Metro Prystai

Metro Prystai
Date of birth	November 7, 1927
place of birth	Yorkton , Saskatchewan , Canada
date of death	October 8, 2013
Place of death	Wynyard , Saskatchewan , Canada
size	175 cm
Weight	77 kg
position	center
Shot hand	Left
Career stations
1943-1947	Moose Jaw Canucks
1947-1950	Chicago Black Hawks
1950-1954	Detroit Red Wings
1954-1955	Chicago Black Hawks
1955-1958	Detroit Red Wings
1958	Edmonton Flyers

Dmytro "Metro" Prystai ( Ukrainian Дмитро Пристай ; born November 7, 1927 in Yorkton , Saskatchewan ; † October 8, 2013 in Wynyard , Saskatchewan) was a Canadian ice hockey player and coach of Ukrainian origin, who during his active career between 1943 and 1958 has played 717 games for the Chicago Black Hawks and Detroit Red Wings in the National Hockey League on the position of the center . In the service of the Detroit Red Wings, Prystai won the Stanley Cup in 1952 and 1954, respectively . He also took part in the NHL All-Star Game three times and finished two seasons among the top ten scorers in the league.

Career

Prystai, whose ancestors immigrated to Canada from the Ukrainian national territory , learned to play ice hockey in his hometown of Yorkton in the province of Saskatchewan . In order to pursue the sport at a higher level, the striker soon switched to the Moose Jaw Canucks in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League . He spent four extremely successful years with the team between 1943 and 1947, in which he made a significant contribution with 182 scorer points in 72 missions. Prystai led the team to the Memorial Cup three times in a row between 1945 and 1947 . There she failed twice only in the final game against the later cup winner. Prystai played a total of 40 games in the tournament, in which he scored 64 times. During his time at Moose Jaw , Prystai was considered a local celebrity .

As a result of his successful junior career, the attacker was from the Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League before the 1947/48 season . He made the leap into the team's squad right away, but that turned out to be problematic in the first two years. The young player did not reach the mark of 20 points in either year. Only in his third year did Prystai become the most popular player on the team. He surpassed the 50 point mark for the first of two times in his career and ended the season in ninth place in the scorer ranking. Nevertheless, the offensive player was no longer a member of the team when he took part in the NHL All-Star Game in 1950 , but belonged to the team of the reigning Stanley Cup winner, the Detroit Red Wings . In July 1950, Prystai was part of the largest transfer business in NHL history to date when he moved to Detroit with Bob Goldham , Jim Henry and Gaye Stewart , while the Chicago Black Hawks played Al Dewsbury , Harry Lumley , Jack Stewart and Don Morrison and Pete Babando received.

In Detroit, the Canadian with Ukrainian roots found a new sporting home for the following four seasons. In addition, there were four extremely successful years, which were crowned with winning the Stanley Cup in 1952 and 1954 . When he won the Cup in 1952, he scored the first and third goals in the last game of the final series and also prepared the second. Likewise, at the end of the game year 1952/53 he landed again among the ten best scorers in the entire league and took part in his second and third All-Star game in 1953 and 1954 . Shortly after the start of the 1954/55 season , Prystai returned to his ex-club in Chicago in November 1954. The Black Hawks exchanged the 27-year-old for Lorne Davis , but only employed him for eleven months, so he only played 65 more games for Chicago. In late October 1955, the center forward returned to the Red Wings in exchange for Ed Sandford .

Back in Detroit, Prystai played two more seasons in the league, but with increasing age he was no longer the player of previous years and often had to contend with injuries, especially to the foot. From the 1957/58 season he finally let his career end with the Edmonton Flyers in the Western Hockey League . Shortly after the start of the 1958/59 season, plagued by injuries, he finally ended his active career at the age of 31.

As a result, Prystai was employed for a year as head coach of the Omaha Knights from the International Hockey League in the 1959/60 season , but quickly realized that he could not imagine a future in this form. He then worked in numerous professions and eventually founded a successful insurance business with his wife . In 1989 he was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame . He settled in Wynyard, Saskatchewan, where he died a few weeks before his 86th birthday in October 2013 after suffering a stroke and fighting Alzheimer's disease .

Achievements and Awards

1950 Participation in the NHL All-Star Game 1952 Stanley Cup win with the Detroit Red Wings 1953 Participation in the NHL All-Star Game

1954 Stanley Cup win with the Detroit Red Wings 1954 Participation in the NHL All-Star Game 1989 inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame

Career statistics

				Regular season						Play-offs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	SM
1943/44	Moose Jaw Canucks	SJHL		2	1	0	1	0		3	0	0	0	0
1944/45	Moose Jaw Canucks	SJHL		15th	13	8th	21st	6th		4th	7th	5	12	0
1945	Moose Jaw Canucks	Memorial Cup								17th	8th	10	18th	19th
1945/46	Moose Jaw Canucks	SJHL		16	25th	25th	50	8th		4th	5	8th	13	0
1946	Moose Jaw Canucks	Memorial Cup								8th	11	7th	18th	6th
1946/47	Moose Jaw Canucks	SJHL		22nd	32	39	71	8th		6th	5	9	14th	0
1947	Moose Jaw Canucks	Memorial Cup								15th	9	17th	28	6th
1947/48	Chicago Black Hawks	NHL		54	7th	11	18th	25th		-	-	-	-	-
1948/49	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL		59	12	7th	19th	19th		-	-	-	-	-
1949/50	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL		65	29	22nd	51	31		-	-	-	-	-
1950/51	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		62	20th	17th	37	27		3	1	0	1	0
1951/52	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		69	21st	22nd	43	16		8th	2	5	7th	0
1952/53	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		70	16	34	50	12		6th	4th	4th	8th	2
1953/54	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		70	12	15th	27	26th		12	2	3	5	0
1954/55	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		12	2	3	5	9		-	-	-	-	-
1954/55	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL		57	11	13	24	28		-	-	-	-	-
1955/56	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL		8th	1	3	4th	8th		-	-	-	-	-
1955/56	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		63	12	16	28	10		9	1	2	3	6th
1956/57	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		70	7th	15th	22nd	16		5	2	0	2	0
1957/58	Edmonton Flyers	WHL		21st	13	14th	27	6th		-	-	-	-	-
1957/58	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		15th	1	1	2	4th		-	-	-	-	-
1958/59	Edmonton Flyers	WHL		4th	1	0	1	4th		-	-	-	-	-
SJHL overall				55	71	72	143	22nd		17th	17th	22nd	39	0
WHL overall				25th	14th	14th	28	10		-	-	-	-	-
NHL overall				674	151	179	330	231		43	12	14th	26th	8th

( 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

• Metro Prystai at legendsofhockey.net (English)
• Metro Prystai at eliteprospects.com (English)
• Metro Prystai in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Joe Pelletier: Detroit Red Wings Legends: Metro Prystai. greatesthockeylegends.com, November 2010, accessed January 7, 2019 .