Sure, it was a lopsided trade but was it a complete dud? Dan Maloney was no Marcel Dionne but he still had a decent NHL career and filled a different role than the member of the Hockey Hall of Fame (and one of the greatest snipers of all-time). Maloney was traded from the Los Angeles Kings with Terry Harper to the Detroit Red Wings in 1975 for Dionne and Bart Crashley. Both Dan and Harper would share the captaincy in Detroit before getting out of what was a terrible organization, at the time.
Maloney went to the Stanley Cup finals with the Chicago Blackhawks in his rookie season and would never get that close the championship again. His one pro hockey title came the following season, 1971-72, after Chicago sent him back to the minors for a year. Dan was an all-star that year in the CHL and helped the Dallas Black Hawks win it all.
Junior and Minor Pro
NHL Career
Hockey Card Collection
Coaching Career
Rookie Card
Career Stats
Dan Maloney – Junior and Minor Pro
Dan Maloney played two years of major junior hockey, 1968-69 and 1969-70, both with the London Knights. He would play alongside Darryl Sittler in London. The two would be reunited with the Toronto Maple Leafs later in Maloney’s NHL career.
In 1969-70, Dan put up great numbers with the Knights, scoring 31 goals and assisting on 35 for 66 points in 54 regular season games. He was second in the league with 232 penalty minutes, a distant 139 PIM behind the leader, Steve Durbano of the Toronto Marlboros. London finished sixth in the ten team league and lost in the semi-finals to the Marlboros.
After jumping right to the National Hockey League in 1970-71, Chicago put the brakes on Maloney’s career, sending him to the minors for 1971-72. It would turn out to be the only time he would play below the NHL level.
With the 1971-72 Bobby Kromm coached Dallas Black Hawks of the Central Hockey League, Maloney scored 25 goals and assisted on 45 for 70 points in 72 games. He also sat 161 minutes in the box, good for eighth in the CHL. The team finished first overall in the six team league and won the championship, beating the Marcel Pronovost coached Tulsa Oilers in the finals. Maloney was named a First Team All-Star.
Dan Maloney – NHL
The Chicago Blackhawks selected Dan Maloney in the first round of the 1970 NHL Amateur Draft, 14th overall. He went on to play 737 regular season games in the league between 1970-71 and 1981-82 with the Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings, Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs. Over that time, he scored 192 goals and assisted on 259 for 451 points while also accumulating 1,489 penalty minutes.
Dan Maloney Collection
In the Stanley Cup playoffs, Maloney appeared in 40 games, adding eleven points. As mentioned, the closest he came to a championship was that rookie 1970-71 season with Chicago. The Blackhawks lost in the finals to the Montreal Canadiens. Dan played in ten of the team’s 18 post season matches that year. As a rookie, he also finished sixth in the league with 174 PIM.
Over his career, Dan was a 20+ goal scorer on three occasions. In 1974-75 with the Kings and in 1975-76 with the Red Wings, he had identical offensive records of 27 goals, 39 assists and 66 points, all career highs. In that 1975-76 season with Detroit, he was ninth in the league with a career high 203 PIM and played in his only NHL All-Star Game.
Maloney recorded three hat tricks during his career, each with a different team. In 1972-73, he did it with Chicago. In 1976-77, he potted three in a game for the Red Wings and he last did the deed with the Maple Leafs in 1980-81.
Dan was involved with some fairly well known names when it came to trades, although none greater than Marcel Dionne. On February 26, 1973, he was sent from Chicago to the Kings for Ralph Backstrom. The trade to the Red Wings came on June 23, 1975 with Dan and Terry Harper going to Michigan for Dionne and Bart Crashley. Crashley played just four games with the Kings so the trade wasn’t entirely one sided. Last came a trade on March 13, 1978 from Detroit to Toronto for Errol Thompson.
Maloney wore the ‘C’ with Detroit for 66 games in 1977-78 before that trade sent him to the Maple Leafs.
Dan Maloney – Coaching
When his playing career ended in 1981-82, after appearing in just 44 games for the Maple Leafs that season, Dan Maloney stepped behind the Toronto bench for 1982-83. He served as an assistant coach under Mike Nykoluk that year and in 1983-84 before taking over as head coach.
Maloney served as head coach with the Maple Leafs for 1984-85 and 1985-86. In his second season, Toronto reached the Norris Division finals before falling to the St. Louis Blues in seven games. He moved on to the Winnipeg Jets the following year and was HC there until being replaced by Rick Bowness 52 games into the 1988-89 NHL season.
His one last kick at an NHL coaching job came in 1992-93 when he was the assistant coach of the New York Rangers. Maloney would take a head coaching job with EHC Lustenau in Austria for 1994-95.
Dan Maloney – Rookie Card
The Dan Maloney rookie card appears as number 264 in the 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee NHL hockey card set. He is shown on that card as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks. His final card is included in the 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee set as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs. However, Dan didn’t play that year, appearing in his final NHL game during the 1981-82 season.
O-Pee-Chee saw it fit to use the same photo of Maloney on both the 1976-77 and 1977-78 cards. He is shown with the Detroit Red Wings. Captain, and 1975 trade mate from the Kings, Terry Harper, makes a cameo in the background.
Dan Maloney – Career Stats
| Season | Team | Lge | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
| 1968-69 | London Knights | OHA | 53 | 12 | 28 | 40 | 62 |
| 1969-70 | London Knights | OHA | 54 | 31 | 35 | 66 | 232 |
| 1970-71 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 74 | 12 | 14 | 26 | 174 |
| 1971-72 | Dallas Black Hawks | CHL | 72 | 25 | 45 | 70 | 161 |
| 1972-73 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 57 | 13 | 17 | 30 | 63 |
| 1972-73 | Los Angeles Kings | NHL | 14 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 18 |
| 1973-74 | Los Angeles Kings | NHL | 65 | 15 | 17 | 32 | 113 |
| 1974-75 | Los Angeles Kings | NHL | 80 | 27 | 39 | 66 | 165 |
| 1975-76 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 77 | 27 | 39 | 66 | 203 |
| 1976-77 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 34 | 13 | 13 | 26 | 64 |
| 1977-78 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 66 | 16 | 29 | 45 | 151 |
| 1977-78 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 13 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 25 |
| 1978-79 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 77 | 17 | 36 | 53 | 157 |
| 1979-80 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 71 | 17 | 16 | 33 | 102 |
| 1980-81 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 65 | 20 | 21 | 41 | 183 |
| 1981-82 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 44 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 71 |
| NHL Totals | 737 | 192 | 259 | 451 | 1489 |