Eddie Shack

Edward Steven Phillip Shack (February 11, 1937 - July 25, 2020), also known by the nicknames "the Entertainer" and "the Nose", was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played for six National Hockey League teams from 1959 to 1975.

Shack was born in Sudbury, Ontario, in 1937, the son of Ukrainian immigrants.

He left his job as a butcher to try out with the Guelph Biltmores hockey club, knowing he could return to the trade if hockey did not pan out as a career.

Shack played junior hockey for the Guelph Biltmores of the OHA for five seasons starting at the age of 15. He had his best season in 1956–57, when he led the league in assists and starred in the Memorial Cup playoffs.

The New York Rangers signed Shack and assigned him to their AHL Providence Reds farm team for half a season. He made the NHL in the 1958–59 season and played two years for the Blueshirts. In 1960, he was to be traded with Bill Gadsby to the Detroit Red Wings for Red Kelly and Billy McNeill, but the transaction was cancelled when Kelly decided to retire rather than accept the trade.

In November of the 1960–61 season, Shack was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he played seven seasons on the left wing as a colourful, third-line agitator who was popular with the fans despite a lack of scoring prowess. Canadian sports writer Stephen Cole likened Shack's playing to that of 'a big puppy let loose in a wide field'.

During the 1965–66 season Shack broke out, scoring 26 goals on a line with Ron Ellis and Bob Pulford. His popularity was such that a novelty song called Clear the Track, Here Comes Shack, written in his honour and performed by Douglas Rankine with The Secrets, reached #1 on the Canadian pop charts and charted for nearly three months.

Shack was a member of the Maple Leafs' last Stanley Cup-winning team in 1967, although his production fell significantly and he was traded in May 1967 to the Boston Bruins for Murray Oliver and cash. Playing on the right wing on a line with Derek Sanderson and Ed Westfall, Shack revived and scored 23 goals.

Afflicted by injuries, he spent the next four seasons moving among the Los Angeles Kings, the Buffalo Sabres, and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pittsburgh sold him back to Toronto for the 1973–74 season. He retired after the 1974–75 season.

After retirement, Shack was a popular advertising spokesman in Canada, most notably for The Pop Shoppe soft drink brand and a Schick razor promotion for which he shaved his mustache. He also promoted a small chain of doughnut stores. He appeared for a number of years at alumni all-star games. Shack also revealed he had been illiterate most of his life and subsequently became an advocate for literacy programs in his native Ontario.

• Played for Stanley Cup winning teams in 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1967. He scored the Cup-winning goal in 1963, claiming famously that he had scored the goal off his backside and was only trying to get out of the way.
• Played in the National Hockey League All-Star Game in 1962, 1963 and 1964
• One of nine players to score twenty or more goals in a season for five or more NHL teams. (Bill Guerin has scored 20 goals with the most teams, notching 20 goals for seven different NHL teams.The others are Ray Sheppard with six teams, and Ray Ferraro, Mike Gartner, Dean Prentice, Jaromir Jagr, Brendan Shanahan, and Pat Verbeek with five.)