Bob Plager: St. Louis Blues Legend, and Now Author

Bob Plager was a National Hockey League defenseman that played the bulk of his career with the St. Louis Blues. His jersey number is honoured by the team and he has remained with the organization in some capacity since retiring. Plager has come out with a new book titled Tales from the St. Louis Blues Locker Room: A Collection of the Greatest Blues Stories Ever Told.

Transparency alert: the links in this article to Plager’s book at Amazon are affiliate links – by clicking through the links and buying the book, a tiny commission is earned to keep VHCR alive – thanks in advance if you choose to buy the book by this route.

The Rookie Card

Although he saw his first NHL action in 1964-65 with the New York Rangers, it wasn’t until the 1968-69 O-Pee-Chee and Topps were produced that Plager found his face on cardboard. In both sets, the Bob Plager rookie card is number 112. The O-Pee-Chee hockey card is valued at $25 while the Topps card is less than half that at $12.

The Topps card shows Plager wearing a New York Rangers jersey. The O-Pee-Chee card shows him in a Blues jersey. The picture on the front of each card is exactly the same, except for the horrendous air-brushing job by O-Pee-Chee.

The 1968-69 O-Pee-Chee set consists of 216 hockey cards and a complete collection is valued at $2,500. the Topps set consists of 132 cards and has a complete collection value of $750.

The Playing Career

Plager played four years of junior hockey in the Ontario Hockey Association from 1959-60 to 1962-63. He played his OHA days in Guelph. The team was known as the Biltmores in the first year and the Royals in the following three. The following season, the Royals would move to Kitchener to become the present-day Kitchener Rangers.

Bob played in the NHL from 1964-65 to 1977-78 with the Rangers and Blues. He appeared in 644 regular season games, all but 29 with St. Louis. Plager was a member of the Blues in their inaugural season, 1967-68. However, he was not picked up in the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft. Instead, Plager was traded from the Rangers, along with Tim Ecclestone, Gary Sabourin and Gordon Kannegiesser for Rod Seiling.

Over his 644 regular season games, Bob scored just 20 goals and assisted on 126 for 146 points. In 74 playoffs games, mostly played in his first three years with the Blues, Plager scored two and assisted on 17 for 19 points. Of course, in the first three years of the franchise’s existence, the Blues reached the Stanley Cup finals.

Plager’s jersey number 5 is honoured by St. Louis but remains in circulation. His brother Barclay’s number 8 is officially retired by the club.

The Coach

As a head coach, Plager’s only success came in 1990-91 behind the bench of the IHL’s Peoria Rivermen. The Rivermen finished first in the six team West Division and first overall in the eleven team league. Over the 82 game schedule, Peoria won 58 games and totalled 121 points.

The Rivermen reached the Turner Cup final series and captured the championship with a four games to two victory over the Fort Wayne Komets. Plager was awarded the Commissioner’s Trophy as IHL Coach of the Year.

1990-91 was the only full year the Plager spent behind a bench. In 1992-93, he was interim head coach of the Blues for eleven games.