A star center in junior hockey, Lemaire had aspirations to play for the Montreal Canadiens. But his coach took him aside one day in 1965 and told him he had no chance to make it to the National Hockey League. His checking wasn’t good enough.

Whoa! Wait just a minute. Didn’t Lemaire win eight Stanley Cup titles playing for the Canadiens? And didn’t he make the Hall of Fame?

The answer is yes. And what makes this story even more interesting is that Lemaire helped

Advertisement