Late goalie Wilson remembered as free spirit who loved life on, off ice

For a decade, Dunc Wilson was one of the NHL’s great characters, a flamboyant, even flaky goalie who happily added to the oddball reputation of those who played the position.

Wilson died Oct. 8 in Honduras, the country he had called home for many years, at age 75. His story is much more than the 287 NHL games he played for five teams between 1970-79, his colorful career stitched into an 80-150 record with 32 ties, a 3.75 goals-against average, .883 save percentage and eight shutouts.

The native of Toronto registered the first shutout in Vancouver Canucks history, a 0-0 duel against Bernie Parent and the Toronto Maple Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens on Oct. 27, 1971. He was in the Canucks net at the Montreal Forum on March 21, 1973, surrendering the 500th regular-season goal of Canadiens star Frank Mahovlich.

Wilson played 148 games for the Canucks, more than half of his career total. He also played 66 for the Pittsburgh Penguins, 49 for the Maple Leafs, 23 for the New York Rangers and one, his first in the NHL, for the Philadelphia Flyers.

Dunc Wilson makes a spectacular sliding save against Pittsburgh Penguins’ Colin Campbell, today the NHL’s executive vice-president and director of hockey operations, during a 6-4 Toronto win at Maple Leaf Gardens on Dec. 18, 1974. The puck is visible just above the top of Wilson’s left pad.

The goalie never saw Stanley Cup Playoff action but he forever was great copy for newspaper writers who flocked to him for a delicious quote in what usually was the loser’s dressing room, his carefree jocularity often driving his coaches around the bend.

Toronto Star columnist Milt Dunnell reported during Maple Leafs training camp 50 years ago this fall that Wilson almost hadn’t chosen goaltending for a profession, his father, Dunc Sr., having played some amateur net in Belleville, Ontario.

As a police cadet, Dunc Jr. briefly followed two uncles onto the Toronto force, proudly making an arrest.

“No, it wasn’t a murder or a bank holdup, nothing that big,” he confessed. “It happened during the beer strike. Caught this guy drinking rubbing alcohol. He didn’t give me any trouble at all. I had a big Irishman with me.”

Vancouver Canucks goalie Dunc Wilson, masked and unmasked, during a break in the action at the Montreal Forum.

In New York during the 1975-76 season, short-fused Rangers coach John Ferguson melted down watching Wilson engage with the home crowd during an uninspired loss.

“Dunc was in goal and fans were really giving it to him, calling him names and booing the (heck) out of him,” John Davidson, then a fellow Rangers goalie and current Columbus Blue Jackets hockey operations president, told Dick Irvin Jr. in the latter’s 1995 book “In The Crease.”

“They’re really letting him have it after a goal so he skates out about 15 feet in front of the net, drops his stick, takes off his gloves and very slowly starts to roll up his right sleeve.

“Then Dunc takes his right arm, holds it up, sticks the middle finger up and does a 360-degree pirouette giving everyone in Madison Square Garden the finger. It was hilarious.”

On Tuesday night from Columbus, Davidson fondly remembered his late friend with one story after another.

John Davidson, here in late 1970s action, cherishes many fond memories of late New York Rangers teammate Dunc Wilson.

“We were playing in Pittsburgh, staying in the same hotel as the band Heart,” Davidson said, laughing. “Dunc loved his music, he was a rock-n-roll guy, and he did his absolute best to meet Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson. He tried everything for hours but it didn’t work. He never cracked the case.”

Wilson likely even tried to play the long-lost relative card, linking his surname to that of the singing sisters.

“John Ferguson was a really superstitious guy,” Davidson continued. “A lot of time we flew commercial and Dunc would always sit in a wheelchair at the boarding gate. That drove 'Fergy' nuts. That’s just straight-out, flat-out bad luck. Dunc would do it without a care.”

Wilson had arrived in the NHL by way of Ontario major-junior Oshawa, Niagara Falls and Peterborough, plucked in June 1968 by the Flyers from the Boston Bruins, who owned his rights, in a special internal amateur draft.

Dunc Wilson sweeps the puck away from rushing Canadiens forward Jacques Lemaire during an early 1970s game at the Montreal Forum.

He played just one game for the Flyers, yielding his first of 988 NHL goals in a 23-save 3-2 loss to the Chicago Black Hawks at The Spectrum on Feb. 26, 1970, then headed west to Vancouver, the incoming Canucks choosing him in the 1970 NHL Expansion Draft to share the net with veteran Charlie Hodge, claimed from Oakland.

His franchise-first 34-save 0-0 shutout drew the raves of the legendary Jacques Plante, who was backing up Parent (20 saves) for Toronto that night.

“We were five goals better but Dunc was out of this world in the Canucks goal,” Plante said. “He was lucky a couple of times but mostly it was skill, splendid goaltending.”

Said Maple Leafs coach John McLellan: “If it hadn’t been for Wilson, it wouldn’t have been close. He robbed us blind.”

Vancouver fans adored the goalie both in hockey and lacrosse. In the summer of 1971, playing for the Vancouver Burrards, Wilson was tagged with the Western Lacrosse Association’s heaviest fine and longest suspension -- $50 and three games -- for his role in a brawl he touched off by leaving the penalty box to whale on a Coquitlam Adanacs opponent.

Dunc Wilson makes a flashy glove save during a mid-1970s game against the Detroit Red Wings at Maple Leaf Gardens.

With the Canucks, Wilson’s shaggy hair and rebellious personality didn’t sit well with coach Hal Laycoe, finally resulting in his trade to Toronto on May 29, 1973.

The Maple Leafs’ goalie platoon of Wilson, Eddie Johnston and Doug Favell never stood a chance. Now it was coach Red Kelly who was having the issues, trying in vain to have square-peg Wilson fit into his mostly round-hole Toronto roster.

The skids were greased on the West Coast, with 8-0 and 6-1 losses at the Los Angeles Kings and California Golden Seals on back-to-back nights in January 1975 -- Favell was beaten for 12 of the 14 goals, Wilson the other two -- and a raucous team party between the shellackings.

Wilson missed a curfew and was suspended upon the Maple Leafs’ return home. Ultimately, Rangers GM Emile Francis claimed him for the $30,000 waiver price. A former goalie himself, one of independent mind, Francis couldn’t resist.

“We will put up with irritations created by a player’s misconduct only until we can get rid of him,” he said, the ink not yet dry on the waiver sheet. “In the case of Dunc Wilson, I don’t want to know what problems -- if any -- he had somewhere else. All that concerns me is how he conducts himself as a New York Ranger.”

Dunc Wilson in action against Chicago Blackhawks forward Stan Mikita (left) and with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Wilson went 6-11-3 on Broadway, his most famous loss featuring his middle-finger salute to Garden fans.

An October 1976 trade to the Penguins followed; Wilson went 18-19-7 in 1976-77, as close as he came to a winning season, registering five shutouts with a 2.95 average and .906 percentage, each an NHL career best.

A cash deal took him back to Vancouver for 1978-79, his final season.

In retirement in Vancouver, Wilson thoroughly enjoyed his love of fishing and worked as a longshoreman, then relocated to Rossland, British Columbia to operate heavy equipment between golf games. He also tended bar at the historic Rex Hotel in nearby Trail.

“I really enjoyed Dunc in a lot of ways,” Davidson said. “We became pretty good friends. I saw him in Vancouver after he retired and he never changed. He was just Dunc.

“He was a beauty. He was a talented goaltender, but he wanted to be a renegade, an opposite. And he absolutely loved it.”

Top photo: Dunc Wilson handles the puck behind the Toronto Maple Leafs net, watched by defenseman Borje Salming and Los Angeles Kings forward Bob Murdoch during a 7-5 Toronto loss at Maple Leaf Gardens on Jan. 11, 1975.