Name: Doug Gilmour
Team: Toronto Maple Leafs
Position: Center (Hockey)
Card Year: 1996
Card Maker: Upper Deck
Card Number: 291
Doug Gilmour was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the 7th round of the 1982 NHL draft. Despite concerns regarding his small size for an NHL center, he was able to make his way onto the roster and played his first season for the Blues in 1983-84 playing in 80 games and tallying a respectable 53 points. He tallied his first 100+ point season in 86-87 with the Blues, scoring 42 goals and making 63 assists. It was during this time with the Blues that he was given the nickname of 'Killer' by then captain Brian Sutter, due to his aggression and defensive abilities.
He would be traded by the Blues to Calgary after the 1987-88 season where he would go on win the only Stanley Cup of his career with an absolutely dominant Flames team in 1989. He was traded by Calgary as part of a 10 player trade, the largest in NHL history, to Toronto midway through the 1991-92 season which was the starting season shown on this card, with stats both from Calgary and Toronto.
The following two seasons, 1992-93 and 1993-94, would be Gilmour's most productive with 127 and 111 points respectively and making the All Star Game in both seasons. In the 1992-93 season, he would lead the Leafs in assists and overall points, and was only two goals behind Nikolai Borschevsky for the lead in that category as well. This would also be the first and only time Gilmour would win the Frank J. Selke trophy for best defensive forward. Despite only finishing third in their division, the Leafs made it to game 7 in the Western Conference finals, but lost to the Los Angeles Kings, the eventual loser to the Stanley Cup Champion Montreal Canadiens.
1993-94 ended in similar fashion both for Gilmour and the Leafs. Toronto finished just two points behind the Detroit Red Wings in the new Central division of the Western conference and again made it to the conference finals, only to lose this time to the Vancouver Canucks, the eventual losers to the Stanley Cup Champion New York Rangers. Gilmour was third on the Leafs in scoring this season, but still led the team in assists with 84 and overall points with 111. He would be named team captain at the start of the 1994-95 season, that of this card, though that season was significantly shortened due to a league lockout.
The Leafs started to wane in that shortened season, finishing only 4th in the Central divsion. Gilmour remained in Toronto until rebuilding began, and was traded during the 1996-97 season to the New Jersey Devils. From there, he bounced around the league with stops in Chicago, Buffalo, and Montreal while never reaching the same statistical success he had achieved in Toronto and earlier on in his career.
In 2002, Gilmour returned to the Maple Leafs, but was injured in his first game, resulting in him missing the season and retiring in 2003 after a 20 year NHL career. His number 93 was retired by the Leafs in 2009 and he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011 alongside Ed Belfour, Joe Nieuwendyk, and Mark Howe. He spent ten years with the Kingston Frontenacs serving as head coach, general manager, and head of hockey operations, but stepped down from his role there in 2025 to serve in a community relations role back with the Maple Leafs.
While he didn't have a long list of individual awards earned, Gilmour's consistency and longevity solidified him as deserving of the Hall of Fame accolades. With the exception of goals, he is effectively top 30 in all major career offensive statistics including both assists (15th) with 964 total and overall points (21st) with 1414. Extremely impressive for any hockey player, especially a kid who almost didn't make the league because of his height.
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