Height: 5-9
Weight: 170
Shoot: R
Born: 4 Oct 1948, Kirkland Lake ON (d. 2020)
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | New England | |||||||||||
| 1973-74 | New England | |||||||||||
| 1974-75 | New England | |||||||||||
| 1975-76 | New England | |||||||||||
| 1976-77 | New England | |||||||||||
| 1977-78 | New England | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
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Kelley Not Surprised by Webster • by Dick Dew • The Hockey Spectator • December 15, 1972
The fact that Tommy Webster is one of the ranking scorers in the World Hockey Association is no surprise to the man who kept track of him for six long years. New England Whaler coach Jack Kelley first began watching the 24-year-old Webster when he was playing junior hockey in Canada. "1 scouted him quite a bit in junior because I thought he'd be a great college player," former Boston University coach Kelley recalls. Webster was drafted by the Bruins back in 1966 and played two seasons in Boston before he was lifted by a Punch Imlach maneuver best classified as a doublecross on a private deal with the Bruins. As a result, every time Webster scores a goal or picks up an assist, Kelley is particularly delighted and you can almost hear the gnashing of teeth from the front office of the Stanley Cup champions. Tommy has had to overcome some considerable obstacles to make the grade in the early stages of the WHA. For one thing, he underwent back surgery so serious and complex that doctors really doubted he would play again. He spent months convalescing and got his comback shot when he became one of the first major bonus players signed by the Whalers. Another "bad rap" on Tommy, according to Kelley, was that he operated on an icy one-way street as an offensive player, and didn't work on defense. "His pluses (goals for versus goals against while he's on the ice) are one of the best on our team," Kelley notes. "He's always backchecking." But perhaps the most surprising aspect of Webster's emergence as one of the WHA's top scoring threats is the timing. Tommy's first indication that he was really ready to roll came when he resumed playing after months of inactivity under doctor's orders. "I started my comeback late in the summer. I worked at a hockey school and with a junior club and the back really felt great. "It was funny," Tommy recalls, "but the first time I put on the skates I had been off for a year I knew I was going to be alright." "I was prepared to be patient with Tommy," Kelley says, "because I knew he was coming off a year of inactivity following the operation and I thought he'd have to work much longer toget his timing back. "I was concerned that he would have pyschological problems, You just don't go through what he did and come out flying. But Tommy is a wing who plays his position up and down the ice. He's always looked good to me since he first came up with the Bruins." "He's a goal scorer, the kind every team has got to have. He's not the type of guy who has got to be touching the puck all over the ice. He likes toget it just as he's hitting the blue Tine and he puts himself into scoring position. And when he's in position and the puck comes to him, he gets rid of it, Those are the trademarks of a scorer." The Whalers have been forced to shuffle their lines several times through the early months of play but the unit that includes Webster has invariably emerged as the top wave. For his part, Tommy wants to score more consistently rather than in bursts, That was how he scored 30 goals for a relatively unstable Detroit team in 1970-71 and he has his sights set on exceeding that impressive career peak with the Whalers this season. "I know I have to score goals for the Whalers. There are some nights when I play badly. "The mind is willing but the body just can't seem to get going. It will, though, because we have a good hockey club here. I'm sure the goals will come." |
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Excerpts from Zander Hollander's Guide to Pro Hockey, 1975-76 (by Reyn Davis)
"Hawkeye" missed 12 games, but once again asserted himself as the Whalers' most serious goal-scoring threat ... Fired eight game-winners to lead the club ... Among his 40 goals were seven scored on power plays ... Nineteen percent of his shots resulted in goals, indicating how adept he is around a net ... Career was in jeopardy for two seasons while delicate spinal fusion operations were performed ... Credits former Red Wing teammate Alex Delvecchio with teaching him the valuable trick of letting the puck do most of the work ... Has a brilliant slapshot ... Runs a summer-time charity golf tournament called the Hawkeye Open in Niagara Falls, Ont., for WHA-NHL players ... Member of Team Canada 1974 ... Sharp dresser |
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Excerpts from Zander Hollander's Guide to Pro Hockey, 1978-79 (by Reyn Davis)
Missed 60 regular season games and all of the playoffs while recovering from his second serious back operation ... The Whalers sorely missed the goals he would have scored ... They like to think he would have made the difference in finishing first instead of second ... Nickname is "Hawkeye" because of his uncanny ability to score goals ... Yet, he has terrible eyesight ... Teammates say he can smell a net the moment he crosses the center red line ... A WHA and Whaler original ... Has a penchant for scoring game-winning goals ... Uses a low slap shot with pin-point accuracy |
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