Gary Alan Sargent (born February 18, 1954) is an American former 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 ...

defenseman 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 402 games 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 ...

with the

Los Angeles Kings The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles. The Kings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. ...

and

Minnesota North Stars The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the team's colors for ...

between 1975 and 1983. Internationally he played for the American national team at the

1976 Canada Cup The 1976 Canada Cup was an international ice hockey tournament held September 2 to 15, 1976, in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Quebec City in Canada as well as in Philadelphia, in the United States. It was the first of five Canada Cup ...

. A first-team all-star and league MVP at

Bemidji State University Bemidji State University (BSU) is a public university in Bemidji, Minnesota, United States. Founded as a preparatory institution for teachers in 1919, it provides higher education to north-central Minnesota. It is part of the Minnesota State Coll ...

, his professional hockey career was cut short by injuries.

Early life

A member of the

Ojibwa The Ojibwe (; syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and thro ...

( Chippewa) nation, he was born on a reservation. Sargent was also an up-and-coming high school

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

and

gridiron football Gridiron football ( ),"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica'' ...

player, receiving an offer to sign a professional contract with the

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

as well as several college football scholarship offers. However, Sargent decided to pursue a hockey career instead; his distant cousin Henry Boucha and later his first cousin T. J. Oshie also played in the NHL, while his younger brother Earl Sargent is a former NHL draft choice who played minor league hockey.

Pro career

Sargent was drafted by the

with the 48th pick in the 1974 NHL Entry Draft and joined the Kings in 1975 after excelling for the United States national hockey team in the 1973

Ice Hockey World Championship The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), first officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics. The IIHF was created in 1908 while the E ...

and 1974 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships tournament, where he was voted most valuable defenseman. He was named the Kings' outstanding newcomer after his rookie year. He was also a US team member at the inaugural

tournament and was voted the Kings defenseman of the year in 1976-77. In the 1977–78 season, Sargent tallied 54 points, and had a plus/minus of plus 18 on a team that was minus 2 for the season. However, the Kings failed to re-sign Sargent and he became a free agent. In the summer of 1978, Sargent signed with his native

as a restricted free agent when his contract with the Kings ended. Minnesota had to give up three players to Los Angeles ( Rick Hampton, Steve Jensen and Dave Gardner) as compensation, but Sargent quickly became one of his new team's most important defensemen in 1978–79, being on the ice for a league-record 53.1 percent of his team's goals that season. Sargent was selected for the 1980

NHL All-Star game The National Hockey League All-Star Game () is an exhibition ice hockey tournament that is traditionally held during the regular season of the National Hockey League (NHL), with many of the League's star players playing against each other. The ga ...

(in Los Angeles) but was unable to participate due to persistent back and knee problems which eventually forced him to retire prematurely in 1983 after missing most of the previous three seasons.

Post career

Sargent returned to the Los Angeles Kings after retiring as a player. He worked as a

talent scout In professional sports, scouts are experienced talent evaluators who travel extensively for the purposes of watching athletes play their chosen sports, and they determine whether their set of skills and talents represent what is needed by the s ...

for them in 1986–1988.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

*
Sargent's player profile at HockeyDraftCentral.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sargent, Gary 1954 births Living people American men's ice hockey defensemen Bemidji State Beavers men's ice hockey players Ice hockey players from Minnesota Indianapolis Racers draft picks Los Angeles Kings scouts Los Angeles Kings draft picks Los Angeles Kings players Minnesota North Stars players Native American sportspeople Sportspeople from Bemidji, Minnesota People from Red Lake, Minnesota Springfield Indians players 20th-century American sportsmen