Skinner Poulin

A tobacco trading card (ACC designation of C56) showing Poulin in the original Canadiens uniform of 1910. George Vincent "Skinner" Poulin (September 17, 1887 – May 3, 1971 ) was a professional ice hockey player who played for the Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey Association and the Victoria Aristocrats in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. He was part of the original Montreal Canadiens team in the 1910 season and played in the team's first game on January 5, 1910.

Poulin won a Stanley Cup with the Canadiens in 1916.

During the tail-end of his playing career, while playing in Saskatoon, Poulin became engaged as a referee, and for the 1922–23 WCHL season he was appointed referee-in-chief for the league.

Playing style Poulin, standing at five feet and six inches, was a fairly small forward among his contemporaries, but he deployed a physically engaging style of play to compensate for his lack of height and weight. In the local Victoria newspapers, while playing for the Victoria Aristocrats in the PCHA, he was often referred to as the "pepper box", in reference to his aggressive and peppery playing style.

When the PCHA, prior to the 1914–15 season, lay forward a rule change that would prevent body-checking from within ten feet of the fence, Poulin voiced his displeasure and claimed that ice hockey was the only sport where a light man like himself could use his body to his advantage. Poulin claimed that hard checking and Victoria's "get the man" tactics had played a large part in the club winning two consecutive PCHA championships in 1913 and 1914.

Despite Poulin's fears of a less hard-hitting league in 1914–15 he continued to deploy a physically engaging style of hockey which led to him leading the PCHA in penalty minutes that season, something he had also done the season prior, earning him the "bad man" moniker of Pacific coast hockey for a second consecutive year.

Career statistics Regular Season Playoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 1904–05 Smiths Falls Mic-Macs OHA Jr data not available 1905–06 Smiths Falls Mic-Macs OHA data not available 1906–07 Smiths Falls Mic-Macs OHA 4 19 0 19 – 3 4 0 4 0 1907–08 Portage la Prairie Man-Pro 15 14 0 14 – – – – – – 1908–09 Winnipeg Maple Leafs Man-Pro 4 7 3 10 18 – – – – – Winnipeg Maple Leafs Man-Pro 4 5 1 6 0 – – – – – 1909–10 Galt Professionals OPHL 2 2 0 2 3 – – – – – Montreal Canadiens NHA 12 8 0 8 53 – – – – – 1910–11 Montreal Canadiens NHA 15 3 0 3 61 – – – – – 1911–12 Victoria Aristocrats PCHA 16 9 0 9 50 – – – – – 1912–13 Victoria Aristocrats PCHA 15 6 4 10 63 3 2 0 2 0 1913–14 Victoria Aristocrats PCHA 15 9 7 16 40 – – – – – 1914 Victoria Aristocrats Stanley Cup – – – – – 3 1 0 1 0 1914–15 Victoria Aristocrats PCHA 16 4 4 8 52 – – – – – 1915–16 Montreal Canadiens NHA 16 5 1 6 43 3 1 0 1 9 1916–17 Montreal Canadiens NHA 4 0 0 0 0 – – – – – Montreal Wanderers NHA 6 3 0 3 0 – – – – – 1917–18 Did not play 1918–19 Victoria Aristocrats PCHA 1 0 0 0 0 – – – – – 1919–20 Saskatoon Crescents N-SSHL 12 4 2 6 31 – – – – – 1920–21 Saskatoon Crescents N-SSHL 4 1 1 2 11 4 0 0 0 3 1921–22 Saskatoon Sheiks WCHL 2 0 1 1 0 – – – – – PCHA totals 63 28 15 43 205 3 2 0 2 0 NHA totals 53 19 1 20 157 3 1 0 1 9 WCHL totals 2 0 1 1 0 – – – – – Sources: