Ferdinand Charles Carl "Fernie" Flaman (January 25, 1927 – June 22, 2012) was a Canadian professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

who played for the

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The t ...

and

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. The Maple Leafs compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the A ...

in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

. He was known as a physical defensive defenceman and a consummate bodychecker. As a coach, Flaman was successful at the collegiate ranks as the head coach of

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

Career

After being signed by the Bruins in 1943 and playing three seasons for the minor-league Boston Olympics (during which time he was named to the

Eastern Hockey League The Eastern Hockey League was a minor professional United States ice hockey league. Eastern Amateur Hockey League (1933–1953) The league was founded in 1933 as the Eastern Amateur Hockey League (EAHL). The league was founded by Tommy Lockhart ...

's First All-Star Team in 1945 and 1946), Flaman made the big club for good in the 1947 season. He played five seasons for Boston before being traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, with whom he won a

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup () is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ic ...

the year he was dealt in

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

. He played three more seasons for Toronto before being dealt back to the Bruins in

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

(in which he led the league in penalty minutes with 150), for whom he played seven more seasons. Those were his peak years, as he was named Bruins' captain in 1955 (and served as such for the rest of his NHL career), was named to three NHL Second All-Star Teams (1955, 1957 and 1958), and played in five All-Star Games. In 1961, Flaman was named the player-coach-general manager of the AHL

Providence Reds The Providence Reds were a hockey team that played in the Canadian-American Hockey League (CAHL) between 1926 and 1936 and the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1936 to 1977, the last season of which they played as the Rhode Island Reds. The t ...

, retiring as an active player after the 1963–1964 season. He coached Providence for one more year after that, coaching teams in the

Western Hockey League The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior hocke ...

and the

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

thereafter. In 1970, Flaman was named the head coach of the

Huskies men's college team, and coached for nineteen seasons (the longest tenure in school history), amassing a 256–301–24 record. He was named United States college coach of the year in 1982, and led the Huskies to four Beanpot Tournament championships and a

Hockey East The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...

championship in 1988. He retired from Northeastern the next year. He carried out the remainder of his career serving as a scout for the Devils. Flaman finished his NHL career with 34 goals and 174 assists for 208 points in 910 games, and added 1370 penalty minutes. At the time of his retirement, he was third in NHL history in career penalty minutes. Flaman was inducted into the Rhode Island Hockey Hall of Fame in 1965, the Northeastern Hall of Fame in 1989, the

Hockey Hall of Fame The Hockey Hall of Fame () is a museum and hall of fame located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League (NHL) records, memorabilia and National Hockey Le ...

in 1990, the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Ted Knight Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019. He died in 2012. In 2023 he would be named one of the top 100 Bruins players of all time. Bruins Announce “Historic 100” Ahead of All-Centennial Team Reveal https://www.nhl.com/bruins/news/bruins-announce-historic-100-ahead-of-all-centennial-team-reveal

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Head coaching record

Source:

References

External links