Mark Howe

Mark Howe
Hockey Hall of Fame, 2011
Born	(1955-05-28) May 28, 1955 Detroit, MI, USA
Height	5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Weight	190 lb (86 kg; 13 st 8 lb)
Position	Defense
Shot	Left
Played for	WHA  Houston Aeros  New England Whalers NHL  Hartford Whalers  Philadelphia Flyers  Detroit Red Wings
National team	United States   Canada
NHL Draft	25th overall, 1974 Boston Bruins
Playing career	1973–1995

Olympic medal record
Competitor for  United States
Men's ice hockey
Silver	1972 Sapporo	Ice hockey

Mark Steven Howe (born May 28, 1955) is an American-Canadian former professional ice hockey defenseman who played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) and 6 seasons in the World Hockey Association (WHA). He is the son of Colleen and Gordie Howe, brother of Marty Howe and nephew of the late Vic Howe. Despite the enormous shadow cast by his father and splitting time between two leagues, Mark shone as one of the best two-way defensemen of the 1980s, being a three-time runner-up for the Norris Trophy and making the Stanley Cup finals three times. He is a member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame and part of the 2011 induction class of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.^[1] He is currently the Director of Pro Scouting for the Detroit Red Wings.^[2]

Amateur career

Howe played junior hockey for the Detroit Jr. Red Wings. As a 15 year old, he led his Red Wings to the US Junior Championship in 1971. In 1972, the United States earned a Silver Medal at the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo, Japan with 16-year-old Howe as one of the stars, the youngest hockey player to win an Olympic medal.^[3] Howe eventually ended his junior hockey career playing for the Toronto Marlboros of the OHL, winning a Memorial Cup MVP in the process.

Professional career

In 1973, he decided to play in the WHA alongside his brother, Marty and his father Gordie. Led by the Howes, the Houston Aeros won the 1974 and 1975 Avco Cups, awarded to the league champions of the WHA. Mark, playing left wing, was awarded the Lou Kaplan Trophy as Rookie of the Year and earned 2nd team All-Star status. Having dual citizenship, he represented his father's country in the 1974 Summit Series, where he was one of Team Canada's leading scorers.

By the 1976–77 season, Howe was a full-time defenseman. Before the 1977–78 season, the Howes moved their family act to Hartford, Connecticut to play for the New England Whalers.

When the NHL and WHA merged in 1979, one of the four WHA teams left standing were the Whalers. They changed their name to the Hartford Whalers and Mark Howe, his father and his brother continued one more season together, this time in the National Hockey League. The 1980–81 season proved to be one of Howe's best. Howe was a mid-season All-Star, and in the fall, he appeared for the US national team at the 1981 Canada Cup tournament.

Howe was involved in one of the more memorable injuries in NHL history. On December 27, 1980, he slid into the pointed metal center of the net and cut a five inch gash in his upper thigh. He was essentially impaled by the metal, and the injury, which nearly ended his career, prompted the NHL to change the design of its nets so that there would no longer be a center portion that jutted up toward the goal line. He lost 35 pounds and his stamina suffered after requiring liquid diet to avoid intestinal infections. Howe became damaged goods in the eyes of the Whalers management, so they moved Howe, in a 4 player deal that also involved draft picks, to Philadelphia.

As a member of the Philadelphia Flyers, his career took off. The backbone of one of the NHL's best defensive teams of the mid-1980s, he was a finalist for the Norris Trophy 3 times in 1982–83, 1985–86 and 1986–87 season. His Philadelphia team, backstopped by Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Pelle Lindbergh, finished the 1984–85 season with most points and earned a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals, only to lose to the Edmonton Oilers dynasty, which featured stars such as Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey and Mark Messier.

Howe had his best season during the 1985–86 season where he posted some of the best numbers ever by an NHL defenseman. He scored 24 goals, added 58 assists for 82 total points. He led the NHL with a remarkable +85. He also added 7 shorthanded goals while being the lifeline out of the Flyers defensive zone with his outstanding skating and passing ability. Unfortunately for Howe, Edmonton's Paul Coffey had perhaps one of the best seasons by a defenseman in NHL history, breaking Bobby Orr's single-season records for goals and tallying 138 points. Howe, for the second time, finished 2nd in Norris Trophy voting.

The 1986–87 season brought great success to both Howe and his Philadelphia Flyers teammates. The Flyers, for the 3rd consecutive season, led the Prince of Wales Conference in points. Led by Howe and defense partner Brad McCrimmon, rookie netminder Ron Hextall, and a line featuring Brian Propp, Rick Tocchet and Pelle Eklund, the injury-riddled Flyers took the vaunted Edmonton Oilers to 7 games in the NHL Finals before succumbing 3–1 in the finale.

Howe, having struggled with both knee and back injuries, became a part-time player virtually the rest of his career. The decline in his games played coincided with the Flyers decline in play overall. It was no mystery to anyone watching the Flyers on a regular basis from the years 1988–91 why the team struggled. When Howe was in the lineup, the Flyers looked like a playoff team. Without him, they looked disorganized in their own end.

After the 1991–92 season, the Flyers granted Howe free agency so he could win the, so far elusive, Stanley Cup. He signed with the Detroit Red Wings, the team with which his dad had starred. The signing was a popular one in Detroit, as Mark was "returning home" to help build the Wings into a consistent playoff contender. He became a steadying influence on Detroit's young corps of defensemen, mostly notably Nicklas Lidström. He would have one more appearance in the Stanley Cup finals, but his Red Wings were swept in 1995 by the New Jersey Devils.

Post-playing career

Upon his retirement as a player following the 1994–95 season Howe remained in the Detroit organization working in the hockey operations department first as a video coach and then as a pro scout, earning Stanley Cup rings when the Wings captured championships in 1997, 1998, 2002, and 2008. Upon his retirement, Howe was also the last active member of Canada's 1974 Summit Series team in the NHL. He currently serves the club as its Director of Pro Scouting being based just outside Philadelphia in Jackson, NJ, from which he primarily covers NHL and AHL teams located in the eastern United States.^[4][5] His older son, Travis, also works in the hockey development and coaching field as co-founder and head coach of the Selects Hockey player development program based in Bloomfield, Michigan.^[6]

Howe was elected to Philadelphia Flyers Hall of Fame in 2001 and the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003. In June 2011, it was announced that Howe had been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame to which he was inducted on November 14, 2011 in the players category.^[7] On March 6, 2012, the Philadelphia Flyers retired Mark Howe's #2 jersey in an on ice ceremony at the Wells Fargo Center prior to a game with the Detroit Red Wings. Howe's number became only the fifth number to be retired by the Flyers in the club's then 44-season history following those of Bernie Parent (1), Bobby Clarke (16), Bill Barber (7) and the late Barry Ashbee (4).^[8] He was also the first to be so honored by the club since Barber's jersey was retired on October 11, 1990. With the retirement of Mark Howe's number 2 by the Flyers, Mark and Gordie Howe became only the second father-and-son combinations (Brett and Bobby Hull being the other) to have their numbers retired by NHL franchises. Howe also has won over 26 international awards.

Awards and achievements

• OJHL First All-Star Team (1971)
• Olympic silver medal in ice hockey (1972)
• Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy (Memorial Cup Tournament MVP) (1973)
• WHA Second All-Star Team (1974)
• Lou Kaplan Trophy (Rookie of the Year – WHA) (1974)
• WHA First All-Star Team (1979)
• NHL First All-Star Team (1983, 1986, 1987)
• NHL Plus/Minus Award (1986)
• Selected to five NHL All-Star Games: 1981, 1983, 1986, 1988 and 1994
• In 2010, he was inducted into the World Hockey Association Hall of Fame as a member of “The Howe Family” (including Gordie, Mark, Marty, and Colleen Howe).

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1972–73	Toronto Marlboros	OHA		60	38	66	104	27		—	—	—	—	—
1972–73	Toronto Marlboros	M-Cup		—	—	—	—	—		3	4	4	8	6
1973–74	Houston Aeros	WHA		76	38	41	79	20		14	9	10	19	4
1974–75	Houston Aeros	WHA		74	36	40	76	30		13	10	12	22	0
1975–76	Houston Aeros	WHA		72	39	37	76	38		17	6	10	16	18
1976–77	Houston Aeros	WHA		57	23	52	75	46		11	4	10	14	2
1977–78	New England Whalers	WHA		70	30	61	91	32		14	8	7	15	18
1978–79	New England Whalers	WHA		77	42	65	107	32		6	4	2	6	6
1979–80	Hartford Whalers	NHL		74	24	56	80	20		3	1	2	3	2
1980–81	Hartford Whalers	NHL		63	19	46	65	54		—	—	—	—	—
1981–82	Hartford Whalers	NHL		76	8	45	53	18		—	—	—	—	—
1982–83	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		76	20	47	67	18		3	0	2	2	4
1983–84	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		71	19	34	53	44		3	0	0	0	2
1984–85	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		73	18	39	57	31		19	3	8	11	6
1985–86	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		77	24	58	82	36		5	0	4	4	0
1986–87	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		69	15	43	58	37		26	2	10	12	4
1987–88	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		75	19	43	62	62		7	3	6	9	4
1988–89	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		52	9	29	38	45		19	0	15	15	10
1989–90	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		40	7	21	28	24		—	—	—	—	—
1990–91	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		19	0	10	10	8		—	—	—	—	—
1991–92	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL		42	7	18	25	18		—	—	—	—	—
1992–93	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		60	3	31	34	22		7	1	3	4	2
1993–94	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		44	4	20	24	8		6	0	1	1	0
1994–95	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		18	1	5	6	10		3	0	0	0	0
NHL totals				929	197	545	742	455		101	10	51	61	34
WHA totals				426	208	296	504	198		75	41	51	92	48
OHA totals				60	38	66	104	27		—	—	—	—	—

International

Year	Team	Event		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1972	United States	OG		6	0	0	0	0
1974	Canada	Summit-74		7	2	4	6	4
1981	United States	CC		6	0	4	4	2
Senior int'l totals				13	2	8	10	6

See also

• List of members of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mark Howe.

• Career statistics and player information from NHL.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or Legends of Hockey, or The Internet Hockey Database
• Mark Howe's Detroit Red Wings Biography
• Mark Howe's profile at Flyersalumni.org.
• Bill Meltzer (January 29, 2007). "Flyers Heroes of the Past: Mark Howe (Part 1)". Philadelphia Flyers. Retrieved June 26, 2011. 
• Bill Meltzer (February 2, 2007). "Flyers Heroes of the Past: Mark Howe (Part 2)". Philadelphia Flyers. Retrieved June 26, 2011. 
• John McGourty (2003–04). "The 'other' great Howe". NHL.com. Retrieved June 26, 2011.  Check date values in: |date= (help)
• John McGourty (2003–04). "Howes make history". NHL.com. Retrieved June 26, 2011.  Check date values in: |date= (help)

Preceded by Pelle Lindbergh	Winner of the Bobby Clarke Trophy 1986	Succeeded by Ron Hextall
Preceded by Wayne Gretzky	Winner of the NHL Plus/Minus Award 1986	Succeeded by Wayne Gretzky

Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2011 Bill Bergey • Jimmy Dykes • Mark Howe • Biz Mackey • Moses Malone • Joe McCarthy • Al Meltzer • Ted Meredith • Wilbert Montgomery • Speedy Morris • Ed Sabol • Steve Sabol • Curt Simmons • Dawn Staley • Ora Washington • Penn Relays