One of hockey’s most prolific scorers has passed on. Famed NHL and WHA star Bobby Hull has passed away at 84, as per John Dietz of the Chicago-area Daily Herald:
Former #Blackhawks star Bobby Hull dies at 84. https://t.co/EsaBsF9n0d
— Daily Herald (@dailyherald) January 30, 2023
Hull posted 610 goals (18th all-time) and 560 assists across 1,063 regular-season NHL games from 1957-72 (with the Chicago Blackhawks) and a final NHL season in 1979-80 (with the Winnipeg Jets and Hartford Whalers) after time in the World Hockey Association with Winnipeg. He put up even better numbers in the WHA, where his signing with the Jets in 1972 was key to establishing that rival league’s credibility, and establishing better salaries for both NHL and WHA players. Hull finished with 303 goals and 355 assists in 411 regular-season WHA games from 1972-79, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983. His passing led to many tributes from the hockey world:
Until Bobby Orr, Bobby Hull was the biggest star of the 60s. A childhood friend idolized the Golden Jet. He approached him for an autograph without pen or paper. Hull pulled out a dollar bill and signed it for him. Off ice issues taint his legacy but an all time great on the ice. pic.twitter.com/eOqaTLSMte
— Chris Cuthbert (@CCpxpSN) January 30, 2023
Blackhawks great Bobby Hull has died. https://t.co/fw2DLOI8NS pic.twitter.com/pLtDw4iSXc
— Ed Curran (@EdCurran) January 30, 2023
RIP to the Golden Jet Bobby Hull. Hell of a player and was the face of the Blackhawks for many years!
— Ted Gruber (@tedgruber) January 30, 2023
The ‘Golden Jet’ Bobby Hull has died. He was a man of his word and when the WHA came through with the million dollars he asked for, figuring they’d go away, he left the Blackhawks and the NHL to sign with the Winnipeg Jets https://t.co/G3e9dEMArK
— Joe Pascucci (@Pascucci015) January 30, 2023
Bobby Hull’s skating, booming slap shot and goal scoring thrilled hockey fans worldwide. His signing with the #WHA Jets elevated player salaries. RIP #9!! pic.twitter.com/GlqJcdM4bo
— MB HHOF (@MBHHOF) January 30, 2023
Sad day. "Golden Jet" Bobby Hull pic.twitter.com/sGFjSs7WAU
— Hartford Whalers (@WhalersPlates) January 30, 2023
Hull was a legendary scorer, and the first to break the 50-goal mark in a season (which he did in 1966, finishing with a then NHL record 54 goals and 97 points). He led the NHL in goals seven times, and scored 50 goals or more in an NHL season five times, a mark only reached six times by others (Phil Esposito twice, Maurice Richard, Bernie Geoffrion, Johnny Bucyk, and Vic Hadfield once each) before Hull left the NHL for the WHA in 1972. While Geoffrion is usually the one credited with inventing the slap shot, Hull was another early figure to prominently use it. And his slap shot was always feared, as shown in this 2017 NHL tribute (part of a series on the league’s top players over its first century):
As Dietz noted in that Daily Herald piece, though, Hull’s passing also comes with discussion about his off-ice behavior and comments. That includes accusations of spousal abuse, a 1987 conviction for assaulting a police officer who tried to intervene between him and his wife, 1998 comments attributed to him in Russian newspaper The Moscow Times that Adolf Hitler “had some good ideas” and that the U.S. Black population was growing too quickly (Hull called the attribution of those remarks to him “false and defamatory“), his difficult relationship with his son (and fellow NHL star) Brett, and more. Recent honorings of Hull from both the Jets and Blackhawks have come with controversy. That should all be remembered in the discussion around him.
[The Daily Herald; top photo of Hull in 2008 from Jerry Lai/USA Today Sports]
