NAHL 1975-76 Scoring Leaders

Hockey history was made in 1975-76 and probably went unnoticed by pretty much everyone. In the lowly North American Hockey League, the WHA farm league that the movie ‘Slap Shot’ was inspired by, the first professional hockey player scored more than 200 points in a single season.

Joe Hardy – Beauce Jaros

Jocelyn ‘Joe’ Hardy was the head coach of the Beauce Jaros but also the league’s offensive fireplug.  Hardy totalled 208 points on 60 goals and 148 assists in just 72 games to beat Wayne Gretzky to the punch by six years. Joe’s next highest total over his professional career was just 93 points in 1976-77. Hardy played 63 games in the NHL with the California Golden Seals and 210 games in the World Hockey Association.

Richard Grenier – Beauce Jaros

Richard Grenier, also of the Beauce Jaros, finished second with 160 points on 77 goals and 83 assists. It was a career year for Grenier who was a fifth round pick of the New York Islanders at the 1972 NHL Amateur Draft. Richard appeared in ten NHL games, all with the Islanders in 1972-73. He also dressed for 34 WHA games with the Quebec Nordiques in 1976-77. He finished his pro hockey career following the 1989-90 season after several years in Europe.

Luc Simard – Cape Codders, Beauce Jaros

Luc Simard was twice a 60+ goal scorer (67 and 73) in the NAHL, a 68 goal scorer in the EHL and a 90 goal scorer in the QMJHL. He led the QMJHL in the junior league’s inaugural season with 174 points on 90 goals and 84 assists in just 56 games. Guy Lafleur did not have more points than Simard that year but did score an amazing 130 goals. Luc finished third in 1975-76 with 149 points in a season split between the Cape Codders and the Beauce Jaros. It was Luc’s final year of professional hockey.

Alain Caron – Beauce Jaros

Alain Caron, in the last of his seventeen years in pro hockey, finished fourth with 137 points. Caron was yet another member of the Beauce Jaros. Caron scored 78 goals and assisted on 59. It was his third time scoring more than 70 goals in a season. In 1961-62 with the Amherst Ramblers of the NSSHL, he scored 76 in just 47 games. In 1963-64 with the St. Louis Braves of the CPHL, Caron scored 77 goals in 71 games. Alain appeared in 60 NHL games with the Oakland Seals and Montreal Canadiens, along with 195 games in the WHA with the Quebec Nordiques and Michigan Stags.

Bob Collyard – Philadelphia Firebirds

Bob Collyard of the Philadelphia Firebirds finished fifth with 129 points, 79 behind Joe Hardy, on 45 goals and 84 assists. Collyard was in his second of three years with the NAHL Firebirds and played two more with the franchise after they joined the AHL. Bob was a seventh round pick of the St. Louis Blues in 1969 and played ten games with the NHL club in 1973-74, his only NHL action.

 

Beauce Jaros

The Beauce Jaros played just one full season in the North American Hockey League. In 1975-76, the Jaros set the NAHL on fire. In 1976-77, the team folded on December 22 after just 30 games. The team played their home games at the Palais des Sports in Saint-Georges, Quebec. The arena currently holds less than 2,500 spectators. Joe Hardy was the only head coach the franchise ever had. Hardy was also the team’s star player.

1975-76

In their only full season, Beauce finished first overall in the ten team league and first in the East Division with 54 wins and 110 points over the 74 game schedule. The Jaros led the league in goals scored with 462, 89 more than the second place Philadelphia Firebirds. Beauce met the Firebirds in the Lockhart Cup finals and lost to Philadelphia in six games.

The offensive explosion was shared by four players with 60 or more goals. All four had more than 130 points. Alain Caron led the way with 78 goals, followed by Richard Grenier with 77, Luc Simard with 65 and Jocelyn ‘Joe’ Hardy with 60. Hardy led the NAHL with 148 assists and 208 points. Both will forever remain as NAHL single season records. The 208 points made Joe Hardy the first professional player to reach 200 points in a season.

Another league leader on the Jaros was Gilles Bilodeau. ‘Bad News’ Bilodeau led the league with 451 penalty minutes.

1976-77

Beauce had won just six games and tied two in their first 30 games of the season when the franchise folded. Joe Hardy was again the player / head coach and was on pace for another great year with 43 points in 22 games. Hardy finished off his NAHL season with the Binghamton Dusters. He would play one more year with the Dusters in the American Hockey League before calling it quits.

The team was led offensively by Norm Dube. Dube had 52 points in 29 games for the Jaros. He also played with the Quebec Nordiques of the World Hockey Association that year. Over his pro career, Norm played 148 regular season games in the WHA, all with Quebec, and 57 regular season games in the National Hockey League, all with the Kansas City Scouts.

 

Gilles Bilodeau: NAHL Single Season PIM Record Holder

Perhaps, the North American Hockey League, as shown in the movie ‘Slap Shot’, is best represented by Gilles Bilodeau. Gilles ‘Bad News’ Bilodeau had little to do with hockey and a lot to do with fighting and other violence on the ice.

Gilles played one year of junior hockey in 1974-75 with the Sorel Eperviers (Black Hawks) of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The year before, Sorel provided the hockey world with offense like it had never been seen before.

The team in 1973-74, led by Pierre Larouche and his 251 points, had seven players total more than 100 points, two over 200. Three Eperviers scored more than 90 goals during the 72 game regular season. Sorel finished first overall in the 10 team QMJHL but fell in the playoff finals to the Quebec Remparts.

As is often the case in junior hockey, the offensive power moved on to the pro ranks and the 1974-75 Eperviers were left with a group better fit for the boxing ring. Bilodeau sat 377 minutes in the penalty box over 62 games. Although a high total, it was nothing compared to teammate Roger Seguin who accumulated 494 minutes while somehow playing the full 72 game schedule without suspension. The two finished 1-2 in the QMJHL for the PIM category that season.

There were, of course, no National Hockey League takers for Gilobeau at the NHL Amateur Draft. He did, however, fit a certain mold that the World Hockey Association was looking for and the Toronto Toros selected him in the ninth round of the 1975 WHA Amateur Draft, 121^st overall. Over his pro hockey career, Gilles played 143 WHA regular season games between 1975-76 and 1978-79 with the Toros, Birmingham Bulls and Quebec Nordiques.

It was in his first year of pro hockey, 1975-76, that Bilodeau made his presence known in the North American Hockey League. Gilles played 58 games with the Beauce Jaros while also playing 14 games for the WHA Toros. In those 58 games, he scored eight goals and assisted on 17 more for 25 points. But, it was his penalty total that gave him ‘fame’.

The Jaros were first overall and had the first player in pro hockey history to total more than 200 points in a season on the roster. Joe Hardy led the league with 208 points. Bilodeau was in the sin bin for 451 minutes, a 7.8 PIM per game pace. He finished first in the NAHL in that category, 140 minutes ahead of the next contender, Dave Hanson of the Johnstown Chiefs. In the playoffs, he added 46 more PIM, playing just five games while the Jaros cruised to the Lockhart Cup finals before losing to the Philadelphia Firebirds.

In his second pro season, Gilles sat 242 PIM in just 28 games for the Charlotte Checkers of the SHL. He played pro from 1975-76 to 1980-81 and had a two game stint with the Birmingham Bulls of the ACHL in 1983-84. Over 374 pro regular season games, Bilodeau sat 1,763 minutes in the box, a 4.7 PIM per game pace.

Bilodeau actually saw action in the NHL. After playing with the Quebec Nordiques in the final year of the World Hockey Association, 1978-79, he moved with the franchise to the NHL for 1979-80. Gilles played a total of nine games in the NHL with the Nordiques. Unfortunately, Gilles Bilodeau passed away in 2008.

Joe Hardy: First Pro 200 Point Season

Jocelyn ‘Joe’ Hardy was one of the greatest to play in the NAHL. Wayne Gretzky is widely known as the first NHL player to achieve the 200 point plateau in a single season. A little known bit of hockey trivia is that Joe Hardy was the first professional player to reach 200 points and beyond in one regular season.

With the Beauce Jaros in 1975-76, Handy scored 60 goals and assisted on 148 for an incredible 208 points in just 72 games. Of course, the 148 assists and 208 points will always remain as NAHL records. Making this even more incredible is the fact that Joe also acted as the team’s head coach for the 1975-76 season. He led the Jaros to a first overall finish in the ten team league. Beauce reached the Lockhart Cup finals before losing to the Philadelphia Firebirds in six games.

Hardy played parts of three seasons in the NAHL from 1974-75 to 1976-77, appearing with the Long Island Cougars, Beauce Jaros and Binghamton Dusters. His pro career lasted from 1966-67 to 1977-78 with stops in six different leagues, including the NHL and WHA.

As the NAHL and the WHA went hand in hand, it’s not surprising that Hardy played 210 games in the Rebel League between 1972-73 and 1974-75. He was a regular with the Cleveland Crusaders in 1972-73, the World Hockey Association’s inaugural season. The following season, he saw 77 games with the Chicago Cougars. He split the 1974-75 season between the Cougars, Indianapolis Racers and San Diego Mariners.

Joe had stints in the National Hockey League in 1969-70 and 1970-71, playing a total of 63 games. In 1969-70, he played 23 games for the Oakland Seals, with an additional four games in the Stanley Cup playoffs. He also appeared in 46 games with the Providence Reds that year. The following year, he played 40 games with the same NHL franchise, although they were now known as the California Golden Seals.

In his final professional hockey season, 1977-78, Hardy played for the Binghamton Dusters, a franchise that made the move to the AHL with the demise of the NAHL. He finished first in the league with 63 assists and seventh in the league with 87 points. Joe returned the following season as head coach of the Dusters for one season.

His coaching career was resurrected in 1987-88 in the QMJHL. He coached the Shawinigan Cataractes for four years and the Beauport Harfangs for one.

 

Season	Team	Lge	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1966-67	New Haven Blades	EHL	72	28	51	79	77
1969-70	Providence Reds	AHL	46	11	27	38	44
1969-70	Oakland Seals	NHL	23	5	4	9	20
1969-70	Seattle Totems	WHL	--	--	--	--	--
1970-71	California Golden Seals	NHL	40	4	10	14	31
1971-72	Nova Scotia Voyageurs	AHL	65	18	42	60	105
1972-73	Cleveland Crusaders	WHA	72	17	33	50	80
1973-74	Chicago Cougars	WHA	77	24	35	59	55
1974-75	Long Island Cougars	NAHL	4	1	2	3	2
1974-75	Chicago Cougars	WHA	17	1	6	7	8
1974-75	Indianapolis Racers	WHA	32	2	17	19	36
1974-75	San Diego Mariners	WHA	12	2	3	5	22
1975-76	Beauce Jaros	NAHL	72	60	148	208	98
1976-77	Beauce Jaros	NAHL	22	7	36	43	30
1976-77	Broome County Dusters	NAHL	28	22	28	50	19
1977-78	Binghamton Dusters	AHL	73	24	63	87	56
	NHL Totals		63	9	14	23	51
	WHA Totals		210	46	94	140	201