Dennis Maruk

Dennis Maruk
Date of birth	17th November 1955
place of birth	Toronto , Ontario , Canada
size	173 cm
Weight	75 kg
position	center
Shot hand	Left
Draft
NHL Amateur Draft	1975 , 2nd round, 21st position California Golden Seals
WHA Amateur Draft	1975 , 5th round, 65th position Cleveland Crusaders
Career stations
1971-1972	Toronto Marlboros
1972-1975	London Knights
1975-1976	California Golden Seals
1976-1988	Cleveland Barons
1978	Minnesota North Stars
1978-1983	Washington Capitals
1983-1989	Minnesota North Stars
1998-1999	Lake Charles Ice Pirates

Dennis John Maruk (* 17th November 1955 in Toronto , Ontario ) is a retired Canadian ice hockey player and - coaches , who from 1975 to 1989 for the California Golden Seals and Cleveland Barons , Minnesota North Stars and Washington Capitals in the National Hockey League played .

Career

As a junior he played in his hometown with the Toronto Marlboros in the OHA . To bring Gordie Howe's sons Mark and Marty together, he was passed on to the London Knights . Seriously disappointed about this, he wanted to end his career, but by persuading his sister and the prospect of being able to earn good money with sports, he decided to continue and became one of the best scorers in the junior league. At the 1975 NHL Amateur Draft , he fared like many short-grown players who performed outstandingly as juniors. Many teams didn't trust him to assert himself in the NHL and so it was not until the second round when the California Seals selected him as 21st. The World Hockey Association also threw their lines at him. The Cleveland Crusaders secured the rights for the WHA in the 1975 WHA Amateur Draft in the fifth round in 65th place.

62 points in his rookie - season 1975/76 he was missing only one point to best scorer to be his team. He did so in his second and third seasons after his team moved to Cleveland and now played as the Cleveland Barons . This team was merged for the 1978/79 season with the Minnesota North Stars , who gladly took him on. But even before the start of the season, the decision was made to bet on Bobby Smith and gave him a first-round draft right to the Washington Capitals . Maruk was offended that they thought so little of him, but he managed to turn his disappointment into good performance. In four of his five years with the Capitals he was the best scorer on his team. Only an injury in the 1979/80 season , which let him accumulate in only 27 games, prevented this in one season. The highlight was certainly the 60 goals and 136 points in the 1981/82 season .

His move back to the Minnesota North Stars, for whom he played again from the 1983/84 season, was similarly unspectacular . The price was only a second-round draft right. In Minnesota, his statistics were falling. At first he got 60 points a year, in the 1986/87 season it was only 46. After an injury the following year, he played six more games in the NHL for the 1988/89 season , as well as five for the Kalamazoo Wings in the International Hockey League .

After the end of his active career, he coached some lower-class teams and sometimes went on the ice himself. The most prominent station was the Baton Rouge Kingfish in the East Coast Hockey League .

NHL statistics

	Seasons	Games	Gates	Assists	Points	Penalty minutes
Regular season	14th	888	356	522	878	759
Playoffs	4th	34	14th	22nd	36	26th

Sporting successes

• 1983 bronze medal at the world championship

Personal awards

• Metro OHA-B Rookie of the Year: 1971
• Emms Family Award : 1973
• Red Tilson Trophy : 1975
• Participation in the NHL All-Star Game : 1978 and 1982

Web links

• Dennis Maruk at hockeydb.com (English)
• Dennis Maruk at legendsofhockey.net (English)