Marc Tardif
Born (1949-06-12) June 12, 1949
Granby, Quebec, Canada
Height 6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Position Left wing
Shot Left
Played for Montreal Canadiens
Los Angeles Sharks
Michigan Stags
Quebec Nordiques
National team  Canada
NHL Draft 2nd overall, 1969
Montreal Canadiens
Playing career 1969–1983

Joseph Gérard Marquis Tardif (born June 12, 1949) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger who played in both the National Hockey League (NHL) and the World Hockey Association (WHA), principally for the Quebec Nordiques, and is the all-time leading goal scorer in the WHA.

Playing career

Born in Granby, Quebec, Tardif played two seasons with the Montreal Junior Canadiens of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The Montreal Canadiens - in the final year the National Hockey League team had the privilege to do so - invoked its right to select two French Canadian players first and second overall to pick Tardif in the first round, second overall, of the 1969 NHL Amateur Draft. Tardif spent most of the 1969–70 NHL season with the American Hockey League (AHL) Montreal Voyageurs, one of the leading scorers on a team studded with future NHL stars, including Jude Drouin, Guy Charron, Guy Lapointe and Pete Mahovlich. He made the Canadiens for good the following season, playing credibly for the eventual Stanley Cup champions. In 1972, Tardif scored 31 goals.

WHA years

In 1973 Tardif signed with the Los Angeles Sharks of the World Hockey Association. He was the Sharks' leading scorer that season, and was named to play for Team Canada in the 1974 Summit Series the following fall. The Sharks, however, finished with the league's poorest record, and moved to Detroit as the Michigan Stags, where Tardif played brilliantly before a trade to the Quebec Nordiques, just weeks before the Stags folded.

In Quebec, Tardif became one of the league's preeminent stars. He finished the 1974–75 WHA season with 50 goals, and added a league-leading 10 goals in the playoffs en route to the AVCO Cup finals against the eventual champion Houston Aeros. The next season, he led the WHA in goals, assists and points by wide margins and became only the second professional player to score 70 goals in a single season, while the Nordiques rampaged to 50 wins. Tardif's playoffs were cut short after he incurred serious head injuries in an attack (on April 11, 1976) by Calgary Cowboys enforcer Rick Jodzio, leading to one of the first cases where a hockey player was charged in a court of law for assault.[1][2]

The next season Tardif was named the captain of the Nordiques, and recovered to post another 100-point campaign while leading the team to their only WHA championship, and followed that up in 1977–78 with a 154-point campaign - setting a professional hockey record eventually broken by Wayne Gretzky (who would score 164 points in the 1980-81 NHL season)- for which he received his second league MVP award.

Retirement

Tardif remained a star when the Nordiques joined the NHL after the WHA folded in 1979, serving as the team's first NHL captain. Tardif retired on October 3, 1983,[3] and the Nordiques retired his No. 8 jersey in tribute to their first great scoring star. He finished his career scoring 316 goals and 350 assists for 666 points in the WHA, and 194 goals and 207 assists for 401 points in the NHL. He owns car dealerships in Quebec City and Charlevoix.[4]

Awards and achievements

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1966–67Thetford Mines CanadiensQJHL4036448089111313262
1966–67Thetford Mines CanadiensMC—————1911142542
1967–68Montreal Junior CanadiensOHA-Jr.543234666211391218
1968–69Montreal Junior CanadiensOHA-Jr.513141721211419123160
1968–69Montreal Junior CanadiensMC—————7691516
1969–70Montreal VoyageursAHL4527315870836929
1969–70Montreal CanadiensNHL1832527—————
1970–71Montreal CanadiensNHL761930491332031420
1971–72Montreal CanadiensNHL753122538162359
1972–73Montreal CanadiensNHL76252550481466126
1973–74Los Angeles SharksWHA7530407047—————
1974–75Michigan StagsWHA23125179—————
1974–75Quebec NordiquesWHA53383472701510112110
1975–76Quebec NordiquesWHA8171771487921012
1976–77Quebec NordiquesWHA6249601096512410148
1977–78Quebec NordiquesWHA7865891545011691511
1978–79Quebec NordiquesWHA744155969846284
1979–80Quebec NordiquesNHL5833356830—————
1980–81Quebec NordiquesNHL632331543551342
1981–82Quebec NordiquesNHL7539317055131236
1982–83Quebec NordiquesNHL762131523440002
NHL totals 517 194 207 401 443 62 13 15 28 75
WHA totals 446 316 350 666 418 44 27 32 59 35

International

Year Team Event   GP G A Pts PIM
1974 Canada SS 5 0 2 2 10

References

  1. ↑ "5 Suspended in W.H.A. Brawl". The New York Times. 15 April 1976. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  2. ↑ "WEEK OF DISGRACE ON THE ICE". Vault. Sports Illustrated. 26 April 1976. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  3. ↑ "Quebec Nordiques veteran Marc Tardif, one of the first... - UPI Archives". UPI. October 3, 1983. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  4. ↑ MacDonald, Ian (10 December 2009). "Former Hab Tardif was WHA Pioneer". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 12 February 2019 – via PressReader.
  5. ↑ "WHA Hall of Fame Members". Archived from the original on 2019-01-15. Retrieved 2013-09-13.
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