providence Reds were a ice hockey, hockey team that played in the Canadian-American Hockey League (CAHL) between 1926 and 1936 and the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1936 to 1977, the last season of which they played as the Rhode Island Re ...

of the AHL, his final action coming in

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

when he played a few games for the

Victoria Cougars The Victoria Cougars were a major league professional ice hockey team that played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) from 1911 to 1924 under various names, and (after the PCHA's merger with the Western Canada Hockey League) in the W ...

of 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 h ...

. His later minor league career was marred by an incident in November 1952 when he was suspended by the AHL for life for assaulting a linesman; the suspension was lifted a week later. Egan finished his NHL career with 77 goals and 153 assists for 230 points in 554 games, adding 776 penalty minutes.

Coaching career and retirement

Egan was tabbed as a coach even while still playing, serving as player-coach of the Reds in

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

and

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

, and as player-coach of the

Nelson Maple Leafs The Nelson Maple Leafs were a senior men's ice hockey team. They won the British Columbia Senior Championship, the Savage Cup, seven times (1937, 1961, 1965, 1967, 1971, 1986, and 1987). They played in, but lost, the 1965 Allan Cup Final. The Ma ...

of the senior

Western International Hockey League The Western International Hockey League (WIHL) was a senior level ice hockey league that featured teams from the Western United States and Western Canada. It operated from 1946–62 and 1963–88. It grew out of the West Kootenay League, which ...

in 1957. Immediately following his retirement as a player, Egan was hired by Springfield Indians team owner

Eddie Shore Edward William Shore (November 23, 1902 – March 16, 1985) was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman, principally for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League, and the longtime owner of the Springfield Indians of the American Hocke ...

to coach the club, and the powerful Indians went on to win three straight first-place finishes and three straight

championships under his aegis. His tenure under the turbulent Shore lasted three more seasons, but the Indians failed to make the playoffs in any of them, moving on to coach the

Jacksonville Rockets The Jacksonville Rockets were a professional minor league ice hockey team based in Jacksonville, Florida. They played in the Eastern Hockey League from 1964–1972, when they folded. They were the first professional hockey team to be based in Flo ...

of the

Eastern Hockey League The Eastern Hockey League was a minor professional United States ice hockey league. Eastern Amateur Hockey League (1933–1953) The league was founded in 1933 as the Eastern Amateur Hockey League (EAHL). The league was founded by Tommy Lockhart, ...

in 1966. With the team beset by injuries, Egan laced up the skates one final time, playing 19 games with the Rockets at age 47, after which he hung them up for good. After a final season coaching for the Knoxville Knights of the EHL in 1968, Egan went on to work in Operations for

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

for 22 years until his retirement. Save for the three Calder Cup championship seasons in Springfield, Egan had no other playoff teams in his eleven-year coaching career.

Achievements and facts

* Named a NHL Second Team All-Star on defense in 1942. * Named to play in the

NHL All-Star Game The National Hockey League All-Star Game (french: Match des Étoiles de la Ligue Nationale de Hockey, links=no) is an exhibition ice hockey game that is traditionally held during the regular season of the National Hockey League (NHL), with many o ...

in 1949. * Elected to the Springfield Hockey Hall of Fame. * Interred at St. Joseph's Cemetery,

West Roxbury, Massachusetts West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts bordered by Roslindale and Jamaica Plain to the northeast, the town of Brookline to the north, the cities and towns of Newton and Needham to the northwest and the town of Dedham to th ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

External links

* *
Egan's obituary in the ''Springfield Union-News''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Egan, Pat 1918 births 2008 deaths Boston Bruins players Boston Bruins announcers Brooklyn Americans players Canadian ice hockey defencemen Canadian military personnel of World War II Detroit Red Wings players Ice hockey people from Alberta New York Americans players New York Rangers players People from Foothills County Victoria Cougars (1949–1961) players Canadian expatriates in the United States