Tiny Thompson
Canadian ice hockey goaltender: first goaltender to stop the puck by catching it (1903-1981) · Canada · On the map · Athletes · Died at 77
Cecil Ralph "Tiny" Thompson was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. A goaltender, he played 12 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), first for the Boston Bruins and later for the Detroit Red Wings. A four-time Vezina Trophy winner, Thompson was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1959.
Tiny Thompson is read about 22 times a day, in 16 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 22 June 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.
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About this person
He was a member of one Stanley Cup-winning team, as a rookie in the 1928-29 season with the Boston Bruins. At the start of the 1938-39 season, after ten full seasons with Boston, he was traded to the Detroit Red Wings, where he completed the season, and played another full one before retiring. During his NHL career, he recorded 81 shutouts, the sixth-highest of any goaltender. After retiring from playing, he coached lower-league teams before becoming a noted professional scout. Thompson helped popularize the technique of the "glove save" which was catching the puck with his hands as a method of making a save. A competent puckhandler, he was the first goaltender in the NHL to record an assist in 1936 by passing the puck with his stick to a fellow player.
