Milt Schmidt

Lore & Background

Schmidt's early years were spent in Kitchener, where he attended King Edward Public School. He dropped out of high school at age 14 to work at a shoe factory, making 18 cents per hour, to support his family after his father became too ill to work regularly. He continued playing junior hockey with the Kitchener Empires and Kitchener Greenshirts, and was a childhood friend of fellow Hall of Famers Woody Dumart and Bobby Bauer. At age 20, while playing for the Boston Bruins' AHL farm team, the Providence Reds, Schmidt was invited to try out for the St. Louis Cardinals pro baseball team but declined, knowing he would strike out more often than hit home runs. Schmidt played junior hockey with Dumart and Bauer in Kitchener before their rights were acquired by the Bruins in 1935. After a final year of junior hockey and half a year with the Providence Reds, Schmidt was called up to the Bruins during the 1937 season. He quickly proved himself a hardnosed centre, skilled stick handler and smooth playmaker. The Kraut Line was a strong and dependable line for the Bruins for most of the following fifteen seasons, key to four straight regular season titles and a hard-fought Stanley Cup victory in 1939. In 1939–40, Schmidt led the league in scoring with 52 points, while Dumart and Bauer finished second and third with 43 each, the first time three linemates finished in the top three spots in NHL scoring. The 1941 season saw Schmidt spearhead the Bruins to their second Cup win in three years with 38 points and a postseason high 11 points in 11 playoff games. World War II interrupted Schmidt's career; he, Bauer, and Dumart were the first players to enlist in the Canadian military. In their final game before deployment, the Kraut Line recorded eight points in a dominating victory over the Montreal Canadiens, after which players from both teams fêted them. While training in Ottawa, the line played for the Ottawa RCAF Flyers, winning the Ottawa City Hockey League championship and the Allan Cup. Schmidt and Dumart served in a Bomber squadron; Bauer served as a radio technician. They missed three productive NHL seasons. Schmidt returned for the 1946 season, finishing fourth in league scoring in 1947 with a career-high 62 points (27 goals, 35 assists). Named captain in 1951, he won the Hart Trophy as league MVP that year with 61 points (22 goals, 39 assists).

Reader's Guide

After retiring as a player, Schmidt remained with the Bruins as head coach for eleven years, leading them to the Stanley Cup Final in 1957 and 1958. He also served as Boston's assistant general manager. In 1967, he was promoted to general manager just as the league doubled in size with six new franchises. Schmidt proved a great architect, acquiring and drafting key players to build a Bruins team that won two more Stanley Cups in 1970 and 1972. His biggest deal was a blockbuster trade that brought Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield from the Chicago Black Hawks. After his long career with the Bruins, Schmidt left to become the first general manager of the expansion Washington Capitals on April 20, 1973. The Capitals set an NHL record for futility, finishing with 21 points (8–67–5). Schmidt was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961, and his #15 jersey was retired by the Bruins. He is the only person in franchise history to serve as player, captain, coach, and general manager. He was the last surviving member of both the Bruins' 1939 and 1941 Stanley Cup teams, the last living NHL player to have played in the 1930s, and the last to have played against the Montreal Maroons. Schmidt died after a stroke on January 4, 2017, at age 98, the oldest living former NHL player at the time.

Did You Know?

• Schmidt dropped out of high school at age 14 to work in a shoe factory at 18 cents per hour.
• The Kraut Line became the first line in NHL history to finish first, second, and third in league scoring, in 1939–40.