Earl Balfour

Earl Frederick "Spider" Balfour (January 4, 1933 – April 27, 2018) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He played in the National Hockey League from 1952 to 1961 with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Black Hawks. Balfour was a defensive forward and penalty-killing expert. Balfour won the Stanley Cup with Chicago in 1961. He retired after 288 games, posting 30 goals, 22 assists, 52 points and just 78 penalty minutes.

Personal Balfour was born in Toronto on January 4, 1933 and had four siblings: Arthur, Gail, Brenda and David. With wife Marjorie, he was the father of nine, all names beginning with P: Pamela, Parker, Patrick, Patti, Paul, Peggy, Penny, Peter and Piper.

Playing career Balfour played his junior hockey for the Toronto Marlboros of the Ontario Hockey Association, his professional rights signed to the Toronto Maple Leafs. After a couple of games with the Marlboros in 1949-50, he played two full seasons of junior with the Marlboros.

Balfour played four games in the 1951-52 for the Maple Leafs and became a full-time professional in 1952, with the Pittsburgh Hornets, then a Maple Leafs affiliate. In 1955, he played the entire 1955-56 season with Toronto, recording 14 goals and five assists, his best season in the NHL. The following season, he was assigned to the Rochester Americans for the entire season. The following season, he was able to play one game for the Maple Leafs and 70 games with Rochester. In 1958, he was picked up in the intra-league draft in June, 1958 by the Chicago Black Hawks. He played the next three seasons with Chicago, including the Stanley Cup championship in 1961. He played the next two seasons back with Pittsburgh before retiring from professional hockey.

After a year off, Belfour returned to amateur hockey with the Galt Hornets of the OHA Senior league, playing three seasons with Galt. He then finished his playing career with the Marlboros senior team and the Orillia Terriers senior team before retiring for good in 1969.

Career statistics Regular season and playoffs Regular seasonPlayoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 1949–50 Toronto Marlboros OHA 2 0 0 0 2 — — — — — 1950–51 Toronto Marlboros OHA 53 10 16 26 53 13 6 4 10 16 1951–52 Toronto Marlboros OHA 51 10 29 39 75 6 3 3 6 8 1951–52 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 3 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 1952–53 Pittsburgh Hornets AHL 63 14 30 44 33 10 0 4 4 14 1953–54 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 17 0 1 1 6 — — — — — 1953–54 Pittsburgh Hornets AHL 51 16 22 38 29 4 1 1 2 0 1954–55 Pittsburgh Hornets AHL 63 17 31 48 42 10 2 9 11 9 1955–56 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 59 14 5 19 40 3 0 1 1 2 1956–57 Rochester Americans AHL 63 21 16 37 38 10 3 5 8 6 1957–58 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 1 0 0 0 0 — — — — — 1957–58 Rochester Americans AHL 70 27 31 58 58 — — — — — 1958–59 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 70 10 8 18 10 6 0 2 2 0 1959–60 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 70 3 5 8 16 4 0 0 0 0 1960–61 Chicago Black Hawks NHL 68 3 3 6 4 12 0 0 0 2 1961–62 Pittsburgh Hornets AHL 64 19 19 38 28 — — — — — 1962–63 Pittsburgh Hornets AHL 71 7 15 22 30 — — — — — 1964–65 Galt Hornets OHA Sr 34 19 23 42 18 4 4 6 10 6 1965–66 Galt Hornets OHA Sr 42 22 28 50 33 — — — — — 1966–67 Galt Hornets OHA Sr 39 21 15 36 32 — — — — — 1967–68 Toronto Marlboros OHA Sr 36 22 22 44 12 — — — — — 1968–69 Orillia Terriers OHA Sr 37 4 13 17 10 — — — — — AHL totals 445 121 164 285 258 34 6 19 25 29 NHL totals 288 30 22 52 78 26 0 3 3 4

Awards and achievements OHA-Sr. Second All-Star Team (1965, 1966, 1967) 1961 Stanley Cup championship (Chicago Black Hawks)