Billy Reay

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Reay started playing hockey from a young age, making the St. Boniface Seals in 1937. The Detroit Red Wings signed him as a free agent in 1939. Reay was named player-coach of the Quebec Aces in the Quebec senior league in 1942 at the age of just 24. He did two seasons as player-coach and made spot appearances with the Red Wings in the NHL. Before the start of the 1945-46 season, Reay was traded for Ray Getliffe and Rolly Rossignol to the Montreal Canadiens. He would play primarily on the second line behind Elmer Lach and recorded a handful of 40-point seasons. He won the Stanley Cup two times, in 1946 and 1953, both with the Montreal Canadiens. ^[1] In 479 games, he scored 105 goals and 267 points and in 63 playoff games, he scored 13 goals and 29 points, with the 1953 Stanley Cup win being his final NHL game as a player. He was player-coach for the Victoria Cougars of the Western Hockey League from 1953 to 1955 before retiring as a player to become a coach with the Seattle Americans for the 1955-56 season. He then took a job with the first-year Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League, coaching one season. He was then hired as the head coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1957, which saw them finish dead-last in the six-team league. Midway through the 1958-59 season, first-year GM Punch Imlach fired Reay. He became a minor league coach in the Chicago Black Hawks system, starting with the Sault Ste. Marie Thunderbirds of the Eastern Professional Hockey League for the 1960-61 season before coaching the AHL Buffalo Bisons from 1961 to 1963, winning the Calder Cup in 1963 before being asked to succeed Rudy Pilous as head coach for Chicago, and he was hired on June 10, 1963.

Reay would stay in the position for the next fourteen years. Although he led the Black Hawks to three Stanley Cup Finals (1965, 1971, and 1973), he never won the Cup. In his fourth year, 1966–67, he led the Hawks to the league's best record, the first time they had done so in their 41-year history. On Christmas Eve in 1976, Reay was fired by the team after a slow start, with Reay supposedly being fired via a note left under his door.^[2] He is the franchise's all-time leader in wins (516) and years coached (14). When he died, the Chicago Tribune described him as someone who "wasn’t one to polish apples or lick boots, either, and perhaps this is why he has been denied a place in hockey’s Hall of Fame."^[3]

Before beginning a career from which he retired with the second most victories in NHL history, Reay was a Canadiens centre who is believed to be the first player to raise his arms and stick to celebrate a goal when he did so after scoring in a game in 1947.^[4][5][6]

He died of liver cancer in Madison, Wisconsin at the age of 86.^[7][8]

Regular season and playoffs

More information Regular season, Playoffs ...

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1936–37	St. Boniface Seals	MJHL		15	4	4	8	6		7	1	0	1	2
1937–38	St. Boniface Seals	MJHL		15	15	7	22	14		10	5	5	10	12
1938–39	Calgary Stampeders	ASHL		32	11	8	19	44		—	—	—	—	—
1939–40	Omaha Knights	AHA		48	18	20	38	23		9	6	1	7	4
1940–41	Omaha Knights	AHA		46	18	22	40	32		—	—	—	—	—
1941–42	Sydney Millionaires	CBSHL		—	—	—	—	—		—	—	—	—	—
1941–42	Quebec Aces	QSHL		1	1	0	1	0		7	1	3	4	4
1941–42	Quebec Aces	Al-Cup		—	—	—	—	—		11	6	3	9	8
1942–43	Quebec Morton Aces	QSHL		29	16	26	42	22		4	2	0	2	2
1943–44	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		2	2	0	2	0		—	—	—	—	—
1943–44	Quebec Aces	QSHL		25	15	31	46	19		5	2	7	9	2
1943–44	Quebec Aces	Al-Cup		—	—	—	—	—		9	3	9	12	0
1944–45	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		2	0	0	0	0		—	—	—	—	—
1944–45	Quebec Aces	QSHL		20	17	29	46	6		7	3	1	4	4
1944–45	Quebec Aces	Al-Cup		—	—	—	—	—		3	0	0	0	0
1945–46	Montreal Canadiens	NHL		44	17	12	29	10		9	1	2	3	4
1946–47	Montreal Canadiens	NHL		59	22	20	42	17		11	6	1	7	14
1947–48	Montreal Canadiens	NHL		60	6	14	20	24		—	—	—	—	—
1948–49	Montreal Canadiens	NHL		60	22	23	45	33		7	1	5	6	4
1949–50	Montreal Canadiens	NHL		68	19	26	45	48		4	0	1	1	0
1950–51	Montreal Canadiens	NHL		60	6	18	24	24		11	3	3	6	10
1951–52	Montreal Canadiens	NHL		68	7	34	41	20		10	2	2	4	7
1952–53	Montreal Canadiens	NHL		56	4	15	19	26		11	0	2	2	4
1953–54	Vancouver Canucks	WHL		69	10	14	24	30		5	0	0	0	2
1954–55	Vancouver Canucks	WHL		70	3	28	31	43		5	1	1	2	4
NHL totals				479	105	162	267	202		63	13	16	29	43

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• Turnbull Cup MJHL Championship (1938)
• Memorial Cup Championship (1938)
• Allan Cup Championship (1944)
• Stanley Cup Championships (1946 & 1953)
• Played in NHL All-Star Game (1952)
• Calder Cup (AHL) Championship (1963)
• Selected Manitoba's All-Century Second Team Coach
• Honoured Member of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame