A Look At Art Stratton (Part Two)

Art Stratton was one of the finest professional players from Winnipeg during the 1960s that played with Detroit, Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in the NHL.

That old song “I’ve been everywhere, man” plays in my head when I go through Art Stratton’s hockey career and look at all the cities he played in over the course of 20 seasons. The 6’1’ centreman was one of the most well-respected playmakers in professional hockey, and rightfully so, as he was well over a point-per-game player his entire career.

Art scored wherever he played, just look at his career stats. There was even a five-year period during the 1960’s where Art was the highest scoring player in all of professional hockey. Stratton won two Les Cunningham Award’s as the AHL’s Most Valuable Player in 1964-65 and 1973-74, and one Calder Cup with the Buffalo Bisons in 1963. He had three AHL First Team All-Star selections (1963, 1964, 1965) and one AHL scoring championship (1965). And then he also had two CPHL First All Star Team, scoring championship and MVP awards in 1966 and 1967. He also holds the AHL record for most times leading the league in assists (four), ranks sixth all-time with 555 helpers while totaling 766 points in 669 career AHL games. Not too shabby.

On March 17th, 1963, Art had one of the greatest games a hockey player could ask for; he set an AHL record with the Buffalo Bisons that will likely never be broken in any pro league when he assisted on nine goals in one game. Another cool thing about him is that Stratton’s the man who Don Cherry can thank for saving his career and getting him his start in the National Hockey League. You’ll read about that soon enough.

Art played a little bit in the National Hockey League during the early 1960’s having brief stints with the New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks. He got his break when the NHL expanded to twelve teams in 1967 and he played his one full NHL season in 1967-68, split between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers. As I said, Art scored wherever he played, so even though he only had several brief stints in the big leagues, he still scored 51 points in 96 career NHL games.

But Stratton's professional hockey career was more illustrious than his brief stints in the NHL. Starting in 1955 and playing straight until 1976, Stratton skated for the likes of the following teams: St. Catharines Teepees, Cleveland Barons, North Bay Trappers, Winnipeg Warriors, Springfield Indians, Kitchener-Waterloo Beavers, Buffalo Bisons, Pittsburgh Hornets, St. Louis Braves, Seattle Totems, Tidewater Wings, Virginia Red Wings, Rochester Americans, Richmond Robins and Hampton Gulls. I’ve been everywhere, man! Maybe you see where I’m coming from now.

Stratton retired from hockey at 40 and got into the cedar business back in Winnipeg. His minor league career was so impressive that he was inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame in 2015.

Back in early 2018 I had Art over to my house one afternoon and we went through his career over a couple of hours. I dug up a video of one game of his with the Detroit Red Wings and I showed him a clip that he hadn’t seen before. It was interesting because in the video, Art was whizzing down the ice and took a shot with his opposite hand which is something I’d never seen before in the way that he did it. 

“I switched hands like that,” Art told me. “When I was a kid I was right-handed and I changed to my left-hand because there was so many right-handed players. I remember that play distinctly – I switched hands there and almost scored! I had no curve on my stick so it wasn’t a big adjustment and the shot just missed the corner.”

After the interview, as Art was leaving my house, he met my aunt at the door and I guess we started talking about hockey injuries. To make a long story short, he proceeded to whip out the teeth from his mouth and show my aunt some of his hockey battle scars. A total pro to this day! I hope you enjoy Part Two of Art’s story.

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My next NHL stint was with the Detroit Red Wings in 1963-64. There was a great group of guys in that Detroit locker room. Terry Sawchuk was a great guy. He was fearless and I really liked him. Another goalie I briefly played with, Gump Worsley, used to be afraid of flying and I’d be sitting beside him on the plane trying to calm him down. I loved Gordie Howe. That training camp I was with him was the most points he ever scored in training camp and I was feeding him and Parker MacDonald. They put me at center to tee Alex Delvecchio and he’s moping around the ice all camp. I said to Alex, “Give your head a shake. If you honestly think I’m going to be playing centre for Gordie Howe for any length of time, let’s be realistic.” I could anticipate. I think I played five games into the season before they sent me down. The one thing that surprised me, Gordie came to me and said, “Art, I’m not saying this just so you’ll hear it but there’s no way they should be sending you down.” I knew I could skate rings around their third-line centre. I was good enough to stay and they sent me down to the AHL’s Pittsburgh Hornets, so I had to go. I had to make a living and all I knew was to play hockey. But in all honesty I should have stayed in Detroit. There was no reason for me being sent down and that was very disappointing to me because they never bothered to call me back up.