Murray Oliver

Murray Clifford Oliver (November 14, 1937 – November 23, 2014) was a Canadian ice hockey centre, coach, and scout.

Oliver grew up in Hamilton and played junior hockey with the Hamilton Tiger Cubs of the Ontario Hockey Association. After scoring 90 points in 52 games as a 20-year-old, he signed a professional contract and was assigned to the Edmonton Flyers, a Detroit Red Wings affiliate. As an NHL rookie during the 1959-60 season, he scored 20 goals. However, Detroit was loaded at the centre position, which made Oliver expendable. He was traded to the Boston Bruins part way through the next season.[1]

Oliver played for the Bruins until 1967. While in Boston, Oliver centered the B.O.W. line with wingers Johnny Bucyk & Tommy Williams, where he starred as a crafty stickhandler and patient playmaker. He put up a NHL career high 68 points in 1964, despite knee surgery the prior season. [2] He was traded in 1967 to the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he centered a line for three years with Bob Pulford and Ron Ellis.[3]

Oliver was traded on May 22 1970 (announced May 26) to the Minnesota North Stars in exchange for Terry O'Malley, the rights to Brian Conacher and cash. Previously, the Maple Leafs had attempted to trade Oliver to the St. Louis Blues for goaltender Jacques Plante, but an excess of centre position players for St. Louis prevented the deal. Similarly, the Chicago Black Hawks were involved in a possible trade, but Chicago's price of Oliver and Bob Pulford in exchange for Jim Pappin was too high for the Maple Leafs, prompting the trade to Minnesota. Oliver would play five seasons with the North Stars. He scored a NHL career high 27 goals in 1971-72. In 1975, after a bitter contract dispute with Stars management, he retired. In 18 seasons, he played 1127 regular season games and scored 274 goals with 454 assists for a total of 728 points. He was an NHL All-Star five times. After retiring he was hired by former teammate Lou Nanne as Minnesota's assistant coach. He worked with the club until the 1985–86 NHL season, with 37 games as head coach. He was as a scout with the Vancouver Canucks and later took over as the club's director of pro scouting. On November 23, 2014 he died of a heart attack at the age of 77.