Former Boston Bruins captain Ed Sandford has passed away at the age of 95, the team has announced.
Sandford was a veteran of 503 NHL games, gathered across nine different seasons. He made his NHL debut in 1947-48, at the age of 19, appearing in 59 games and scoring 25 points. He built on those numbers for his sophomore season, scoring 16 goals and 36 points in 56 games – good for fifth on the team in scoring. Sandford’s career year came during the 1953-54 season, when he scored 16 goals and 47 points in 70 games, setting a career-high in games played, assists, and points and tying his career-high in goals. Sandford also served as the Bruins captain in 1954-55. The season would serve as his last with Boston, as Sandford was a piece of the trade sending Terry Sawchuk to the Bruins. The full package saw Sawchuk, Marcel Bonin, Lorne Davis, and Vic Stasiuk move to the Bruins in exchange for Gilles Boisvert, Real Chevrefils, Norm Corcoran, Warren Godfrey, and Sandford.
Sandford’s career ended less than one season after this trade. He played in a mere five games with Detroit, getting traded to the Chicago Blackhawks only four months after moving to Detroit. He played in 56 games with the Hawks, recording 12 goals and 21 points. Sawchuk would go on to play 102 games with the Bruins before returning to the Red Wings for seven more seasons. The Hall-of-Fame goaltender set a 40-43-19 record in Boston, recording a .917 save percentage.
Sandford served as an off-ice official following his playing career, working as a goal judge, official scorer, and supervisor of off-ice officials. He was named to the Bruins “Historic 100”, as one of the team’s most legendary players of all-time, earlier this fall. PHR sends our condolences to his family, friends, and loved ones.
A man who loved the game to say the least. Wonder what his pension was? $8 a month.? Talk about a builder of the early NHL going from the original 6 that eventually grew to 2 leagues then 1 huge lNHL. I bet he spent a lot of time on trains between games as a player. Wonder when he took his first airplane ride?
He was the official scorer, and then supervisor of off-ice officials, in Boston for many, many years following his retirement.