Most of hockey cards refer to his tough style of defense that simply gets the job done. Many of his hockey cards refer to the fact that he was not a very good skater. If they said that outright about a player in today’s NHL, he’d sit in a corner and cry, calling the hockey card company a bully for picking on the deficits that he has no control over.
Terry Harper’s quality defense, despite his skating, helped many teams advance very far in the playoffs. A Memorial Cup finals, an EPHL championship, along with five Stanley Cup championships all say that Harper was indeed getting the job done.
Terry Harper – Junior and Minor Pro
Harper played his junior hockey in the SJHL (predecessor to the current WHL) with the Regina Pats from 1957-58 to 1959-60. He was team captain for the Pats over his final two seasons. Over his three years, Terry scored 24 and assisted on 50 for 74 points over 158 regular season games. In 34 playoff games, he added six goals and 12 assists. In contrast, over his 1,066 NHL regular season games, Harper scored just 35 goals.
Terry Harper Collection
In his first year with Regina, the Pats beat the Flin Flon Bombers for the SJHL title. They then beat the St. Boniface Canadiens for the Abbott Cup as the top junior team in Western Canada. In the Memorial Cup finals, the Pats bowed out to the Ottawa-Hull Canadiens. Leading Regina offensively was Bill Hicke and Red Berenson.
In 1958-59, Harper was named a First Team All-Star defenseman. In his final season of junior, Terry was a First Team All-Star again and tied for league MVP with Jerry Esche of the Saskatoon Quakers. The Pats fell to Flin Flon in the SJHL finals. That year, Terry was teamed with his brother Brian Harper.
Following junior hockey, Terry spent the better part of three years in the minors before making the jump to the NHL. Playing for the Hull-Ottawa Canadiens for the 1961-62 EPHL season, Harper helped the team finish first in the six team league. The Canadiens won the championship with a win over the Kingston Frontenacs in the finals. Hull-Ottawa had Cesare Maniago in net for 68 games with Ernie Wakely appearing in two games.
Harper would have two short returns to the minors over the rest of his career. In 1968-69, he played 28 games with the Cleveland Barons in the American Hockey League while a member of the Montreal Canadiens. In 1978-79, the Detroit Red Wings placed Terry with the Kansas City Red Wings of the Central Hockey League for 22 games.
Terry Harper – NHL
Between 1962-63 and 1980-81, Harper played 1,066 regular season games in the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens, Los Angeles Kings, Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues and Colorado Rockies. Over that time, he scored 35 goals and assisted on 221 for 256 points. Over 112 Stanley Cup playoffs, games, Terry added 17 points.
His first full season in the NHL was 1963-64. Harper, playing for the Habs, finished second in the league with 149 penalty minutes while playing the full 70 game schedule. He was just a minor penalty behind leader Vic Hadfield of the New York Rangers.
The following year brought the first of five Stanley Cup rings for Terry. He would help the 1964-65, 1965-66, 1967-68, 1968-69 and 1970-71 Montreal Canadiens win the championship.
In August, 1972, Terry was shipped to the Kings with four draft picks going to the Canadiens. Harper was captain for Los Angeles for the 1973-74 and 1974-75 seasons. However, in June, 1975, he was traded to the Red Wings, along with Dan Maloney for Bart Crashley and Marcel Dionne.
In 1979-80, Harper played just 11 games in the NHL with the Blues. The following season, at 40 years old, he appeared in just 15 games for the Rockies. Terry retired and spent the rest of the 1980-81 season as assistant coach in Colorado under head coach Bill MacMillan.
Terry Harper – Rookie Card
The Terry Harper rookie cards appear in the 1963-64 Parkhurst set. Both number 32 and 91 feature Harper and are both considered his rookie cards. The 1963-64 Parkhurst set, for some reason, featured two cards for each player. On the backs was minimal information on the player along with extensive details on how to mail away for some kind of hockey related trinket.
Terry Harper Career Stats
| Season | Team | Lge | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
| 1957-58 | Regina Pats | SJHL | 51 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 74 |
| 1958-59 | Regina Pats | SJHL | 48 | 1 | 19 | 20 | 79 |
| 1959-60 | Regina Pats | SJHL | 59 | 18 | 19 | 37 | 60 |
| 1960-61 | Montreal Royals | EPHL | 69 | 3 | 14 | 17 | 85 |
| 1961-62 | Hull-Ottawa Canadiens | EPHL | 65 | 2 | 18 | 20 | 101 |
| 1962-63 | Hull-Ottawa Canadiens | EPHL | 52 | 6 | 31 | 37 | 83 |
| 1962-63 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 14 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| 1962-63 | Quebec Aces | AHL | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1963-64 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 70 | 2 | 15 | 17 | 149 |
| 1964-65 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 62 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 93 |
| 1965-66 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 69 | 1 | 11 | 12 | 91 |
| 1966-67 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 56 | 0 | 16 | 16 | 99 |
| 1967-68 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 57 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 66 |
| 1968-69 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 21 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 37 |
| 1969-70 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 75 | 4 | 18 | 22 | 109 |
| 1970-71 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 78 | 1 | 21 | 22 | 116 |
| 1971-72 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 52 | 2 | 12 | 14 | 35 |
| 1972-73 | Los Angeles Kings | NHL | 77 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 74 |
| 1973-74 | Los Angeles Kings | NHL | 77 | 0 | 17 | 17 | 119 |
| 1974-75 | Los Angeles Kings | NHL | 80 | 5 | 21 | 26 | 120 |
| 1975-76 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 69 | 8 | 25 | 33 | 59 |
| 1976-77 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 52 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 28 |
| 1977-78 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 80 | 2 | 17 | 19 | 85 |
| 1978-79 | Kansas City Red Wings | CHL | 22 | 0 | 13 | 13 | 36 |
| 1978-79 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 51 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 58 |
| 1979-80 | St. Louis Blues | NHL | 11 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| 1980-81 | Colorado Rockies | NHL | 15 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| NHL Totals | 1066 | 35 | 221 | 256 | 1362 |