Playing Career
One of the few British-born players in NHL history, Ken Hodge was signed by the Black Hawks as a teenager, and had a stellar junior league career with the St. Catharines Black Hawks of the OHA, leading the league in goals and points in the 1965 season before being called up for good to Chicago the next year.
Stereotyped as a grinding policeman - at 6'2", 215 lbs, Hodge was one of the larger forwards of his era - the rangy right wing played two mediocre seasons with the Black Hawks before being sent to Boston in a blockbuster deal with teammates Phil Esposito and Fred Stanfield. The trade made the Bruins into a powerhouse, as Esposito centered Hodge and left wing Ron Murphy in the 1969 season to break the NHL record for points in a season by a forward line, and Hodge scored a spectacular 45 goals and 45 assists to match Esposito's record season of 126 points. His production fell off significantly the next season (although Boston won the Stanley Cup bolstered by Hodge's skilled play), but the 1971 season saw the Bruins launch the greatest offensive juggernaut the league had ever seen, breaking dozens of offensive records. In that flurry, on one of the most feared forward lines of the era (with linemates Esposito and Wayne Cashman), Hodge would break the league record for points in a season by a right winger with 105, and finish fourth in NHL scoring. Bruins Esposito, Bobby Orr, Johnny Bucyk and Hodge finished 1–2–3–4 in league scoring—the first time in NHL history such a feat was accomplished.
The 1972 season saw Hodge slowed down by injuries, although he recovered again in the playoffs to help the Bruins to their second Stanley Cup in three years. In 1974 he scored 50 goals and 105 points to place third in league scoring, and with Esposito, Orr and Cashman likewise finished 1–2–3–4 in league scoring for the only other time in NHL history such a feat was accomplished.
Thereafter his production declined, his goal scoring halving the next season and never recovering. Never at his best defensively skilled, he was traded to the Rangers in 1976 to join his former teammate Esposito, who had been dealt to the Rangers the year before (the Bruins received young star Rick Middleton, who scored nearly a thousand points in a Boston uniform).
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