ESPOSITO, Phil(ip) Anthony

(b. 20 February 1942 in Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario, Canada), Hall of Fame hockey player particularly noted for his scoring abilities, and hockey entrepreneur who helped the National Hockey League (NHL) expand successfully into the southern United States.

A native Canadian who immigrated to the United States in 1962, Esposito was the older son of Patrick J. Esposito and Frances S. Dipietro. Hockey was the focus of Esposito's life (as it was also for his younger brother Tony) from a very early age. In fact, Esposito dropped out of high school to pursue a hockey career by playing in the minor leagues. By 1961 he had turned professional, playing for the Saint Catherine's Teepees (Ontario Hockey Association) in 1961–1962, earning 71 points in 49 games (32 goals, 39 assists). The same year he appeared in six games for the Sault Sainte Marie Thunderbirds of the Eastern Pro Hockey League (EPHL). Esposito then joined the St. Louis Braves (EPHL) for the 1962–1963 season, during which he skated in 71 games and earned a total of 90 points (36 goals, 54 assists).

In the 1963–1964 season Esposito appeared with the St. Louis Braves and then the Chicago Blackhawks (NHL), where he remained for three more seasons. During his stint with the Braves, Esposito was in 43 games and scored 26 goals with 54 assists, giving him 80 points. The same year, in 27 games with the Blackhawks, Esposito scored 3 goals and added 2 assists, for a total of 5 points. Over the next three years, Esposito's annual point total averaged approximately 55 in the regular season.

In 1967 Esposito was traded to the Boston Bruins in a deal that included Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield in exchange for Pit Martin, Jack Morris, and Giles Marotte. From the start Esposito was a phenomenal Bruin, and his productivity soared. In 1968–1969 he became the first NHL player to surpass 100 points in a single season, scoring 49 goals and 77 assists for a total of 126 points. He was to remain above 100 points per regular season throughout most of his career as a Boston Bruin (except for 84 points earned in his first year with the Bruins and 99 points in the 1969–1970 season). Evidence of Esposito's unprecedented contributions to the team and the game was his appearance on the NHL First All-Star team every year from 1969 through 1974 and on the NHL Second All-Star team in 1968 and 1975.

The single-season highlight of Esposito's professional career is the astonishing numbers he earned in the 1970–1971 season, which ended with 76 goals in 78 games and an additional 76 assists for a total of 152 points. Beginning with this year, Esposito led the NHL in points scored through the 1973–1974 season. These impressive scores resulted in Esposito earning the Art Ross Trophy (for the NHL scoring leader) five times—in 1969 and then again in each year from 1971 through 1974. Additionally, he earned the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1969 and in 1974. In the 1970–1971 season and again in the 1973–1974 season, Esposito received the Lester B. Pearson Award after being selected by the NHL players themselves as the league's MVP.

Esposito and the Boston team flourished during these years as the center led the line, including Fred Stanfield and Bobby Orr. Despite his excellent beginning as a Bruin (the team reached the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1967–1968 for the first time since postseason play in 1959), Esposito and his teammates keenly felt the absence of ultimate proof of their dominance of the game, a Stanley Cup championship. Finally, the 1969–1970 season, in which Esposito scored 99 points, was followed by 14 postseason games during which Esposito racked up 27 points in 14 games; he produced 13 goals and 14 assists, and the Bruins won the Stanley Cup. The team won the cup again after the 1970–1971 season. Esposito married his wife, Donna, on 7 August 1976. He had two daughters from a previous marriage.

As the line aged and injuries began to mount, Esposito's production continued at an extremely high level, but the Bruins sought change and traded Esposito to the New York Rangers, where he played until his retirement during the 1980–1981 season. From the beginning of his six seasons with the Rangers, Esposito also began to feel the effects of various injuries, but his numbers remained impressive through the 1979–1980 season, his last full NHL year.

After his playing career ended, Esposito assumed a variety of managerial roles in the Rangers' organization. He became the general manager of the team in 1986; during the 1986–1987 season he replaced Coach Ted Sator with Tom Webber, whom he also fired. Just before the Stanley Cup playoffs, Esposito assumed the job of coach, but the Rangers lost in the first round. The following season, after again assuming the job of coach and general manager, Esposito lost these positions because the Rangers did not even qualify for postseason play.

Subsequently, Esposito became instrumental in developing the Tampa Bay Lightning, working in executive capacities for the organization from 1990 through 1998. His brother Tony, also a former NHL star and a 1988 Hall of Famer, also worked as an executive in the NHL.

Measuring six feet, one inch, weighing 205 pounds, and shooting left, Esposito played in the NHL for eighteen seasons, from 1963 to 1981. His development as a center began with a reputation for hanging around the net, where he could pick up so-called easy goals and points. However, by the time he hit his stride with the Boston Bruins, his prowess as a goal and assists scorer clearly benefited not only his own record-breaking scoring but also the team's fortune. To this day the single-season point total of 152 remains a significant record. Esposito's final numbers as a professional hockey center are truly impressive: in a total of 1,282 games, Esposito scored 717 goals and 873 assists for a total of 1,590 points. His postseason career numbers include play in 130 games, 61 goals, and 76 assists totaling 137 points. In 1984 Esposito was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and a few years later, the Bruins retired the number seven in his honor. In 2001 he still remained among the top twenty in the NHL in the number of points scored, goals, and assists in his career.

Esposito is the author of The Brothers Esposito (1972); with Gerald Eskenazi, Hockey Is My Life (1972); with Tony Esposito, We Can Teach You How to Play Hockey (1972); and with Dick Dew, Phil Esposito's Winning Hockey for Beginners (1976). Michael McKinley, Etched in Ice: A Tribute to Hockey's Defining Moments (1998); Al Strachan, One Hundred Years of Hockey: Chronicle of a Century on Ice (1999); and Chris Goyens et al., Blades on Ice: A Century of Professional Hockey (2000), all have profiles of Esposito. For an inside look at the 1972 eight-game showdown between the Soviet national team and Canadians drawn from the NHL, in which the Esposito brothers played a role, see "Coming of Age: Who Will Ever Forget THE GOAL?" Maclean's (1 July 1999).

James J. Sullivan III