Punch Imlach Dies After Heart Attack

George (Punch) Imlach, who guided the Toronto Maple Leafs in their last glory years in the National Hockey League and then built the expansion Buffalo Sabres into a contending team, died Tuesday.

Imlach, 69, was taken to Scarborough General hospital Sunday after suffering his third massive heart attack. A hospital spokesman confirmed Imlach had no pulse on arrival and was revived by emergency department personnel.

His wife of 44 years, Dorothy, and other family members were at Imlach’s side when he died.

Imlach, inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984, was manager-coach of the Leafs from 1958 to 1969 and directed the NHL team to four Stanley Cups, including its most recent championship in 1967.

After being fired by the Leafs in 1969, Imlach moved to Buffalo, where he was named general manager and coach of the Sabres when they entered the league in 1970. Two years later, he had a heart attack and quit coaching but remained as general manager until 1978.

He rejoined the Leafs as general manager from 1979 to 1981, when he had heart problems that necessitated a quadruple-bypass operation.

Sam Pollock, former general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, called Imlach “one of the great hockey men of the last 40 years.”

“He was one of the most astute hockey men that I knew in all my career,” Pollock said Tuesday. “Also, as a man and a coach he had the great ability to get the maximum amount out of the players that he had.

“In my book, he was one of the great coaches and managers in NHL history. It’s a big loss for hockey.”

He gained his nickname when, while playing in a senior game in Windsor, Canada, he skated into a stray elbow, was knocked out, and came up swinging--at his own trainer who had dashed onto the ice to help.

In Imlach’s 11 years with the Leafs, they made the playoffs 10 times, won more games than they lost in every season but one, and won the Stanley Cup in 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1967.

The Leafs finished third in the regular season in 1967 but won the Cup on the ageless legs of such players as Red Kelly, Tim Horton and Johnny Bower.

Imlach was a successful businessman outside hockey. In 1970, before joining the Sabres, he had held shares in the new Vancouver franchise and he sold them for about $250,000.