Don McLeod

Donald Martin "Smokey" McLeod (August 24, 1946 – March 11, 2015) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played briefly in the National Hockey League and six full seasons in the World Hockey Association between 1970 and 1978.

McLeod's professional career began with several teams in the minor Central Professional Hockey League and American Hockey League, before being called up for two stints in the NHL, totaling 18 games, with the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers over the 1970–71 and 1971–72 seasons.

With the formation of the WHA in 1972, McLeod was signed by the Houston Aeros, where he played two seasons. The 1973-74 season was his finest year. He was the second winner of the Ben Hatskin Trophy as the WHA's top goalie and was named to the First All-Star team. To top off his best professional season, the Aeros won the Avco Trophy as WHA playoff champions. McLeod was also chosen to represent Canada as a backup goaltender to Gerry Cheevers in the 1974 Summit Series against the Soviet Union in September 1974. In that series, Don got the start in Game 3 as Cheevers sat out the third game since his father was gravely ill in hospital. For the 1974–75 season, McLeod signed with the Vancouver Blazers where he appeared in a league-record 72 games. McLeod followed the franchise to Calgary and for the next two seasons was the Calgary Cowboys main goalie. When that franchise folded in 1977, McLeod was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques, where he played in only seven games before being dealt to the Edmonton Oilers where he finished out the 1977–78 season and his professional career.

Nicknamed "Smokey" for his propensity for cigarettes, McLeod was noted for his quirks as a player: he once rejected a contract deal because it was one penny shorter than what he desired: $100,000, he once signed a contract with the Quebec Nordiques only to find so much trouble with the French-centric region that he was traded away after seven games, and he was among the first goalies to use a curved blade on his goalie stick.^[1]

Among the WHA statistical leaders, McLeod was 2nd in games played for a goalie (332), 4th in wins (155), and 5th in shutouts (11) while being third of just six goalies to record a goals against average (250 games played), doing so with a 3.326 GAA. He was one of only 11 goaltenders to record at least one shutout in the playoffs. He became a salesman after his playing days ended, working between Calgary and Cranbrook. He lived in the Vancouver suburb of Port Coquitlam prior to suffering a fatal heart attack in 2015, dying at the age of 68; he was survived by his two daughters.^[2]

• Biographical information and career statistics from NHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or The Internet Hockey Database