Height: 5-10
Weight: 180
Shoot: L
Born: 28 Jan 1957, Toronto ON
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1975-76 | Toronto | |||||||||||
| 1976-77 | Birmingham | |||||||||||
| 1977-78 | Birmingham | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
• Winner, Lou Kaplan Trophy (Rookie of the Year), 1975-76.
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Excerpts from Zander Hollander Complete Hockey Handbook, 1976-77 (by Reyn Davis) This young man has an inside chance of becoming hockey's premier player in three years ... His possibilities are mind boggling ... At just 19, he is equaled by few players ... Blinding speed enhanced by tremendous acceleration ... Teems with hockey instinct ... Rated the best player born in 1957 in the western world by pro scouts ... Easy winner of the WHA's 1976 Rookie-of-the-Year award, outpolling New England's Gordie Roberts, Claude Larose of Cincinnati, Edmonton's Bob Russell and Pekka Rautakallio of Phoenix ... Only rookie among the league's top 50 scorers ... Nickname is "Napes" ... Shows leadership qualities ... known to make teams look like they are standing still because he is moving so fast ... Solid on his skates ... has a wide stance with a low center of gravity. |
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Excerpts from Pro Hockey, WHA 1976-77 (by Dan Proudfoot)
... As the Toros' most dynamic player whose charges at the net, sometimes around opponents with neat feints, sometimes over opponents, were the highlights of Toronto games. That, quite simply, is the truth. Napier ended up with 43 goals and 50 assists, the ninth best total in the league. He was named rookie-of-the-year and Toro-Bull management set about signing him to a new, long-term contract. "He'll give something to our new fans," manager-coach Gilles Leger says, referring to Napier's hockey talents. "He's kind of the cornerstone of our team." |
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Player of the Week Honoree, February 21-27, 1977 • WHA Press Release, Feb. 28, 1977
20-year old Right Wing Mark Napier of the Birmingham Bulls becomes the youngest player to be named WHA's Player of the Week. Napier scored five goals in four games to increase his total to 48, topping his output of last season when he was named the World Hockey Association Rookie of the Year. Five foot, ten inch Napier is the youngest team captain in major league sports and stands tenth in the league scoring derby with 76 points in 63 games. Toronto born Napier has two hattricks to his credit this season as well as a penalty shot goal and on Tuesday (February 22nd) he scored a game tying goal with only 20 seconds remaining after the Bulls had pulled Goaltender John Garrett, to send the game into a scoreless overtime and an eventual 4-4 tie. That goal kept the Bulls current undefeated streak on home ice at nine games and two nights later Napier scored a goal and assisted on two others as the Bulls extended that streak to ten games, with a 10-6 victory over Division leading Quebec. |
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