The 1957-58 National Hockey League season featured the Montreal Canadiens dominating the league, winning third of five consecutive Stanley Cup championships. Dickie Moore led the way for scorers with 84 points, earning the Art Ross Trophy. If there was a Rocket Richard Trophy back then, and he wasn’t just a teammate of Moore’s, Dickie would have won that too, leading the NHL with 36 goals. Gordie Howe was awarded the Hart Trophy as league MVP.
What follows are the 1958-59 hockey cards of the points leaders of each of the six teams. As usual, we choose to show the hockey cards from the following year because it is those cards that celebrate the achievements of the previous year.
Dickie Moore is card number 8 in the 1958-59 Parkhurst set. As mentioned, Moore led the league offensively, winning his first of two consecutive Art Ross Trophies. 1957-58 was his fourth full season with the Canadiens. He played 719 regular season games over his career with the Habs, Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues.
The Canadiens swept the Detroit Red Wings in the opening round before beating Boston in six in the finals to capture the Stanley Cup.
Like Moore, Andy Bathgate was also in his fourth full season in the NHL. Bathgate finished third in the league with 78 points and led his Rangers to a second place finish. However, the Rangers were 19 points behind first place Montreal. New York then fell to the fourth place Boston Bruins in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Andy went on to play over 1,000 games in the NHL with the Rangers, Maple Leafs, Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins. The card shown here is the 1958-59 Topps number 21.
After 12 seasons in the NHL, they still had a problem with this guy’s name. Gordie Howe’s 1958-59 Topps card is considered and uncorrected error because his first name is misspelled Gordy. Howe finished a point behind Andy Bathgate in 1957-58, with 77 and led his Detroit Red Wings to a third place finish, one point ahead of fourth place Boston. As mentioned, the Red Wings were swept in the opening round by the mighty Canadiens.
Bronco Horvath led the Boston Bruins with 66 points in his first season with the club and his second full season in the NHL. The point total placed him fifth in the league. Horvath spent much of his pro career in the minors but did appear in over 400 NHL games with the New York Rangers, Boston, Chicago, Toronto and the Minnesota North Stars.
Boston took fourth place during the 1957-58 regular season, capturing the final playoff spot. They were a healthy 14 points ahead of fifth place Chicago. The Bruins went on to shock the second place Rangers in the opening round and did well to capture two wins against the Canadiens in the finals.
Before Bobby Hull, Chicago had Ed Litzenberger as an offensive leader. In 1957-58, Hull was in his rookie season with the Black Hawks and finished second on the club with 47 points. Litzenberger led the team with 62 points and finished sixth in the NHL. Ed was the Calder Trophy winner in 1954-55 as the league’s top rookie. He played over 600 games in his NHL career with the Canadiens, Black Hawks, Red Wings and Maple Leafs.
Chicago finished in fifth, two points ahead of last place Toronto. There offense was the lowest in the league with just 163 goals for. Litzenberger figured into 38% of the teams scoring. Big things were coming for the Black Hawks. They were just three years away from a Stanley Cup championship.
Dick Duff led the Toronto Maple Leafs with just 49 points. The team made a rare appearance in the basement, winning just 21 of 70 games and had the highest goals against in the league. However, this was another team on the rise and would win the Stanley Cup in 1961-62, the year after Chicago.
Duff played over 1,000 regular season games in the NHL from 1955-56 to 1971-72 with the Maple Leafs, Rangers, Canadiens, Los Angeles Kings and Buffalo Sabres.