#107 - Elmer Lach

Elmer Lach (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #107)

Adjusted Stats

1940-1941   Mtl        73 GP   14 goals   27 assists   41 points     0.56 PPG
1941-1942   Mtl        2 GP     0 goals     2 assists     2 points       0.99 PPG
1942-1943   Mtl        74 GP   25 goals   56 assists   81 points     1.10 PPG
1943-1944   Mtl*      79 GP   30 goals   59 assists   89 points     1.13 PPG
1944-1945   Mtl        82 GP   36 goals   74 assists   110 points   1.34 PPG
1945-1946   Mtl*      82 GP   20 goals   51 assists   71 points     0.86 PPG
1946-1947   Mtl        42 GP   19 goals   21 assists   40 points     0.94 PPG
1947-1948   Mtl        82 GP   43 goals   44 assists   87 points     1.07 PPG
1948-1949   Mtl        49 GP   17 goals   28 assists   45 points     0.91 PPG
1949-1950   Mtl        75 GP   20 goals   43 assists   63 points     0.84 PPG
1950-1951   Mtl        76 GP   28 goals   32 assists   60 points     0.79 PPG
1951-1952   Mtl        82 GP   21 goals   69 assists   90 points     1.10 PPG
1952-1953   Mtl*      62 GP   24 goals   38 assists   62 points     0.99 PPG
1953-1954   Mtl        56 GP   8 goals     30 assists   38 points     0.67 PPG

Adjusted Playoff Stats

1940-1941   Mtl        3 GP      1 goal      0 assists     1 point        0.42 PPG
1942-1943   Mtl        5 GP      2 goals     4 assists    5 points       1.09 PPG
1943-1944   Mtl*      9 GP      2 goals     11 assists  13 points     1.46 PPG
1944-1945   Mtl        6 GP      5 goals     5 assists    9 points       1.53 PPG
1945-1946   Mtl*      9 GP      4 goals     10 assists  15 points     1.63 PPG
1948-1949   Mtl        1 GP      0 goals     0 assists    0 points       0.00 PPG
1949-1950   Mtl        5 GP      1 goal       3 assists    4 points      0.78 PPG
1950-1951   Mtl        11 GP    3 goals     3 assists    5 points       0.50 PPG
1951-1952   Mtl        11 GP    1 goal       3 assists    4 points      0.39 PPG
1952-1953   Mtl*      12 GP    1 goal       6 assists    7 points      0.60 PPG
1953-1954   Mtl        4 GP      0 goals     3 assists    3 points      0.65 PPG

Career - 916 GP, 305 goals, 574 assists, 879 points, 0.96 PPG
Career-Highs - 43 goals (47-48); 74 assists (44-45); 110 points (44-45); 1.34 PPG (44-45)
Avg. (14 seasons) - 65 GP, 22 goals, 41 assists, 63 points, 0.96 PPG
Peak Avg. (42-50) - 71 GP, 26 goals, 47 assists, 73 points, 1.04 PPG, 2 Cups

Playoff Career - 76 GP, 20 goals, 48 assists, 66 points, 0.87 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 5 goals (44-45); 11 assists (43-44); 15 points (45-46); 1.63 PPG (45-46)

Accolades - 1 MVP Award, Art Ross Trophy
All-Star Teams - 3-time 1st-team, 2-time 2nd-team
3-time Stanley Cup Champion

Even the most casual hockey fan knows who Maurice Richard is, but not often asked is who was feeding him the puck for all of his goals? The answer to that is Elmer Lach, one of the best centers of the 1940s and one of the more underrated players in hockey history.

To do my best Cliff from Cheers impression, it's a little known fact that in 1944-1945, the year that Maurice Richard scored his famous 50 goals in 50 games, it was his centerman Lach who walked away with the Hart Trophy as league MVP. And little wonder: even when adjusted for the watered-down WWII era Lach was playing, he still had 74 assists and 110 points as Richard's center. Although I have only seen precisely two classic NHL games that involved Lach, I have to take the MVP voting as an indication that Lach's game was considered more complete than the sniper Richard.

For anyone who may have felt that Lach overachieved during the World War II era, one need only look at the first post-war season, 1945-1946, in which after a middling regular season Lach scored 15 adjusted points in 9 playoff games to lead the postseason in scoring and lead the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup. If there had been a Conn Smythe award, it would have been a toss-up between Lach and Richard. A few years later, he would add an Art Ross trophy to his growing resume.

With three first-team all-stars, two second-teams, three Cup rings, an MVP award and an Art Ross, how didn't Elmer Lach crack my top 100? Well, there's the evolutionary punishment of course, as there is with all players of the pre-1950 era. But also, beyond his five excellent seasons, there wasn't much to Lach's career. He was perenially battling injuries and missing fifteen, twenty, thirty games, which is why his final career totals aren't particularly impressive. Still, Lach benefits from my belief that it's better to have achieved a high peak than be simply very good for over a decade. For a stretch of about five years, Lach was the league's best playmaker...a title no doubt aided by the fact that in Maurice Richard, he may have had one of the best pure snipers playing with him that the game has seen.