Leo Dandurand
Rank #15
Plus 109
Minus 14
Value +95
NHL Managing Experience
Montreal Canadiens, 1921-1935
Canadian Division Titles, 1927-1929, 1930-1932
Playoff Appearances: 1923-1925, 1927-1935
Stanley Cup Finals: 1924-1925, 1930-1931
Stanley Cup Victories: 1924, 1930-1931
Leo Dandurand was elected to the Hockey-Hall-of-Fame in 1963 as a builder and rightfully so. Like Art Ross, he dedicated himself to hockey; serving in many capacities: referee, owner, general manager, and head coach. But Dandurand was not only a hockey maven his involvement in the Montreal sports scene was vast and deep. Dandurand’s influence and impact extended to horse-racing, boxing, wrestling, and football (he was a founder of the Montreal Alouettes franchise in the Canadian Football League).
For a time, Leo Dandurand was the greatest general manager in Montreal Canadiens history and one of the finest GMs during the salad days of the NHL.
According to my rating system Dandurand was the second best GM during the early years of the NHL’s existence (1917-1926) and during the 1920s. He was the fourth best GM during the 1930s (10 points behind Lester Patrick according to my calculations) and during the NHL’s expansion and contraction era (1926-1942).
Leo Dandurand was born in the United States but by the time he was a teenager he had moved to Montreal where he remained for the rest of his life. In time he became a prosperous businessman.
In 1921 Dandurand (along with two partners) was able to purchase the Montreal Canadiens franchise from the estate of the late George Kennedy. He was not a man who worked in the background. Dandurand made his presence felt early when he fired the popular Newsy Lalonde as head coach of the Canadiens and installed himself in Lalonde’s place.
Utilizing the skills of his trusty assistant Cecil Hart, Dandurand signed new talent in future hall-of-famers Howie Morenz, Aurele Joliat, and Sylvio Mantha and shrewdly mixed the youngsters with veteran holdovers: Georges Vezina and the Cleghorn brothers, Odie and Sprague (all hall-of-famers in their own right).
By 1923 the Canadians were playoff contenders and the following season Dandurand put it all together: ending the original Ottawa Senators’ dynastic run by beating them in the NHL playoffs; and then defending the NHL’s honor by beating PCHA champion Vancouver and then the WCHL champion Calgary Tigers for the 1924 Stanley Cup.
Dandurand led the Habs to a return engagement in the 1925 Stanley Cup finals but were humbled by Lester Patrick’s WCHL champion Victoria Cougars. (It was in this series that Lester Patrick introduced the concept of line-changes to keep his players fresh while Dandurand’s Canadiens flagged due to fatigue).
It was the apex of Dandurand’s coaching career but his stay on the summit would be brief the Habs collapsed and finished last in the NHL during the 1925/26 season. The death of stalwart goaltender Georges Vezina had left a chasm between the pipes. It took the collapse of the rival Western Hockey League in 1926 to provide the proper replacement for the departed legendary Vezina. George Hainsworth took Vezina’s place in goal and set goal-tending records which remain in the books today with his sterling presence guarding the net.
Dandurand wisely decided to yield the coaching reins to Cecil Hart while remaining as Canadiens GM.
Cecil Hart got the Canadiens to perform at levels that Dandurand himself never attained. What followed were six straight seasons of hockey excellence: four Canadian Division titles and two Stanley Cup wins in 1930 and 1931.
Dandurand became for a brief time the greatest general manager in NHL (according to my rating system).
It was in 1932 that things began to slip. Dandurand’s relationship with Cecil Hart became acrimonious. After Hart quit as head coach Dandurand replaced him with Newsy Lalonde but the team failed to respond; playing indifferently under Lalonde’s regime.
Dandurand repeated history by firing Lalonde and taking over the team himself but the team was growing old and creaky and Leo failed to replenish its roster. Attendance was flagging in the face of the Great Depression and the decline in the team’s fortunes. The franchise was losing money. In 1935 Dandurand sold his interests in the team and never looked back. He remained a prosperous businessman and continued to add to his economic interests while remaining a force in Montreal civic and athletic affairs.
His election to the hockey hall of fame was the icing on the cake of a glorious life.
He died in 1964.
(My next column will feature the late Punch Imlach.)
