Bruins Legend Milt Schmidt Dies At 98

LOS ANGELES, Jan 5, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 05th Jan, 2017 ) - Boston Bruins hall of famer Milt Schmidt, who won his first Stanley Cup as a player in 1939 and fourth and final one as a general manager in 1972, died on Wednesday.

He was 98. The legendary Schmidt played centre on the Bruins' famed "Kraut Line" and won the Hart Trophy as the National Hockey League's MVP in 1951 and the Art Ross Trophy as the league scoring champion in 1940.

The four-time all star was one of the most skilled players of his generation but he was equally adept as a general manager, orchestrating one of the most lopsided trades in NHL history in 1967 when he brought Phil Esposito to Beantown.

The oldest living former NHL player, Schmidt was the key cog in the "Kraut Line" which featured Canadian boyhood chums Bobby Bauer and Woody Dumart. The trio shared German ancestry. "It would be a challenge to find anyone who took greater pride in being a Boston Bruin than Milt Schmidt did -- be it as a player, an executive or an ambassador over the 80-plus years he served the franchise, the City of Boston and the National Hockey League," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said.

"Milt's respect for the game was matched by his humility and was mirrored by the great respect with which his opponents, and generations of Bruins players, treated him through the years."