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Thomas Christian (Tom) Johnson

NHL, the National Hockey League is a premier professional North American Sports League played in indoor stadiums. It is divided into two conferences, each comprising of three divisions of ice hockey teams. Thomas Christian Johnson was born on 18 February 1928 in Baldur, Manitoba. He has played 17 NHL seasons from 1947 to 1965. he was nicknamed as Tom. He was a defenseman and played a valuable role on the powerful Montreal Canadiens teams of the 1950s.

He contributed to the Habs' rapid transitional game and would have scored more points had the team not already been blessed with Doug Harvey to quarterback the power play.

He has spent a year playing informal hockey, taking a few classes at McGill University and spending valuable time around the Habs' winning environment at the Forum. He has stepped into a starting role with the Habs in the season from 1950 to 1951 and impressed them with his eagerness and durability in playing all 70 regular-season games.

One of his patented moves was to steal the puck from an attacking forward without bodily contact. This allowed him to feed a pass to one of his teammates while the opposition was still heading toward the Montreal net. He has played a vital role on the Canadiens squad that won the Stanley Cup an unprecedented five consecutive times from 1956 to 1960. By the time the team began dominating the NHL, he was beginning to receive his due credit. In the year 1956 he was selected to the NHL Second All-Star Team. Three years later, he won the Norris Trophy and earned a spot on the First All-Star lineup.

After retiring, he accepted a position in the Boston front office, as assistant to the president and general manager, where he helped Harry Sinden build a team that would eventually win the Stanley Cup in 1970 and 1972. He coached the first of these championship squads and was the assistant general manager of the second. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1970. One of his key traits was an ability to recover almost immediately after making a rare mistake on the ice.

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