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Marc Tardif

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marc Tardif
Born (1949-06-12) June 12, 1949 (age 75)
Granby, Quebec, Canada
Height 6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Position Left wing
Shot Left
Played for Montreal Canadiens
Los Angeles Sharks
Michigan Stags
Quebec Nordiques
National team  Canada
NHL draft 2nd overall, 1969
Montreal Canadiens
Playing career 1969–1983

Joseph Gérard Marquis Tardif (born June 12, 1949) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger who played in both the National Hockey League (NHL) and the World Hockey Association (WHA), principally for the Quebec Nordiques, and is the all-time leading goal scorer in the WHA.

Playing career

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Born in Granby, Quebec, Tardif played two seasons with the Montreal Junior Canadiens of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The Montreal Canadiens - in the final year the National Hockey League team had the privilege to do so - invoked its right to select two French Canadian players first and second overall to pick Tardif in the first round, second overall, of the 1969 NHL Amateur Draft. Tardif spent most of the 1969–70 NHL season with the American Hockey League (AHL) Montreal Voyageurs, one of the leading scorers on a team studded with future NHL stars, including Jude Drouin, Guy Charron, Guy Lapointe and Pete Mahovlich. He made the Canadiens for good the following season, playing credibly for the eventual Stanley Cup champions. In 1972, Tardif scored 31 goals.

WHA years

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In 1973 Tardif signed with the Los Angeles Sharks of the World Hockey Association. He was the Sharks' leading scorer that season, and was named to play for Team Canada in the 1974 Summit Series the following fall. The Sharks, however, finished with the league's poorest record, and moved to Detroit as the Michigan Stags, where Tardif played brilliantly before a trade to the Quebec Nordiques, just weeks before the Stags folded.

In Quebec, Tardif became one of the league's preeminent stars. He finished the 1974–75 WHA season with 50 goals, and added a league-leading 10 goals in the playoffs en route to the AVCO Cup finals against the eventual champion Houston Aeros. The next season, he led the WHA in goals, assists and points by wide margins and became only the second professional player to score 70 goals in a single season, while the Nordiques rampaged to 50 wins. Tardif's playoffs were cut short after he incurred serious head injuries in an attack (on April 11, 1976) by Calgary Cowboys enforcer Rick Jodzio, leading to one of the first cases where a hockey player was charged in a court of law for assault.[1][2]

The next season Tardif was named the captain of the Nordiques, and recovered to post another 100-point campaign while leading the team to their only WHA championship, and followed that up in 1977–78 with a 154-point campaign - setting a professional hockey record eventually broken by Wayne Gretzky (who would score 164 points in the 1980-81 NHL season)- for which he received his second league MVP award.

Retirement

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Tardif remained a star when the Nordiques joined the NHL after the WHA folded in 1979, serving as the team's first NHL captain. Tardif retired on October 3, 1983,[3] and the Nordiques retired his No. 8 jersey in tribute to their first great scoring star. He finished his career scoring 316 goals and 350 assists for 666 points in the WHA, and 194 goals and 207 assists for 401 points in the NHL; in the two combined professional leagues, he scored 510 goals and 1,067 points. He owns car dealerships in Quebec City and Charlevoix.[4]

Awards and achievements

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Career statistics

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Regular season and playoffs

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    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1966–67 Thetford Mines Canadiens QJHL 40 36 44 80 89 11 13 13 26 2
1966–67 Thetford Mines Canadiens MC 19 11 14 25 42
1967–68 Montreal Junior Canadiens OHA-Jr. 54 32 34 66 62 11 3 9 12 18
1968–69 Montreal Junior Canadiens OHA-Jr. 51 31 41 72 121 14 19 12 31 60
1968–69 Montreal Junior Canadiens MC 7 6 9 15 16
1969–70 Montreal Voyageurs AHL 45 27 31 58 70 8 3 6 9 29
1969–70 Montreal Canadiens NHL 18 3 2 5 27
1970–71 Montreal Canadiens NHL 76 19 30 49 133 20 3 1 4 20
1971–72 Montreal Canadiens NHL 75 31 22 53 81 6 2 3 5 9
1972–73 Montreal Canadiens NHL 76 25 25 50 48 14 6 6 12 6
1973–74 Los Angeles Sharks WHA 75 30 40 70 47
1974–75 Michigan Stags WHA 23 12 5 17 9
1974–75 Quebec Nordiques WHA 53 38 34 72 70 15 10 11 21 10
1975–76 Quebec Nordiques WHA 81 71 77 148 79 2 1 0 1 2
1976–77 Quebec Nordiques WHA 62 49 60 109 65 12 4 10 14 8
1977–78 Quebec Nordiques WHA 78 65 89 154 50 11 6 9 15 11
1978–79 Quebec Nordiques WHA 74 41 55 96 98 4 6 2 8 4
1979–80 Quebec Nordiques NHL 58 33 35 68 30
1980–81 Quebec Nordiques NHL 63 23 31 54 35 5 1 3 4 2
1981–82 Quebec Nordiques NHL 75 39 31 70 55 13 1 2 3 6
1982–83 Quebec Nordiques NHL 76 21 31 52 34 4 0 0 0 2
NHL totals 517 194 207 401 443 62 13 15 28 75
WHA totals 446 316 350 666 418 44 27 32 59 35

International

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Year Team Event   GP G A Pts PIM
1974 Canada SS 5 0 2 2 10

References

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  1. ^ "5 Suspended in W.H.A. Brawl". The New York Times. 15 April 1976. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  2. ^ "WEEK OF DISGRACE ON THE ICE". Vault. Sports Illustrated. 26 April 1976. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  3. ^ "Quebec Nordiques veteran Marc Tardif, one of the first... - UPI Archives". UPI. October 3, 1983. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  4. ^ MacDonald, Ian (10 December 2009). "Former Hab Tardif was WHA Pioneer". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 12 February 2019 – via PressReader.
  5. ^ "WHA Hall of Fame Members". Archived from the original on 2019-01-15. Retrieved 2013-09-13.
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Preceded by Montreal Canadiens first round draft pick
1969
Succeeded by
Preceded by Quebec Nordiques captain
197681
Succeeded by