Juha Widing

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SwedenSweden  Juha Widing Ice hockey player
Date of birth 4th July 1947
place of birth Oulu , Finland
date of death December 30, 1984
Place of death Kelowna , British Columbia , Canada
Nickname Whitey, Flying Finn
size 185 cm
Weight 86 kg
position center
Shot hand Left
Career stations
until 1964 Gais HK
1964-1967 Brandon Wheat Kings
1967-1969 Omaha Knights
1969-1970 New York Rangers
1970-1977 Los Angeles Kings
1977 Cleveland Barons
1977-1988 Edmonton Oilers

Juha Markku Widing (born July 4, 1947 in Oulu , Finland , † December 30, 1984 in Kelowna , British Columbia , Canada ) was a Swedish ice hockey player who played 583 games for New York in the course of his active career between 1963 and 1978 Rangers , Los Angeles Kings and Cleveland Barons in the National Hockey League (NHL) and 76 more for the Edmonton Oilers in the World Hockey Association (WHA) on the position of the center . Widing, who spent most of his career with the Los Angeles Kings, was the third Finnish-born player to play in the NHL after Albert Pudas and Pentti Lund . He is considered the pioneer of numerous Swedish players who found their way into the NHL after him.

Career

Widing was born the son of a Finnish woman in Oulu , Finland , his stepfather was a Finnish Swede . At the age of four, the family emigrated to Sweden with their offspring in the early 1950s and initially settled in Degerfors . The family later moved to Grums , where Juha Widing temporarily played in the youth department of the ice hockey club Grums IK before moving again to the capital, Gothenburg . There Widing was active in the offspring of Gais HK . At the age of 16 he made his debut there in the professional team that took part in Division 2 play . The striker scored twelve goals in 18 appearances this season.

In 1964, the teenager unexpectedly received a contract offer from North America , after which he moved to Brandon, Canada in the province of Manitoba . His accomplishments had piqued the interest of Jake Milford , an official on the Brandon Wheat Kings junior team . With the engagement of Widings, who maintained contact with Canada through an English-speaking teammate from the Gothenburg squad, the Wheat Kings were among the best teams in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) and Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) in the following years , in which the team played again from 1967 after two years of membership in the SJHL. Together with the Brandon-born talent Bill Fairbairn , the Swede formed a well-balanced attacking duo for these three years. In the course of his junior career, Widing collected a total of 341 scorer points in 167 missions in the SJHL and MJHL , 144 of them in 43 seasonal games in the 1966/67 game year. At the end of the season, both Widing and Fairbairn, who had scored 142 times in 55 games, were part of the MJHL's Second All-Star Team. Then both took part on loan with the Port Arthur Marrs , champions and qualifiers from the Thunder Bay Junior A Hockey League (TBJHL), in the prestigious Memorial Cup .

After the season, the duo Widing / Fairbairn, which traded under the name "The Brandon Bashers Express" , was signed by the New York Rangers from the National Hockey League (NHL). However, they first sent the two young players to their farm team , the Omaha Knights , from the Central Professional Hockey League (CPHL). There the two were active in the seasons 1967/68 and 1968/69 and in 1969 they managed to join the Second All-Star Team of the now only Central Hockey League (CHL) called league. With the beginning of the 1969/70 season Widing and Fairbairn were in the NHL roster of the New York Rangers, where their ways parted in February 1970 after almost six years, when the Swedish striker was handed over to the Los Angeles Kings together with Réal Lemieux . In return, Los Angeles transferred Ted Irvine to the Rangers.

With the Kings, the 23-year-old established himself in the NHL at the beginning of the 1970/71 season and was already considered one of the best and fastest skaters in the entire league at this early stage. In the following years he formed a series of attacks with Bob Berry and Mike Corrigan , the so-called "Hot Line" , and collected 65 points in 78 missions in his first full year in the league. In the following four seasons, the attacker always reached over 50 scorer points, where he set up a personal career best with 70 points in the 1972/73 season . With the beginning of the 1975/76 season , however, Widings points count decreased rapidly, so that between October 1975 and January 1977 he was only able to have another 33 goal participations in 114 missions. He was eventually during the 1976/77 season to the autumn 1976 in the state of Ohio installed franchise the Cleveland Barons given. His teammate Gary Edwards moved there , while Jim Moxey and Gary Simmons went from Cleveland to Los Angeles. At the Barons, the offensive player finished the season with 14 points in 29 missions.

After the season Widing left the NHL and moved as a free agent to the Edmonton Oilers , who at that time participated in the game operations of the World Hockey Association (WHA) competing with the NHL . In the service of the Oilers, the striker found his offensive qualities again and scored 42 times in 71 games. When the Oilers sent him to league rival Indianapolis Racers in June 1978 in an exchange deal for Bill Goldsworthy , Widing ended his active career at the age of 31 because he wanted to save his family of six from another move. After some time in retirement, Widing bought a ranch in Winfield near Kelowna in the Canadian province of British Columbia in 1982 and settled there because the climate there was considered better for his chronic joint and back pain. Nevertheless, his health deteriorated considerably in the following years, so that he died of a myocardial infarction in Kelowna in December 1984 at the age of only 37 after a brief stay in hospital . He left behind his wife and four sons.

International

On the international stage, Widing represented the Swedish national team at the Canada Cup, which was held for the first time in 1976 . He achieved two scorer points in the five tournament games, where he scored his only goal in the first tournament games against the USA for the interim 4-0 lead. The Swedes finished fourth at the end of the tournament.

Achievements and Awards

  • 1967 MJHL Second All-Star Team
  • 1969 CHL Second All-Star Team

Career statistics

Regular season Playoffs
season team league Sp T V Pt SM Sp T V Pt SM
1963/64 GAIS HK Division 2 18th 12
1964/65 Brandon Wheat Kings SJHL 45 23 15th 38 26th 9 3 5 8th 6th
1965/66 Brandon Wheat Kings SJHL 50 62 52 114 29 11 8th 14th 22nd 4th
1966/67 Brandon Wheat Kings MJHL 43 70 74 144 64 9 5 10 15th 6th
1967 Port Arthur Marrs Memorial Cup 5 2 2 4th 4th
1967/68 Omaha Knights CPHL 62 27 33 60 19th - - - - -
1968/69 Omaha Knights CHL 72 41 39 80 58 7th 2 4th 6th 0
1969/70 New York Rangers NHL 44 7th 7th 14th 10 - - - - -
1969/70 Los Angeles Kings NHL 4th 0 2 2 2 - - - - -
1970/71 Los Angeles Kings NHL 78 25th 40 65 24 - - - - -
1971/72 Los Angeles Kings NHL 78 27 28 55 26th - - - - -
1972/73 Los Angeles Kings NHL 77 16 54 70 30th - - - - -
1973/74 Los Angeles Kings NHL 71 27 30th 57 26th 5 1 0 1 2
1974/75 Los Angeles Kings NHL 80 24 36 60 46 3 0 2 2 0
1975/76 Los Angeles Kings NHL 67 7th 15th 22nd 26th - - - - -
1976/77 Los Angeles Kings NHL 47 3 8th 11 8th - - - - -
1976/77 Cleveland Barons NHL 29 6th 8th 14th 10 - - - - -
1977/78 Edmonton Oilers WHA 71 18th 24 42 8th 5 0 1 1 0
SJHL overall 95 85 67 152 55 20th 11 19th 30th 10
C (P) HL total 134 68 72 140 77 7th 2 4th 6th 0
NHL overall 575 144 226 370 208 8th 1 2 3 2

International

Represented Sweden at:

year team event result Sp T V Pt SM
1976 Sweden Canada Cup 4th Place 5 1 1 2 0
Men overall 5 1 1 2 0

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; 1  play-downs / relegation )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Gunnar Nordström: Juha Widings familj: "Det är dags att berätta nu". In: expressen.se. Expressen , June 17, 2019, accessed April 26, 2020 (Swedish).
  2. ↑ Sheng Peng: 50 Forgotten Stories: Remembering Juha Widing. A look back on the career of the LA Kings first European star, and his untimely death at the age of 37. In: nhl.com. National Hockey League , December 21, 2016, accessed April 26, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Widing, Juha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Widing, Juha Markku (full name); Whitey; Flying Finn (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish ice hockey player
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Oulu , Finland
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1984
Place of death Kelowna , British Columbia , Canada