Mike Karakas

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United StatesUnited States  Mike Karakas Ice hockey player
Date of birth December 12, 1911
place of birth Aurora , Minnesota , USA
date of death May 2, 1992
Place of death Wakefield Township , Minnesota , USA
size 180 cm
Weight 67 kg
position goalkeeper
number #1
Catch hand Left
Career stations
1930-1932 Chicago shamrocks
1932-1933 St. Louis Flyers
1933-1935 Tulsa Oilers
1935-1940 Chicago Black Hawks
1940 Canadiens de Montréal
1940-1944 Providence Reds
1944-1946 Chicago Black Hawks
1946-1947 Providence Reds

Michael "Mike" Karakas (born December 12, 1911 in Aurora , Minnesota , † May 2, 1992 in Wakefield Township , Minnesota) was an American ice hockey goalkeeper who played 359 games in the National Hockey League (NHL ) completed. Apart from a few missions with the Canadiens de Montréal , he spent his entire NHL career with the Chicago Black Hawks , in whose jersey he was awarded the Calder Trophy in 1936 and won the Stanley Cup in 1938 .

Karakas was the first American to establish himself as a goalkeeper in the NHL, and as a result was elected to the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1973, at the same time he was the first player of Greek descent in the NHL.

Career

Beginnings in the NHL

Mike Karakas began his professional career in the American Hockey Association (AHA), where he played between 1930 and 1935 for the Chicago Shamrocks , the St. Louis Flyers and the Tulsa Oilers . In the 1934/35 season he was elected to the First All-Star Team of the AHA after he had finished the regular season with a goal average of 1.75. In October 1935, he was from the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League is committed (NHL), the order to the violation of their previous regular goalkeeper Lorne Chabot responded. Thought as a substitute, Karakas won four of his first five NHL games and scored two shutouts , so that he rose to number one of the Black Hawks and Chabot was given to the Montreal Maroons . He finished his first NHL season with 21 wins from 45 games, a goal against goals of 1.85 and nine shutouts, so that he was awarded the Calder Trophy as the best rookie in the league. In the fourth year of this award, he was the first honored goalkeeper. In addition, he became the first American who was regularly used in the goalkeeper position in the NHL.

Stanley Cup and AHL

In the 1938 playoffs , Karakas won the Stanley Cup with the Black Hawks . He broke his toe in the semifinals, so he missed the first two finals. When the score was 1: 1 in the series, however, he returned to the ice with the help of a kind of self-made steel cap on his skate and won the following two games with Chicago and thus the final series.

His achievements and those of the team subsequently decreased, so that he should be given in the middle of the 1939/40 season to the Providence Reds from the American Hockey League (AHL). The goalkeeper refused, so the Black Hawks suspended him for the time being, before he was loaned to the Canadiens de Montréal a little later at the behest of league president Frank Calder . There he replaced the injured Wilf Cude in five games before he finally switched to the Reds in the AHL and promptly won the playoffs for the Calder Cup with them . Karakas spent almost three years in the AHL, briefly guarding the goal of the New Haven Eagles and the Springfield Indians , and was a member of the league's First All-Star Team and once to the Second All-Star Team .

End of career

In exchange for Hec Highton , Gordon Buttrey and $ 10,000, he finally returned to the Black Hawks in January 1944 and ran for another two and a half years for the team. During this time, the American reached another Stanley Cup final with the team, but was clearly defeated by the Canadiens de Montréal 4-0 in 1944 . The following year he was also a member of the NHL Second All-Star Team . After the season 1945/46 he rejoined the Providence Reds and let his career end there. In total, he had completed 369 NHL games, 125 of which had won and scored 31 shutouts, while at the end of his career no goalkeeper in the Black Hawks' jersey had played or won more games.

In 1973, Karakas was among the first elected members of the newly formed United States Hockey Hall of Fame . He died on May 2, 1992 of complications from a brain tumor .

Achievements and Awards

Career statistics

Regular season Play-offs
season team league Sp S. N U Min. GT SO GTS Sp S. N Min. GT SO GTS
1930/31 Chicago shamrocks AHA 8th 5 2 0 435 16 0 2.21 - - - - - - -
1931/32 Chicago shamrocks AHA 45 29 11 5 2624 65 9 1.49 4th 3 1 242 10 0 2.48
1932/33 St. Louis Flyers AHA 43 23 19th 1 2702 85 5 1.89 4th 2 2 284 6th 1 1.27
1933/34 Tulsa Oilers AHA 48 23 25th 0 2918 110 7th 2.26 4th 2 2 260 7th 1 1.62
1934/35 Tulsa Oilers AHA 41 20th 17th 4th 2640 77 4th 1.75 2 0 2 130 8th 0 3.69
1935/36 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 48 21st 19th 8th 2990 92 9 1.85 2 1 1 120 7th 0 3.50
1936/37 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 48 14th 27 7th 2980 131 5 2.64 - - - - - - -
1937/38 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 48 14th 25th 9 2980 139 1 2.80 8th 6th 2 525 15th 2 1.71
1938/39 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 48 12 28 8th 2990 130 5 2.61 - - - - - - -
1939/40 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 17th 7th 9 1 1050 58 0 3.31 - - - - - - -
1939/40 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 5 0 4th 1 310 18th 0 3.48 - - - - - - -
1939/40 Providence Reds AHL 14th 7th 5 2 860 43 1 3.00 8th 6th 2 545 21st 2 2.31
1940/41 Providence Reds AHL 56 31 21st 4th 3450 171 0 2.97 4th 1 3 279 13 0 2.80
1941/42 Providence Reds AHL 56 17th 32 7th 3470 237 1 4.10 - - - - - - -
1941/42 New Haven Eagles AHL 1 0 1 0 60 7th 0 7.00 - - - - - - -
1941/42 Springfield Indians AHL - - - - - - - - 3 0 2 160 7th 0 2.63
1942/43 Providence Reds AHL 56 27 27 2 3430 216 2 3.78 2 0 2 130 7th 0 3.23
1943/44 Providence Reds AHL 24 6th 15th 3 1440 67 0 2.79 - - - - - - -
1943/44 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 26th 12 9 5 1560 79 3 3.04 9 4th 5 550 24 1 2.62
1944/45 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 48 12 29 7th 2880 187 4th 3.90 - - - - - - -
1945/46 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 48 22nd 19th 7th 2880 166 1 3.46 4th 0 4th 240 26th 0 6.50
1946/47 Providence Reds AHL 62 21st 31 10 3720 266 0 4.29 - - - - - - -
1947/48 Providence Reds AHL 2 1 1 0 120 7th 0 3.50 - - - - - - -
AHA total 185 100 74 10 11319 353 25th 1.87 14th 7th 7th 916 31 2 2.03
AHL total 271 110 133 28 16550 1014 4th 3.68 17th 7th 9 1114 48 2 2.59
NHL overall 336 114 169 53 20620 1000 28 2.91 23 11 12 1435 72 3 3.01

( Legend for the goalkeeper statistics: GP or Sp = total games; W or S = wins; L or N = defeats; T or U or OT = draws or overtime or shootout defeats; min. = Minutes; SOG or SaT = shots on goal; GA or GT = goals conceded; SO = shutouts ; GAA or GTS = goals conceded ; Sv% or SVS% = catch quota ; EN = empty net goal ; 1  play-downs / relegation ; italics : statistics not complete)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Rick Weegman: DECC Hall of Fame: Karakas was tough on the ice, loving off it. duluthnewstribune.com, May 11, 2015, accessed March 20, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Karakas, Mike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Karakas, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ice hockey goalkeeper
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Aurora , Minnesota , United States
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1992
Place of death Wakefield Township , Minnesota , United States