Episode Notes

Bill Cowley’s Career:

• NHL: 1934-47; 13 years, 11 quality by modern standards of PPG
• Totals:
• 195G (16th All Time at his retirement),
• 354A (1st All Time at his retirement, by 62, i.e. 21% more than 2nd - held the record from 1943-44 to 1950-51) for
• 549P (1st All Time at his retirement - held the record from 1946-47 to 1950-51) in
• 549 Games (t-25th All Time at his retirement);
• 57.1 Point Shares (20th All Time at his retirement)
• At his retirement, Cowley was 12th All Time in Offensive Point Shares
• Per Game:
• At his retirement, Cowley was
• 1st All Time in APG (only qualifying player)
• 1st All Time in PPG (only four qualifying player)
• If the goals qualifier is lowered so he qualifies (150), and the assists (250) and points qualifiers (400) are lowered so other players qualify, at his retirement Cowley was
• T-17th All Time in GPG
• 1st All Time in APG (5 qualifying players, ahead of Blake by .13)
• 1st All Time in PPG (12 qualifying players)
• Era: Of the 40 skaters to play in at least 492 games (6 modern seasons) between 1934 and 1947, Cowley is
• 11th in Goals
• T-7th in GPG
• 1st in Assists (by 62)
• 1st in APG (by .13)
• 1st in Points
• 1st in PPG
• 10th in Offensive Point Shares
• 31st in Defensive Point Shares (20th Forward)
• 16th in Point Shares
• T-25th in Games Played
• 82-game average: 30G, 52A for 82P
• 3-year peak (1942-45): 50-game average of 32G, 48A for 80P
• Playoffs:
• 12G (t-31st All Time at his retirement),
• 34A (2nd All Time at his retirement - Blake) for
• 46P (3rd All Time at his retirement - Blake, Maurice Richard) in
• 64 playoff Games (11th At his retirement)
• Per Game: At his retirement Cowley was
• 3rd All time in playoff APG (nearly 50% of the leader) - Lach, Blake
• Cowley doesn’t qualify for the playoff GPG and PPG leaderboards, if we lower the qualifiers for goals (10) and points (30) and if we lower the qualifiers so that others qualify for GPG (20), at his retirement Cowley was
• T-46th All Time (3rd last among qualifying players) in playoff GPG
• Still 3rd All Time in playoff APG
• T-8th All time in playoff PPG
• Era: Of the 44 skaters to play in at least 41 playoff games between 1934 and 1947, Cowley is
• T-16th in playoff Goals
• T-22nd in playoff GPG
• 2nd in playoff Assists
• 2nd in playoff APG (behind by .11)
• 2nd in playoff Points (behind by 16)
• T-5th in playoff PPG
• 6th in playoff Games
• Adjusted for Era:
• Hockey-Reference:
• 252G,
• 555A for
• 807P
• 82-game average: 38G, 83A for 121P
• Per Game: 
• 2nd All Time in Adjusted APG (Gretzky)
• 6th All Time in Adjusted PPG
• VsX:
• 365G
• 820A
• 982P
• Per Game:
• t-22nd All Time in VsX Adjusted GPG
• 3rd All Time in VsX Adjusted APG (Joe Primeau, Boucher)
• 4th All Time in VsX Adjusted PPG (Bryan Hextall, Charlie Conacher, Bill Cook)
• If the qualifier is set to 410 Games, Cowley is
• t-21st All Time in VsX Adjusted APG
• 2nd All Time in VsX Adjusted APG (Boucher)
• Still 4th All Time in VsX Adjusted PPG
• Trades:
• Never traded but acquired by Boston in the St. Louis dispersal draft

Bill Cowley’s Accomplishments:

• Hart (‘41, ‘43)
• Top 5 in Hart voting a further two times
• Art Ross* (‘41)
• Back Check MVP (‘41, ‘43)
• Back Check Best Player (‘41, ‘43, ‘44)
• All Star:
• 1st Team All Star four times
• 2nd Team All Star once
• Top Player:
• Top 5 Player (by Point Shares) once (‘41)
• Top 10 twice (‘43)
• Best Offensive Player (by OPS) once (‘41)
• Top 5  four times (‘39, ‘43, ‘44, ‘45)
• Top 10 eight times (‘37, ‘38, ‘40)
• Goals:
• Leaderboards:
• Top 5 in Goals once
• Top 10 four times
• GPG leaderboards:
• Top 5 in GPG once
• Top 10 three times
• Single-season totals:
• 30 goals once
• 25 goals three times (1 of only 13 skaters ever at his retirement)
• Assists:
• Leaderboards:
• Set the single-season Assists record (broke the previous record by 10) and held it for three seasons
• Led the league in Assists three times (t-3rd most all time - Gretzky, Orr)
• Top 5 six times
• Top 10 eight times
• APG leaderboards:
• Set the single-season APG record (broke the previous record by .14) in 1938-39, broke his own record in 1940-41, broke it again in 1943-44 and held that record until 1970
• Led the league in APG five times (4th most all time - Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr)
• Top 5 seven times
• Top 10 ten times (t-9th most all time)
• Single-season totals:
• 40 assists four times (most all time at his retirement)
• Points:
• Leaderboards:
• Led the league in Points once
• Top 5 six times
• Top 10 eight times
• PPG leaderboards:
• Led the league in PPG four times (t-7th most all time)
• Top 5 five times
• Top 10 seven times
• Single-season totals:
• 70 points twice (1 of only 5 players ever at his retirement - Richard, Lach, Max and Doug Bentley)
• 60 points four times (only player ever at his retirement)
• VsX Peak:
• Best 7 Seasons:
• Goals: 115th All Time
• Assists: 9th All Time
• Points: 19th All Time
• Best 10 Seasons:
• Goals: t-130th All Time
• Assists: 11th All Time
• Points: 28th All Time

Bill Cowley’s Great Teams:

• NHL:
• Best Player? (set the single playoff record in assists - broke the previous record by 57% - and set the single playoff record in points) on one Champion (‘39 Bruins)
• Best Player? (by points) on one Final Four (‘38 Bruins)
• Top 3 Forward (by points) on one Runner Up (‘43 Bruins) and one Final Four (‘45 Bruins)
• Top 6 Forward (by points) on one Final Four (‘42 Bruins)
• Top 9 Forward (by points) on one Runner Up (‘46 Bruins) and two Final Fours (‘40, ‘47 Bruins)
• Injured (missed 9 of 11 games) on one Champion (‘41 Bruins)
• Junior:
• Best Player (led tournament in scoring) on one Memorial Cup Runner Up (‘31 Millionaires)

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