Wayne Maki

Wayne Maki
Date of birth	November 10, 1944
place of birth	Sault Ste. Marie , Ontario , Canada
date of death	May 1st 1974
size	183 cm
Weight	83 kg
position	Left wing
Shot hand	Left
Career stations
1963-1964	Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds
1964-1965	St. Catharines Black Hawks
1965-1967	St. Louis Braves
1967-1969	Chicago Black Hawks
1969-1970	St. Louis Blues
1970-1973	Vancouver Canucks

Wayne Maki (born November 10, 1944 in Sault Ste. Marie , Ontario ; † May 1, 1974 ) was a Canadian ice hockey player who played for the Chicago Black Hawks , St. Louis Blues and Vancouver from 1963 to 1974, among others Canucks has played in the National Hockey League . His brother Chico was also a professional ice hockey player.

Career

Maki played during his junior years in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in his hometown. It followed a year with the St. Catharines Black Hawks , where he stood together with Ken Hodge in a storm line. At the end of the season he played for the first time with the seniors for the St. Louis Braves in the Central Professional Hockey League .

Maki made his debut in the National Hockey League in the 1967/68 season . At the Chicago Black Hawks he was in the squad together with his brother Chico. Wayne himself commuted between the NHL and the farm team . The following year he was only once again in the NHL and won the title of the Central Hockey League with the Dallas Black Hawks that year . In preparation for the 1969/70 season , for which he had moved to the St. Louis Blues , there was a confrontation with Boston defender Ted Green in a friendly against the Boston Bruins , at which Maki Green was so violent with a stick blow was hit that he was in mortal danger with a fractured skull base and brain injuries . The NHL banned Maki, against whom legal action has also been taken, for 30 days. For St. Louis, he came to only 16 missions that season. Mostly he played for the Buffalo Bisons , with whom he won the title of the American Hockey League . It wasn't until the 1970 NHL Expansion Draft , which brought him to the Vancouver Canucks , that he made his breakthrough in the NHL. As the second best scorer of the Canucks, he finished the 1970/71 season and in the following year he was one of Vancouver's best attackers. However, his career ended tragically on December 12, 1972 when doctors diagnosed Maki with a brain tumor. He never returned to the ice and died of his illness on May 1, 1974.

The Canucks didn't award the number 11 Maki played with for a long time. Only for Mark Messier , who played in Vancouver from 1997 to 2000, the club leadership made an exception.

Achievements and Awards

• 1964 NOJHA First All-Star Team
• 1967 CPHL Second All-Star Team
• 1969 Adams Cup win with the Dallas Black Hawks
• 1970 Calder Cup win with the Buffalo Bisons

NHL statistics

	Seasons	Games	Gates	Assists	Points	Penalty minutes
Regular season	6th	246	57	79	136	184
Playoffs	1	2	1	0	1	2

Web links

• Wayne Maki at hockeydb.com (English)
• Wayne Maki at legendsofhockey.net (English)