Glenn Hall, a Hockey Hall of Famer whose streak of 502 starts as a goaltender remains an NHL record, has died. He was 94.
A spokesperson for Chicago’s NHL team confirmed the team received word of Hall’s death from his family. A league historian in touch with Hall’s son, Pat, said Hall died Wednesday at a hospital in Stony Plain, Alta., where he resided for decades.
A pioneer of the butterfly style of goaltending of dropping to his knees, Hall backstopped Chicago to the Stanley Cup in 1961 and was named the most valuable player of the playoffs in 1968 with St. Louis when the Blues reached the final before losing to Montreal.
Hall’s run of more than 500 games in net is one of the most untouchable records in sports, given how the position has changed in the decades since. Counting the postseason, Hall started 552 games in a row.
“Glenn was sturdy, dependable, and a spectacular talent in net,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. “That record, set from 1955-56 to 1962-63, still stands, probably always will, and is almost unfathomable — especially when you consider he did it all without a mask.”
Nicknamed “Mr. Goalie,” Hall won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 1956 when playing for the Detroit Red Wings. After two seasons, he was sent to Chicago along with legendary forward Ted Lindsay.
Hall earned two of his three Vezina Trophy honours as the league’s top goalie with Chicago, in 1963 and 1967. The Blues took him in the expansion draft when the NHL doubled from six teams to 12, and he helped them reach the final in each of their first three years of existence, while winning the Vezina at age 37.
He played one more season with St. Louis before retiring in 1971.
“His influence extended far beyond the crease,” Blues chairman Tom Stillman said. “From the very beginning, he brought credibility, excellence, and heart to a new team and a new NHL market.”
Hall of Fame goalies inspired by Hall
Hall was a seven-time first-team NHL All-Star who had 407 wins and 84 shutouts in 906 regular-season games. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1975, and his No. 1 was retired by Chicago in 1988.
Hall was chosen as one of the top 100 players in the league’s first 100 years.
After his playing career, Hall served as a goaltending consultant both with Stony Plain teams in Alberta and then later, back to the NHL.
“He inspired me, he challenged me and the crazy thing was, he never came on the ice once,” Calgary Flames goalie Mike Vernon said when he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2023. “He took his notes, we went over those notes — sometimes over an ice cold beer.”
The nine years Vernon was under Hall’s tutelage included the 1988-89 season, when the Flames won the Stanley Cup.
Hall was born and raised in Humboldt, Sask., where his accomplishments and legacy are reflected, with Glenn Hall Park and Glen Hall Drive, and induction into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1991. After playing minor hockey in the city, he headed east to patrol the crease for the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey Association.
After turning professional, Hall’s minor league career included about 200 games for the Edmonton Flyers of the Western Hockey League before he was called up to the NHL with the Red Wings in 1952-53.
Hall’s astonishing consecutive games streak in the NHL encompassed his time with Detroit and Chicago, ending on Nov. 7, 1962, due to back issues.
“Isn’t that ridiculous, eh?” Hall told CBC in 1977. “You worry about your job. I certainly wasn’t going to let those kids come in and take my job.”
Chicago’s chairman and CEO Danny Wirtz called Hall an innovator and “one of the greatest and most influential goaltenders in the history of our sport and a cornerstone of our franchise.”
“We are grateful for his extraordinary contributions to hockey and to our club, and we will honour his memory today and always,” Wirtz said.
Chicago’s team paid tribute to Hall and former coach and general manager Bob Pulford with a moment of silence before Wednesday night’s game against St. Louis. Pulford died Monday.
A Hall highlight video was shown on the centre-ice videoboard. The lights were turned off for the moment of silence, except for a spotlight on the No. 1 banner for Hall that hangs in the rafters at the United Center.
Fellow Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur, the league’s leader in wins with 691 and games played with 1,266, posted a photo of the last time he saw Hall, along with a remembrance of him.
“Glenn Hall was a legend, and I was a big fan of his,” Brodeur said on social media. “He set the standard for every goaltender who followed. His toughness and consistency defined what it meant to play.”
Hall’s wife of 55 years, Pauline, died in 2009 at age 77. The couple had four children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild at the time of her death, according to a public funeral notice.
The hockey legend’s legacy in Stony Plain is reflected with the Glenn Hall Centennial Arena. He was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.