1964-65 Topps 1 Pit Martin Hockey Card (Front)
1964-65 Topps 1 Pit Martin Hockey Card (Back)
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Card Notes
Once before, the NHL had a brilliant center of French extraction whose nickname was “Pit” and that was Pit Lepine of the Canadiens. The Red Wing youngster’s given first name is Hubert, but it’s seldom used. Pit showed great promise as a rookie last season.
En Français
Le nom de Pit Martin est Hubert mais on s’en sert très rarement. “Pit” promet beaucoup comme recrue. Avant de faire le saut dans la ligue Nationale il joua pour les “Hamilton” dans la ligue de l’Ontario et obtint 36 buts en 49 joutes.
Details
In 1963-64, Pit Martin had a decent rookie season with nine goals and 12 points over 50 regular season games while also seeing time in the AHL with the Pittsburgh Hornets. He played all 14 games for the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup playoffs with the Wings bowing out to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the final.
In game six of that final series, Detroit went in with a 3-2 lead. Martin scored his first career playoff goal, assisted by Gordie Howe and John MacMillan while also assisting on a marker by Paul Henderson. Unfortunately, the game went to overtime and Bob Baun scored his famous goal on a broken leg.
Pit never really caught on in Detroit and early in the 1965-66 NHL season was shifted to the Boston Bruins. After 1966-67, his only full year in Boston, Martin was part of the blockbuster trade that sent Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield to the Bruins from the Chicago Blackhawks.
Between 1961-62 and 1978-79, Pit Martin played 1,101 regular season and 100 playoff games in the National Hockey League with the Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks. On occasions, he reached the 20 goal plateau and scored his career best 30 twice, both times with Chicago.