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Wilfred Thomas (Shorty) Green

NHL, the National Hockey League is a premier professional North American Sports League played in indoor stadiums. It’s divided into two conferences, each comprising of three divisions of ice hockey teams. The league was established in 1917 in Montreal, Quebec and it is composed of 30 teams out of which 24 teams based in U.S. and 6 in Canada.

Wilfred Thomas Green was a renowned hockey player. He was born on 17th July, 1896 in Sudbury, Ontario and died on 19th April, 1960. He played in 4 NHL seasons from 1923 to 1927. Wilfred was inducted in the hall of fame in 1962. Wilfred Green began his hockey career after completing his graduation from Sudbury High School by joining the Northern Ontario senior title winning Sudbury team in 1915. He emerged in the 1917 Allan Cup finals as a member of the 227th Battalion team and then spent the subsequent 30 months in the army throughout the World War I, being released from military service in the end of December 1918. He was a forceful player when he turned pro with the NHL's Hamilton Tigers in 1923.

Wilfred was the captain of the Tigers when they went out on strike before the 1925 playoffs after qualifying for the postseason for the first time in the team's five year survival. The team and its players were relocated to New York for the 1925 and 1926 season and became the New York Americans. Green played on the supposed Tiger Line with ex Tigers, Billy Burch and brother Red Green as a member of the Americans, and he scored the first goal in the new Madison Square Garden. He played one last season with Tulsa in 1931 before hanging the blades up for good because of his kidney injury. He passed through Steeltown again as the coach of the Hamilton Tigers in the Ontario Hockey Association before going home to Sudbury in 1937.

After retiring in 1927, Wilfred coached the Americans during the 1927 and 1928 season prior to moving on to coach the Duluth Hornets of the American Hockey Association in 1928. He came back to his duty from time to time, playing three games for Duluth which was spread in two seasons from 1929 to 1931. At the time of his retirement, he came second among defenders on the all-time scoring list in the pro leagues.

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