Gavin Kirk

Height: 5-10
Weight: 165
Shoot: L
Born: 6 Dec 1951, London England

Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)

year	team	gp	g	a	pts	pim		gp	g	a	pts	pim
1972-73	Ottawa	78	28	40	68	54		5	2	3	5	12
1973-74	Toronto	78	20	48	68	44		12	2	4	6	4
1974-75	Toronto	78	15	58	73	69		6	5	6	11	2
1975-76	Toronto	62	29	38	67	32
	Calgary	15	7	8	15	14		10	4	6	10	19
	Totals (2 teams)	77	36	46	82	46
1976-77	Birmingham	29	9	18	27	34
	Edmonton	52	8	28	36	16		5	1	0	1	4
	Totals (2 teams)	81	17	46	63	50
1978-79	Birmingham	30	1	5	6	16
	Totals:	422	117	243	360	279		38	14	19	33	41

Kirk — Rookie of the Year? • by Bob Mellor • The Hockey Spectator • February 23, 1973 Until the WHA came along, Gavin Kirk wasn't sure there was any future for him in pro hockey, or at least the kind of future he wanted. What the Toronto Maple Leafs were willing to offer him when they drafted him in the third round as an over-age junior graduate fell a long way short of his expectations. So after he thought it over through a training camp session that made him appear destined for a Central-pro farm club, Gavin Kirk went back to school. In the year he attended Loyola College the WHA and Ottawa nationals came along, and this time the offer was more acceptable. Since then the 5-11, 173-pound centerman has left little doubt that his future in hockey appears assured. In fact his coach, Billy Harris, feels that Kirk is worthy of Rookie of the Year honors in the WHA: "He's been the most pleasant surprise on the club." Kirk has delivered in a manner — not the club's leading score by a long haul — but he has developed into one of the most versatile and dependable performers on the team. Kirk has been the sparkplug behind the success of Harris's most consistent trio, the Kid Line, which includes Jack Gibson on the left side and Steve King on the right. The unit is the only one on the club which Harris has found no reason to tinker with in a year fraught with problems, and he maintains that Kirk's dependable play at center ice is what makes it go. Kirk had twelve goals after 56 games but he'd been credited with assists on 25 more and few of them could have been labeled cheapies. He's tended to be overshadowed somewhat by his more spectacular wingmate, Jack Gibson of the booming shot, for whom he's helped set up 18 more goals. But that hasn't been where Kirk's contribution stopped. He and his rightwinger, third-year-pro Steve King, have been highly effective penalty killers. That was one job Harris really hadn't expected to assign to Kirk. While he is a hustler and a puckhound, the kind who could get 28 goals and 40 assists in a 30 game college season, [He] hadn't thought of him as a checker. "Somebody really did a job on him and teaching him how to check between the time I saw him play junior and he came up to our training camp," said Harris. When he discovered that unexpected bonus, Harris wasted little time making use of it. Kirk says Frank Bonello, his old junior coach with the Marlies, had worked on his checking and helped him a lot. But he adds that the veterans on this club, particularly Brian Conacher, have taught him a great deal after he joined the Nationals. "I had a lot to learn," he said. Obviously he's learned enough to draw quite a recommendation from a coach who doesn't hand out plaudits lightly. Not quite through his first pro season, Gavin Kirk should now have some idea about how he'll be spending the next few winters.

Excerpts from Pro Hockey, WHA 1975-76 (by Dan Proudfoot) In the first place, Toronto Toros were the Ottawa Nationals, and Buck Houle assembled a team of outstanding, if lesser known, youngsters who proved Houle's ability as a talent scout by making the WHA playoffs. Kirk has made Houle look especially good. Gavin Kirk, a former Toronto Marlboro junior whom the NHL Leafs had shunned, was one of eight original Ottawa Nats still with the team three years later in Toronto. And his reputation was growing in both the NHL and WHA as a center who never stopped working, a superb playmaker and a diligent checker. Kirk, who's only 24, was the Toros' leading scorer in the playoffs, contributing five goals and six assists in the six games the team played for an average of almost two points a night.

_______________________________________

Home • Book • Credits & Legal Stuff

(c) Scott Surgent