Marc Tardif

Marc Tardif
Born	June 12, 1949 Granby, QC, CAN
Height	6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight	195 lb (88 kg; 13 st 13 lb)
Position	Left Wing
Shot	Left
Played for	Montreal Canadiens (NHL) Los Angeles Sharks (WHA) Michigan Stags (WHA) Baltimore Blades (WHA) Quebec Nordiques (WHA/NHL)
National team	Canada
NHL Draft	2nd overall, 1969 Montreal Canadiens
Playing career	1969–1983

Joseph Gérard Marquis Tardif (born June 12, 1949) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey left winger who is the leading goal scorer in the history of the World Hockey Association, principally for the Quebec Nordiques.

Playing career

Born in Granby, Quebec, Tardif played two seasons with the Montreal Junior Canadiens of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The NHL Montreal Canadiens - in the final year the team had the privilege to do so - invoked its right to select two French Canadian players first and second overall to pick Tardif in the first round, second overall, of the 1969 NHL Amateur Draft. Tardif spent most of the 1969–70 NHL season with the minor league Montreal Voyageurs, one of the leading scorers on a team studded with future NHL stars - Jude Drouin, Guy Charron, Guy Lapointe and Pete Mahovlich among them. He made the Canadiens for good the following season, playing credibly for the eventual Stanley Cup champions. 1972 was his breakout season, as he scored 31 goals.

WHA years

In 1973 Tardif signed with the World Hockey Association, playing with the Los Angeles Sharks. He was the Sharks' leading scorer that season, and was named to play for Team Canada in the 1974 Summit Series the following fall. The Sharks, however, finished with the league's poorest record, and moved to Detroit, where Tardif played brilliantly before a trade to the Quebec Nordiques.

In Quebec, Tardif became one of the league's preeminent stars. He finished the 1975 season with 50 goals, and added a league-leading ten goals in the playoffs en route to the AVCO Cup finals against the eventual champion Houston Aeros. The next season he led the WHA in goals, assists and points by wide margins and becoming only the second professional player to score seventy goals in a single season, while the Nordiques rampaged to fifty wins. Tardif's playoff was cut short after an attack by Calgary Cowboys goon Rick Jodzio in which he incurred serious head injuries, leading to one of the first ever cases where a hockey player was charged in a court of law for assault.

The next season Tardif was named the captain of the team, and recovered to post another hundred-point campaign while leading the Nordiques to its only WHA championship, and followed that up in 1978 with a 154-point campaign (setting a professional hockey record eventually broken by Wayne Gretzky), for which he received his second league MVP award.

Retirement

He remained a star when the Nordiques joined the NHL after the WHA folded in 1979, acting as the team's first NHL captain. Tardif retired after the 1983 season, and the Nordiques retired his number #8 jersey in tribute to their first great scoring star. He finished his career scoring 316 goals and 350 assists for 666 points in the WHA, and 194 goals and 207 assists for 401 points in the NHL. He currently owns a car dealership in Quebec City.

Awards and achievements

• Stanley Cup champion — 1971, 1973 (with Montreal)
• Avco Cup champion — 1977 (with Quebec)
• 1st in WHA history in career goals, 2nd in points, 3rd in assists, and 20th in games played
• Won WHA scoring titles in 1976 and 1978
• Won the Gordie Howe Trophy as the WHA's most valuable player in 1976 and 1978
• Named to the WHA's First All-Star Team in 1976, 1977 and 1978
• Named to the WHA's Second All-Star Team in 1975
• Played in NHL All-Star Game in 1982
• Inaugural member of the World Hockey Association Hall of Fame (2010)^[1]

Career statistics

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1967–68	Montreal Junior Canadiens	OHA		54	32	34	66	62		—	—	—	—	—
1968–69	Montreal Junior Canadiens	OHA		51	31	41	72	121		—	—	—	—	—
1969–70	Montreal Voyageurs	AHL		45	27	31	58	70		8	3	6	9	29
1969–70	Montreal Canadiens	NHL		18	3	2	5	27		—	—	—	—	—
1970–71	Montreal Canadiens	NHL		76	19	30	49	133		20	3	1	4	20
1971–72	Montreal Canadiens	NHL		75	31	22	53	81		6	2	3	5	9
1972–73	Montreal Canadiens	NHL		76	25	25	50	48		14	6	6	12	6
1973–74	Los Angeles Sharks	WHA		75	30	40	70	47		—	—	—	—	—
1974–75	Michigan Stags/Baltimore Blades	WHA		23	12	5	17	9		—	—	—	—	—
1974–75	Quebec Nordiques	WHA		53	38	34	72	70		15	10	11	21	10
1975–76	Quebec Nordiques	WHA		81	71	77	148	79		2	1	0	1	2
1976–77	Quebec Nordiques	WHA		62	49	60	109	65		12	4	10	14	8
1977–78	Quebec Nordiques	WHA		78	65	89	154	50		11	6	9	15	11
1978–79	Quebec Nordiques	WHA		74	41	55	96	98		4	6	2	8	4
1979–80	Quebec Nordiques	NHL		58	33	35	68	30		—	—	—	—	—
1980–81	Quebec Nordiques	NHL		63	23	31	54	35		5	1	3	4	2
1981–82	Quebec Nordiques	NHL		75	39	31	70	55		13	1	2	3	6
1982–83	Quebec Nordiques	NHL		76	21	31	52	34		4	0	0	0	2
NHL totals				517	194	207	401	443		62	13	15	28	75
WHA totals				446	316	350	666	418		44	27	32	59	35

References

1. WHA Hall of Fame Members

External links

• Marc Tardif's career statistics at The Internet Hockey Database