73-74 Flyers : MacLeish’s Magic Marker

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Philadelphia Flyers forward RICK MACLEISH (19) tips the point shot of the not-pictured ANDRE DUPONT past Boston Bruins goaltender GILLES GILBERT for a power play goal at 14:48 of the first period in Game Six of the 1974 Stanley Cup finals.
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RICK MACLEISH scored 381 goals (849 games), playoffs included, over the course of twelve seasons as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers in the National Hockey League.

The most significant, to be certain, came on May 19, 1974, as the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Boston Bruins 1-0 in Game Six of the Stanley Cup finals at the Spectrum on Broad Street and captured the first NHL championship in club history.

MacLeish, the second-line center behind BOBBY CLARKE throughout his career in Philadelphia, led all playoff scorers with both 13 goals and 22 points in 17 post-season contests for the Flyers in 1974.
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MacLeish celebrates as Hall of Fame defenseman BOBBY ORR (4) observes the puck in the net of the Boston Bruins during the 1974 Stanley Cup finals.
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Ironically enough, Rick MacLeish was originally a # 1 pick of the Boston Bruins having been selected from Peterborough Petes fourth overall at the 1970 NHL draft.

In February of his rookie 1970-71 season, MacLeish, who was playing for the Oklahoma City Blazers of the old Central Hockey League, was bundled together with spare part DANNY SCHOCK and sent to Philadelphia in exchange for goal-scoring forward MIKE WALTON, who had been acquired by the Flyers from the Toronto Maple Leafs earlier in that same day.

Schock, a former first round pick of the Boston Bruins (1968, # 12 overall), played 14 games (1 go 2 as, 0 pim) for the Flyers that spring and then never saw the NHL again.

“Shaky” Walton would contest 154 NHL games (56 go 55 as, 111 pts, 92 pim) with the Bruins before bolting to the rival World Hockey Association to start the 1973-74 campaign; the veteran forward accepted an offer from the Minnesota Fighting Saints worth a reported $ 450,000 over three years.

While the Boston Bruins marched to their third Stanley Cup finals appearance in four years, Walton led the WHA in scoring for the season with 117 points (57 goals) in Minnesota.

MacLeish, meanwhile, would skate in three NHL All-Star Games (1976, 1977, 1980) and play in four Stanley Cup finals for the Philadelphia Flyers.
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MacLeish skating in the late 1970s for the Philadelphia Flyers at the Specturm against the Detroit Red Wings — the NHL team for whom MacLeish finished his career. (Bettmann/CORBIS photo)
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Rick MacLeish was first traded away by the Philadelphia Flyers in the summer of 1981 in the blockbuster deal with the Hartford Whalers.

Philadelphia packaged MacLeish, minor league forward DON GILLEN, defenseman BLAKE WESLEY as well the Flyers’ 1st, 2nd and 3rd round draft picks in the 1982 NHL draft for the Whalers and received forward RAY ALLISON, defenseman FRED ARTHUR and Hartford’s 1st and 3rd round draft picks in the 1983 NHL draft in return.

For the Flyers, the 1983 first round draft pick turned out to be center RON SUTTER; the third round selection would yield veteran Czechoslovakia international defenseman MIROSLAV DVORAK of Motor Ceske Budejovice.