Edwards remembered for perseverance on long, winding road to NHL

Marv Edwards played only 61 games for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs and California Golden Seals, ranking him 400th in that category among the 866 who have tended goal in the NHL.

But Edwards, who died at age 88 on Saturday, should be remembered for his unwavering love of the game, a journeyman whose career was a remarkable road of tens of thousands of miles from the backwaters to the big leagues and back again.

Edwards' son, Mark, said his father died peacefully in his sleep in a long-term care facility in his hometown of St. Catharines, Ontario.

From 1950, with the major-junior St. Catharines Teepees, through 1974, with the NHL's Golden Seals, Edwards played a suitcase-battering 1,149 games for 22 teams in 11 leagues.

Add to that his gold-medal performance for Canada at the 1959 IIHF World Championship in Prague, earning shutouts in each of his two games for Belleville, the senior team chosen to represent Canada, from his Ontario senior league North Bay Trappers.

Goalie Marv Edwards (front row, third from right) won the 1954 Memorial Cup championship with the St. Catharines Teepees. Beside him is coach and GM Rudy Pilous, who coached the NHL's Chicago Black Hawks from 1957-63, winning the Stanley Cup in 1961. Macdonald Stewart/Hockey Hall of Fame

Twice in consecutive years for Ontario teams, Edwards won the Memorial Cup, emblematic of Canada's junior championship, in goal for Barrie in 1953 and St. Catharines in 1954.

Economy sized at 5-foot-8 and 155 pounds, Edwards had knocked around the minor pros for nearly 15 seasons before he made his NHL debut at the age of 33 years, 189 days, to this day the fifth-oldest goalie in history to play his first League game. Along the way he shared his generous wisdom, encouraging and coaching others.

"Dad was a mentor to every goalie and player he ever played with or coached," Mark Edwards said Tuesday. "He loved life and had a lot of patience when it came to teaching kids, and he taught his family of five children a lot, on many levels."

It was a battle of unrelated Edwards on Feb. 20, 1969 at Detroit's Olympia Stadium with Roy Edwards in goal for the Red Wings and Marv in net for the Penguins, up for his maiden game from Pittsburgh's American Hockey League affiliate in Amarillo, Texas, to sub for ailing Les Binkley.

The Red Wings would roll to a 3-0 victory on goals by Paul Popiel, Frank Mahovlich and Gordie Howe; Marv Edwards, who made 30 saves and was voted the game's second star, was immediately returned to Amarillo, his Penguins career done after one game.

Marv Edwards, in his first NHL game for the Pittsburgh Penguins, stops Detroit Red Wings star Gordie Howe. Getty Images

He would find himself closer to home four months later, plucked by the Maple Leafs in the NHL's intraleague draft. Edwards would play 25 games with Toronto in 1969-70, going 10-9-4 with a 3.26 goals-against average, .910 save percentage and one shutout, his first of two in the NHL, coming March 21, when he made 29 saves in a 2-0 win at the St. Louis Blues.

If he seldom was a focus during his quiet tour of NHL duty, Edwards was the center of attention in the Boston Globe on April 5, 1970, the Bruins steaming to a Stanley Cup championship that spring.

"Who was that masked man?" read the headline atop Ray Fitzgerald's column the next morning following a 3-1 victory against the visiting Maple Leafs in the regular season's final game.

The Bruins bombarded Edwards with a career-high 54 shots, needing two goals -- by Derek Sanderson and Ken Hodge -- late in the third period to defeat an opponent playing out the string to finish last in the East Division.

Boston had beaten Edwards for four first-period goals the night before in a 4-2 victory at Toronto and were hungry to fatten their scoring totals back home.

Marv Edwards in goal for the California Golden Seals in 1973 and in his 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee rookie card. Hockey Hall of Fame/O-Pee-Chee

"Edwards is not exactly a household name in the ice palaces across North America. He is not exactly Frankie Brimsek and Glenn Hall," Fitzgerald wrote. "But last night he was. Edwards was a whirling, five-armed wonder.

"The night before, he had played goal like a man in a leaky rowboat. … He should have been out in the lobby selling pizzas for all the good he was to the Leafs."

In Boston, Edwards was still checking for bruises postgame when he considered his night in a shooting gallery.

"I knew our club was not going to be flying," he said in grand understatement. "We really didn't have much incentive."

The goalie's brightest NHL moment surely had come that night.

The 1969-70 Toronto Maple Leafs. Bottom row, from left: GM Jim Gregory, Bob Pulford, assistant GM King Clancy, co-owner Stafford Smythe, co-owner Harold Ballard, captain Dave Keon, coach John McLellan. Second row: Marv Edwards, Johnny Bower, Murray Oliver, Ron Ellis, Norm Ullman, Paul Henderson, Rick Ley, Bruce Gamble. Third row: Chief Scout Bob Davidson, trainer Joe Sgro, Jim McKenny, Brit Selby, Floyd Smith, Norm Ullman, equipment manager Tommy Naylor, publicity director Howie Starkman. Top row: Jim Harrison, Brian Glennie, George Armstrong, Pat Quinn, Jim Dorey, Mike Pelyk, Terry Clancy. Macdonald Stewart/Hockey Hall of Fame

During one second-period stretch, Toronto leading 1-0 and on the penalty-kill, "the Bruins came at Edwards like infantrymen pouring out of the trenches," Fitzgerald wrote. "The Bruins had at least 10 point-blank shots and the goalie stopped them all."

Boston outshot its visitor 24-5 that period.

Edwards' reward was a demotion the following season to Phoenix of the Western League when the Maple Leafs paired goalies Jacques Plante and Bernie Parent, two future Hall of Famers.

It was from Phoenix that Edwards would be claimed by the Golden Seals on June 8, 1972 in the NHL Reverse Draft.

In his two seasons in California, from 1972-74, defense a nasty rumor many nights, Edwards played 35 games and was 5-24-3 with a 4.18 GAA, .880 save percentage and his second NHL shutout on Nov. 9, 1972, when he made 28 saves in a scoreless tie at the Buffalo Sabres.

But unprotected in the 1974 NHL expansion draft and unclaimed among the four goalies chosen by the Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals, he hung up his pads on a career that had spanned three decades.

Goalie Marv Edwards defends the St. Catharines Teepees net during the 1954 Memorial Cup Final against the Edmonton Oil Kings at Maple Leaf Gardens. The Teepees won the championship in a five-game final. Turofsky/Hockey Hall of Fame

Edwards soon was named coach of Salt Lake of the Central League, behind the bench for two seasons before he finally settled back in Niagara-on-the-Lake where his "tenacity, perseverance and dedication" is remembered today on the region's Sports Wall of Fame.

"Dad was our hero," Mark Edwards said. "He was a man who was never afraid of anyone or anything following his dream to make it to the NHL after 15 years of riding the buses in the minors. Dad left an impression on so many people. He had an incredible life and he was proud of us all."

In part, Edward's 2017 Wall of Fame plaque reads: "It is with great pride this Wall is finally able to recognize this tremendous athlete, gentleman and true son of Niagara. … Marv's remarkable talent and athletic legacy continues to be the bellwether to which all others attempt to measure up."

Top photo: Marv Edwards in goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs, defending against Pittsburgh Penguins forward Glen Sather with Toronto's Jim McKenney nearby during a 1969 game at Maple Leaf Gardens. Graphic Artists/Hockey Hall of Fame