Cooney Weiland

Ralph "Cooney" Weiland was a Canadian forward who played in the NHL for the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, and Detroit Red Wings. He was born on November 5, 1904, in Egmondville, Ontario, to Henry Weiland and Sarah Beatty, the second youngest of eight children. His father worked as a cooper at Seaforth’s Ament Cooperage, and two of his older brothers died in World War I. Weiland grew up in Seaforth, Ontario, where he learned to skate at a local rink and picked up the nickname "Cooney."

He started his junior hockey career in Seaforth, spending three seasons with his hometown team. In 1923, he moved to Owen Sound, Ontario, to attend school and train as a druggist, joining the Owen Sound Greys junior team. He led them to the 1924 Memorial Cup as Canadian champions, scoring 68 goals in 25 games to top the club’s scoring list. After the Greys lost the 1925 OHA final to Toronto Aura Lee, Weiland played three seasons with the Minneapolis Millers of the American Hockey Association. That led to the start of his NHL career with Boston, where he celebrated his rookie campaign in 1928–29 with a Stanley Cup victory over the New York Rangers. It was the first Cup win in Bruins history. In his second season, 1929–30, Weiland joined Dutch Gainor and Dit Clapper on Boston’s "Dynamite Line," one of the NHL’s first nicknamed forward lines. That year, the NHL allowed forward passing for the first time and didn’t create an offsides rule until December 1929. Weiland thrived, scoring a career-best 43 goals and 73 points in 44 games, winning the league scoring title and shattering the NHL single-season points record of 51 set two years earlier by Howie Morenz. He held that record alone until 1942–43, when Doug Bentley tied it, and shared it until Herb Cain broke it with 82 points in 1943–44. On February 25, 1930, he scored four goals in a 7–0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, becoming the third Bruin to do so. The Dynamite Line returned to the Stanley Cup Final in 1930 but were swept by Montreal. The line broke up in 1932 when Weiland was traded to the Ottawa Senators after conflicts with coach Art Ross. He led Ottawa in scoring during the 1932–33 season, but the Great Depression forced owner Frank Ahearn to sell him to the Detroit Red Wings.