Joseph Antonio Demers (July 22, 1917 – September 3, 1997) was a Canadian 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 ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

who played 83 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 ...

for 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 ...

and

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 ...

from 1938 to 1944. He was born in Chambly-Basin,

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. He started with the Canadiens in 1937–38 but had to wait until the 1940–41 season before playing a full season with the Montreal club. He only played 16 games in the two seasons that followed. In his last season with the Canadiens, he assisted on Maurice Richard's very first career goal. In November 1949 he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He had beaten a woman to death two months earlier at Coaticook, Quebec. He served his sentence and started his life again. He died in 1997 at the age of 80.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

External links

* 1917 births 1997 deaths Canadian expatriates in the United States Canadian ice hockey forwards Ice hockey people from Montérégie Montreal Canadiens players New York Rangers players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States People from Chambly, Quebec Southampton Vikings players Valleyfield Braves players {{canada-icehockey-winger-1910s-stub