Hall of Fame defenseman for Maple Leafs
BORJE SALMING | April 17, 1951 - Nov. 24, 2022
TORONTO — Hall of Fame defenseman Borje Salming, who starred for the Toronto Maple Leafs over 16 NHL seasons and was a trailblazer for Europeans who later made their mark in the world’s top pro hockey league, died at 71. He had Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The Maple Leafs confirmed Mr. Salming’s death in a statement Thursday.
Team president Brendan Shanahan said Mr. Salming opened the door for Europeans in the NHL.
“Borje was a pioneer of the game and an icon with an unbreakable spirit and unquestioned toughness,” Mr. Shanahan said. ”(Salming) defined himself through his play on the ice and through his contributions to the community.”
Toronto signed Mr. Salming as a free agent before the 1973-74 season.
The native of Kiruna, Sweden, played 1,099 regular-season games with the Leafs, establishing team records for assists (620) and goals (148), points (768) and playoff points (49) by a defenseman.
A two-time runner-up for the Norris Trophy, losing both times to Montreal Canadiens great Larry Robinson, Mr. Salming was named to the NHL’s first allstar team in 1976-77 and the second all-star team on five occasions.
He ended his time with the Leafs with a plus-minus rating of plus-155, a statistic made more remarkable as the Maple Leafs were a vastly underperforming team for much of the 1980s.
Mr. Salming’s 17th NHL season was with the Detroit Red Wings before he retired after the 1989-90 season.
“A superior all-around defenseman and the first Swedish star ever to play in the league, Borje Salming was as physically and mentally tough as he was skillfully gifted,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. “He blazed the trail that many of the greatest players in NHL history followed while shattering all of the stereotypes about European players that had been prevalent in a League populated almost entirely by North Americans before his arrival in 1973.”
In 1996, he became the first Swedish player inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
In August, Mr. Salming announced he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. He made a final appearance at center ice in Toronto earlier this month before a Leafs game against the Vancouver Canucks at Scotiabank Arena.