Lou Angotti: First Captain Of The Philadelphia Flyers

Today, once you play in the Ontario Hockey League, you are no longer eligible to head south of the border and play NCAA hockey in the United States. Back in the 1950’s, it was a different story. Before Lou Angotti had a decent year in the NHL, he played for the St. Michael’s Majors before becoming a standout with Michigan Tech.

Angotti’s hockey career is an interesting route to follow. He achieved success at all levels, winning a national championship in the NCAA and narrowly missing the Stanley Cup on two occasions. He was also the man behind the bench for the 1983-84 Pittsburgh Penguins as they tanked and earned the right to the first overall pick at the 1984 NHL Entry Draft. That pick turned out to be Mario Lemieux.

 

Junior, College and Minor Pro Career

NHL Career

Hockey Card Collection

Coaching Career

Rookie Card

Career Stats

Lou Angotti – Junior/College/Minor Pro

Lou Angotti played in the OHA Junior A (now the OHL) for three years from 1955-56 to 1957-58, all with the St. Michael’s Majors. In his final season, he tied for the team lead in goal scoring with Dave Keon, each with 23. The Bob Goldham coached Majors finished third in what was then a seven team league.

Lou then played four years for Michigan Tech from 1958-59 to 1961-62. At the 1960 NCAA Frozen Four tournament, Michigan Tech lost in the final game to the University of Denver by a score of 5-3. Angotti was a First Team All-Star right winger and was named one of the three most outstanding players in the tournament.

After leading Division 1 in goal scoring in 1960-61, Angotti helped Michigan Tech to the Frozen Four again in 1962 at Utica, New York. This time, the team was victorious, toppling Clarkson 7-1 in the final game. Once again, Lou was a First Team All-Star and once again was the Most Outstanding Player. It was Tech’s first national championship. Red Berenson also competed, playing for the University of Michigan.

According to the back of his 1964-65 Topps rookie card, Lou graduated from Michigan Tech with a degree in finance.

He didn’t jump to the National Hockey League right away. Lou spent two years in the AHL with the Rochester Americans before making the jump to the NHL and the New York Rangers.

Lou Angotti – NHL

Between 1964-65 and 1973-74, Lou Angotti played 653 regular season games in the NHL with the Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues. Over that time, Lou scored 103 goals and assisted on 186 for 289 points. In the Stanley Cup playoffs, he added 16 points over 65 games. Nearly half those playoff games came with Chicago over just two seasons.

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Lou Angotti Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Flyers selected Angotti in the sixth round of the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft, 33rd overall. He became Philadelphia’s first ever team captain and led the team in their first year with 49 points.

However, it was with the Chicago Blackhawks where Lou came the closest to the big prize. In 1970-71, Chicago reached the Stanley Cup finals and lasted the full seven games before falling to the Montreal Canadiens. Two years later, it was again a showdown between the Blackhawks and Habs. This time, Montreal won in six games.

After starting out the 1974-75 season as head coach of the St. Louis Blues, Lou jumped to the World Hockey Association for one final run as a player. With the WHA’s Chicago Cougars, Angotti played just 26 games and contributed seven points. Pat Stapleton was the player/head coach of that Cougars team and a young Jacques Demers was his assistant.

Lou Angotti – Coach

51 games into the 1973-74 NHL season, Lou Angotti hung up his blades with the St. Louis Blues and jumped behind the bench to replace Jean-Guy Talbot as head coach. In his 25 games, St. Louis won just four. The Blues did not qualify for the post season. He started 1974-75 with St. Louis but was replaced early by Gary Young.

In 1979-80, Angotti would re-emerge as a head coach, this time in the AHL with the New Brunswick Hawks. He replaced Joe Crozier midseason and the team reached the Calder Cup finals before falling to the Hershey Bears. On that Hawks team were three future NHL head coaches, Bruce Boudreau, Darryl Sutter and Ron Wilson.

The following year, Lou took a step down and took over the head coaching job of the Austin Mavericks of the USHL midseason. The following year, he returned to the American Hockey League with the Erie Blades. That team won just 22 games out of 80 and did not reach the playoffs. On the roster were Mike Krushelnyski and Craig MacTavish.

1982-83 took him to the Baltimore Skipjacks in the AHL and Angotti’s squad finished the season one point shy of the .500 mark. However, it still wasn’t good enough to secure a post season position. That team was led by Mike Gillis, Rod Schutt and Stan Jonathan. Playing minimally for the team were Ian Turnbull and Marty McSorley.

His final kick at the can came in 1983-84 when Lou coached the dismal Pittsburgh Penguins. The team won just 16 of 82 games and finished last overall with 38 points. However, as mentioned, that earned Pittsburgh the right to the first overall pick at the 1984 NHL Entry Draft. Of course, they picked Mario Lemieux and the franchise’s fortunes were forever turned around.

Lou Angotti – Rookie Card

The Lou Angotti rookie card appears as number 66 in the 1964-65 Topps ‘Tallboys’ set. His was one of several working class semi-star rookie cards that included Pit Martin, Jim Pappin, Rod Seiling and Marcel Paille. Angotti is shown with the New York Rangers.

Interestingly, Angotti was the first team captain of the Philadelphia Flyers but only played with the club for the 1967-68 season. Since Topps did not include players from the six expansion teams in their 1967-68 NHL hockey card set, Angotti never appeared on cardboard as a member of the Flyers.

Lou Angotti Career Stats

Season	Team	Lge	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1955-56	Toronto St. Michael’s	OHA	48	6	6	12	29
1956-57	Toronto St. Michael’s	OHA	52	12	19	31	28
1957-58	Toronto St. Michael’s	OHA	52	23	19	42	72
1958-59	Michigan Tech	NCAA	5	10	9	19	0
1959-60	Michigan Tech	NCAA	30	18	21	39	30
1960-61	Michigan Tech	WCHA	28	25	17	42	52
1961-62	Michigan Tech	WCHA	31	28	23	51	50
1962-63	Rochester Americans	AHL	39	16	15	31	19
1963-64	Rochester Americans	AHL	60	15	30	45	28
1964-65	New York Rangers	NHL	70	9	8	17	20
1965-66	St. Louis Braves	CPHL	8	10	8	18	4
1965-66	New York Rangers	NHL	21	2	2	4	2
1965-66	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL	30	4	10	14	12
1966-67	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL	63	6	12	18	21
1967-68	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL	70	12	37	49	35
1968-69	Pittsburgh Penguins	NHL	71	17	20	37	36
1969-70	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL	70	12	26	38	25
1970-71	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL	65	9	16	25	19
1971-72	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL	65	5	10	15	23
1972-73	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL	77	15	22	37	26
1973-74	St. Louis Blues	NHL	51	12	23	35	9
1974-75	Chicago Cougars	WHA	26	2	5	7	9
	NHL Totals		653	103	186	289	228
	WHA Totals		26	2	5	7	9