Danny Grant

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Daniel "Danny" Grant (born February 21, 1945 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada) is a retired Canadian ice hockey player, who played in the National Hockey League for parts of fourteen seasons.

After a fine junior career with the Peterborough Petes and a season and a half in the minor leagues with the Houston Apollos, Grant made the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens in 1968, playing 22 games and seeing limited action.

He was then acquired by the Minnesota North Stars, and in his 1969 rookie season with the club, he won the NHL's Calder Memorial Trophy as the league's most outstanding rookie player. He would become Minnesota's most consistent star, scoring nearly thirty goals a season for six seasons in all for the Green and Gold.

Despite this, Grant was traded in the fall of 1974 in a surprising deal for defensive forward Henry Boucha (whose attraction to the franchise may have been that he was a Minnesota native), and the trade backfired badly: Grant had his best season that season, scoring 50 goals for the Detroit Red Wings while on a line with superstar center Marcel Dionne, and becoming only the 12th player in NHL history to accomplish that feat. However, Grant was plagued by injuries from that point on, and only played partial seasons at best thereafter. He retired after the 1979 season to coach a Tier II junior team.

His nickname was "Tuna" because of his being from the Canadian maritimes province of New Brunswick.

In his career, Grant notched 263 goals and 535 points while playing for the Montreal Canadiens, Minnesota North Stars, Detroit Red Wings and the Los Angeles Kings, and played in three All-Star Games (1969, 1970, 1971).

In 1985, he was inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame.

Grant went on to coach the University of New Brunswick hockey team in 1995 and 1996, and the Halifax Mooseheads Quebec league junior team in 1998. Grant has been an assistant coach for the St. Thomas Tommies men's hockey team since the 2002-2003 season.

[edit] See also

• Captain (hockey)
• List of NHL seasons
• List of NHL players

[edit] External links

• Internet Hockey Database - Danny Grant's career statistics
• Grant's NHL Alumni page

Preceded by Marcel Dionne	Detroit Red Wings captains 1975-77 Terry Harper 1975-76 & Dennis Polonich 1976-77	Succeeded by Dan Maloney
Preceded by Derek Sanderson	Winner of the Calder Trophy 1969	Succeeded by Tony Esposito

1. Note: Harper, served as Red Wings captain for most of the 1975-76 season, while Grant was injured & out of the lineup.
2. Note: Polonich, served as Red Wings captain for part of the 1976-77 season, while Grant was injured & out of the lineup.