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Henri Richard
Henri-richard
Position Centre
Shot Right
Height
Weight
5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
160 lb (73 kg)
Teams Montreal Canadiens
Nationality Flag of Canada Canadian
Born February 29, 1936,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died March 6, 2020 (age 84),
Laval, Quebec, Canada
Pro Career 19551975
Hall of Fame, 1979

Joseph Henri Richard (born February 29, 1936 in Montreal, Quebec, died March 6, 2020 in Laval, Quebec) is a former professional player who played centre with the Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1955 to 1975. Although 15 years younger, he was the brother of hockey legend Maurice 'The Rocket' Richard and consequently, because he was smaller at 5 ft 7 in and 160 lb (73 kg), he was given the nickname The Pocket-Rocket. His younger brother, Claude, who also played hockey but not with the Canadiens, was given the nickname Vest Pocket Rocket.

HRichardStnCup

Richard with the Stanley Cup.

Playing Career[]

He joined the Canadiens in 1955-56 and was with the team as it won five straight Stanley Cups. Henri usually played on a line with his brother and Dickie Moore.

Henri led the league in assists in 1957–58 and 1962–63, a feat never matched by his famous brother.

He was named to the First All Star team in 1958 and he was named to the Second All-Star team in 1959, 1961, and 1963.

Henri won 11 Stanley Cups, which is more than any other player in all of NHL history as a player (teammate Jean Béliveau has 17 Stanley Cup titles, but only 10 of them were earned as a player; the other 7 were as an executive). Only one other athlete in North American professional sports has achieved winning eleven championships in his respective league -Bill Russell of the National Basketball Association Boston Celtics.

Despite all these accomplishments, Henri was mostly overshadowed on the Canadiens by players such as his brother, Jean Beliveau, and Bernie Geoffrion. This was unfair, since Henri was a real leader on the team and was one of the best centres of his time. He scored two Stanley Cup winning goals - in 1966 and 1971.

In his career, he scored 358 goals and earned 688 assists in 1256 games.

He was named captain of the Canadiens in 1971 after Jean Beliveau retired. He always wore the number 16 which was retired December 10, 1975 by the Canadiens in his honour. Henri retired in 1975 and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1979. In 1998, he was ranked number 29 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. He currently serves as an ambassador in the Canadiens' organization.

Career Statistics[]

  • Stanley Cup Champions
    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1952–53 Montreal Royals QSHL 1 0 0 0 0 -- -- -- -- --
1952–53 Montreal Junior Canadiens QJHL 46 27 36 63 55 -- -- -- -- --
1953–54 Montreal Junior Canadiens QJHL -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
1954–55 Montreal Junior Canadiens QJHL -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
1955–56* Montreal Canadiens NHL 64 19 21 40 46 10 4 4 8 21
1956–57* Montreal Canadiens NHL 63 18 36 54 71 10 2 6 8 10
1957–58* Montreal Canadiens NHL 67 28 52 80 56 10 1 7 8 11
1958–59* Montreal Canadiens NHL 63 21 30 51 33 11 3 8 11 13
1959–60* Montreal Canadiens NHL 70 30 43 73 66 8 3 9 12 9
1960–61 Montreal Canadiens NHL 70 24 44 68 91 6 2 4 6 22
1961–62 Montreal Canadiens NHL 54 21 29 50 48 -- -- -- -- --
1962–63 Montreal Canadiens NHL 67 23 50 73 57 5 1 1 2 2
1963–64 Montreal Canadiens NHL 66 14 39 53 73 7 1 1 2 9
1964–65* Montreal Canadiens NHL 53 23 29 52 43 13 7 4 11 24
1965–66* Montreal Canadiens NHL 62 22 39 61 47 8 1 4 5 2
1966–67 Montreal Canadiens NHL 65 21 34 55 28 10 4 6 10 2
1967–68* Montreal Canadiens NHL 54 9 19 28 16 13 4 4 8 4
1968–69* Montreal Canadiens NHL 64 15 37 52 45 14 2 4 6 8
1969–70 Montreal Canadiens NHL 62 16 36 52 61 -- -- -- -- --
1970–71* Montreal Canadiens NHL 75 12 37 49 46 20 5 7 12 20
1971–72 Montreal Canadiens NHL 75 12 32 44 48 6 0 3 3 4
1972–73* Montreal Canadiens NHL 71 8 35 43 21 17 6 4 10 14
1973–74 Montreal Canadiens NHL 75 19 36 55 28 6 2 2 4 2
1974–75 Montreal Canadiens NHL 16 3 10 13 4 6 1 2 3 4
NHL totals 1256 358 688 1046 928 180 49 80 129 181

Gallery[]

Video[]

Over ten minutes of silent clips from the 1964-65 season featuring Reg Fleming. The Bruins-Rangers game on December 5, 1964, in which a goal by #12 Wayne Maxner is shown, on #23 Marcel Paille. Next, the Bruins-Black Hawks game on December 10, 1964. Lastly, the Bruins-Canadiens game on December 13, 1964 in which Fleming fights with Henri Richard.

Preceded by:
Jean Béliveau
Montreal Canadiens Captains
1971 - 75
Followed by:
Yvan Cournoyer
This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Henri Richard. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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