Metro Prystai
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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
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Career statistics
Regular season | Play-offs | |||||||||||||
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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
- ↑ a b c d e Joe Pelletier: Detroit Red Wings Legends: Metro Prystai. greatesthockeylegends.com, November 2010, accessed January 7, 2019 .
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Prystai, Metro |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Prystai, Dmytro (full name); Пристай, Дмитро (Ukrainian transcription) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian ice hockey player and coach |
DATE OF BIRTH | November 7, 1927 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Yorkton , Saskatchewan |
DATE OF DEATH | October 8, 2013 |
Place of death | Wynyard , Saskatchewan |