Raymond Nelson Skilton (September 26, 1889 – July 1, 1961) was an American

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 ...

defenseman 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 ...

who played one game 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 ...

for the

Montreal Wanderers The Montreal Wanderers were an amateur, and later professional, ice hockey team based in Montreal. The team played in the Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL), the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA), the National Hockey Association ...

. The rest of his career was spent playing amateur hockey in the Boston area, and he retired in 1923.

Playing career

Skilton was working as a munitions expert posted by the U.S. government in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

and offered the Wanderers $1 to play in the NHL. His lone game came on December 22, 1917 against the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

. He continued to play amateur hockey in the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

area after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Legal issues

In 1926, Skilton was found not guilty of leaving the scene of an accident. In 1928, Skilton was charged with larceny of $10,000 from the Framingham National Bank. The bank accused Skilton of making a false statement by claiming assets of over $150,000 during loan negotiations when he was virtually bankrupt. Skilton contented that the bank knew of his financial situation and was acquitted. He later sued the bank and 10 individuals for malicious prosecution. He sought $1.5 million but a jury awarded him $13,508 from one defendant – Framingham police chief William W. Holbrook. On January 21, 1929, Skilton was found in contempt of court for failing to pay a $287.19 judgement against him. He was released from jail later that day after arranging to pay the judgement. In 1939, Skilton was shot by his father-in-law Sewall Ellison. Ellison claimed that Skilton had attacked him and his gun went off accidentally when he drew it in self defense. He was found not guilty of attempted murder.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

External links