Tiny Thompson Cecil Ralph " Tiny " Thompson ( May 31 , 1903 – February 9 , 1981 ) was a Canadian professional 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 . 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 catching the puck as a method of making a save . A competent puckhandler , he was the first goaltender in the NHL to record an assist by passing the puck with his stick to a fellow player . Early life . Born in Sandon , British Columbia on May 31 , 1903 , Thompson grew up in Calgary , Alberta , where his brother , Paul — who also became a professional ice hockey player — was born in 1906 . As a child , he enjoyed playing baseball and ice hockey . Initially , Thompson was not a goaltender , though he agreed to play the position to get into games . As a teenager playing competitive ice hockey , he acquired the nickname " Tiny " as a joke , as he was the tallest player on team , standing 5 feet 10 inches , the nickname stuck with him for the rest of his career . Thompson began his junior career playing for the Calgary Monarchs in 1919 at the age of 16 . He competed for the Memorial Cup , playing in two games and surrendering 11 goals , a respectable amount in that era . After spending the 1920 – 21 season playing for Calgary Alberta Pacific , Thompson played three seasons in Bellevue , Alberta . In the 1924 – 25 season , he joined the Duluth Hornets , playing 40 games , recording a shutout in 11 of them . The following season , Thompson joined the Minneapolis Millers of the American Hockey Association ( AHA ) . In his three seasons with the Millers , he appeared in 118 games , recording 33 shutouts with a 1 . 37 goals against average ( average of goals surrendered in a span of sixty minutes ) . NHL career . Boston Bruins . Thompson began his National Hockey League ( NHL ) career with the Boston Bruins in the 1928 – 29 season after his contract was purchased by Boston manager Art Ross , who had never seen him play before , owing to his good reputation in Minnesota . In his first game he posted a shutout , becoming the only Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender to accomplish this feat . In his first season , he appeared in all 44 of the Bruins ' games , posting 12 shutouts and a 1 . 15 goals - against average , the second lowest goals - against average in NHL history through the 2008 season , after George Hainsworth ' s 0 . 98 the same season . Placing first in the American Division , the Bruins had a perfect record in the playoffs en route to their first Stanley Cup victory , defeating the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Rangers . Thompson recorded three shutouts in the five playoff games , and gave only three goals . That season marked the first time two brothers opposed each other in an NHL game , as Thompson ' s brother Paul played for the New York Rangers . The Stanley Cup finals were also the first playoff series where two brothers faced off against each other . The following season , Thompson again appeared in all of the Bruins ' 44 games , posting three shutouts and a 2 . 19 goals - against average . The league changed its rules on forward passing , which resulted in a sharp increase in goalscoring . Boston won all but six games , finishing with a 38 – 5 – 1 record , the best winning percentage for any team in a season . Surrendering only 98 goals , Thompson bested Chicago goaltender Charlie Gardiner to win the first of his four Vezina Trophies . The Vezina Trophy is awarded to the league ' s top goaltender , which was determined prior to the 1981 – 82 season by number of goals surrendered by goaltenders who had played a minimum number of games . In the playoffs , however , they suffered their first two - game losing streak , as they were swept 2 – 0 by the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup finals . Earlier in the playoffs , Thompson ' s winning streak of seven playoff games was snapped ; it remains , as of 2008 , the longest playoff winning streak to start a career . In the 1930 – 31 season , he played all 44 games again , and was named to the Second All - Star team . The following season , Boston lost the semifinals to the Montreal Canadiens ; during game two of the series Thompson became the first goaltender to be pulled for a sixth attacker at the end of a game to give his team a higher chance to score a goal . Even though Boston still lost , coach Art Ross ' maneuver was described as " amazing " the following day , and this technique , known as " open net " , caught on with the rest of the league . The Bruins missed the playoffs for the first time in Thompson ' s career in the 1931 – 32 season . He won only 13 games while appearing in 43 out of Boston ' s 48 games , which was the only time he missed games as a member of the Bruins . The next season , Boston made the playoffs once more , losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs . The final game of the playoff series was described as Thompson ' s most memorable . During that game , Toronto and Boston were tied after regulation time and over 100 minutes of overtime proceeded , with Thompson dueling Toronto ' s goaltender Lorne Chabot . After the end of the fifth overtime period , managers Conn Smythe of the Maple Leafs and Art Ross of the Bruins asked league president Frank Calder to suspend the game , but Calder refused . Early in the sixth overtime period , a pass from Boston defenseman Eddie Shore was intercepted , and Ken Doraty skated in on a breakaway , cleanly beating Thompson at 4 : 46 of the period . The losing goaltender in the second - longest NHL game , Thompson received a standing ovation from fans at the Maple Leaf Gardens . Thompson finished the playoff series with 1 . 23 goals - against average , despite a losing record . Thompson became the second goaltender to win his second Vezina Trophy in 1932 – 33 since its inception in the 1926 – 27 season , as he recorded 11 shutouts and a 1 . 76 goals - against average . After missing the playoffs in the 1933 – 34 season , they rebounded to first place in the American Division the following season , as Thompson was named to the Second All - Star team for the second time . In the 1935 – 36 NHL season , Thompson recorded 10 shutouts , but Boston managed to win only 22 out of their 48 games . During the season , he recorded an assist , a rarity for goaltenders . At the end of the season , he was named to the First All - Star team for the first time , and won the Vezina Trophy for the third time . In the 1937 – 38 , his final full season with the Bruins , he won 30 out of the 48 games , but Boston lost to the Maple Leafs once again in the playoffs . Thompson set a new record by winning his fourth Vezina Trophy , which was his last victory . He was also named to the First All - Star team for the second time . Detroit Red Wings . Thompson appeared in only five games for the Bruins in the 1938 – 39 season , as Boston decided to replace the aging goaltender with the substantially younger Frank Brimsek . Brimsek wold go on to lead the Bruins to a Stanley Cup victory that season , earning the nickname " Mister Zero " while picking up 10 regular season shutouts , the Vezina Trophy , First All - Star Team honours , and the Calder Memorial Trophy . To make space for Brimsek , Thompson was traded to the Detroit Red Wings for Normie Smith and $ 15 , 000 ; Thompson also received a $ 1 , 000 bonus from Boston . Boston manager Art Ross predicted that Thompson , now 35 , would play for the Red Wings for at least another five seasons ; however , Thompson remained with the team for only two seasons before retiring from playing . The Red Wings posted a losing record in both of these seasons , although they made the playoffs both times . Overall , Thompson appeared in 85 regular season games for Detroit , recording a 32 – 41 – 12 record , seven shutouts , and a 2 . 54 goals - against average , and in 11 playoff games , posting a 5 – 6 , with one shutout and a 2 . 41 goal - against average . Post - NHL career . After retiring from professional play , Thompson became the head coach of the Buffalo Bisons of the American Hockey League ( AHL ) in the 1940 – 41 season . He coached 56 games in two seasons . The Bisons missing the playoffs both times . He appeared in one game as goaltender in the 1940 – 41 season . During World War II , Thompson served in the Royal Canadian Air Force and doubled as the coach of the Calgary RCAF Mustangs of the Alberta Senior Hockey League . He led the Mustangs to the league championship series in the 1942 – 43 Alberta Senior playoffs against the Calgary Currie Army team when injuries to the Mustangs ' goaltenders brought him back onto the ice in March 1943 . With Thompson in goal , the Mustangs defeated Currie Army 8 – 4 to tie the best - of - five series at two wins apiece . He played the deciding game , but his team fell short of winning the Alberta title with a 3 – 1 loss to Currie Army . After the war , Thompson became chief Western Canada scout for the Chicago Black Hawks . He was one of few scouts who sought to discover a player ' s personality along with their playing ability , often conversing with players as part of efforts to learn about the players he was watching . Playing style . Thompson was a stand - up goaltender , rarely falling on both knees to stop a puck . He was one of the first NHL goaltenders to catch the puck with his hand to make a save , and helped popularize the technique . Using gloves that were smaller than those of other players , he was among the best puck - catchers of his era . He stood in the way of the puck with minimal padding , risking being struck when moving to catch it instead of simply deflecting it away from the net . His signature technique , very often featured in photographs of him , involved dropping to one knee with the paddle of his goalstick covering the five - hole , and extending his glove to cover the left side of the net . Although he caught the puck with his glove , he did so without gloves resembling the modern blocker and trapper glove combination . Thompson was described by Johnny Bower , a former goaltender who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame , as a good puckhandler , and one of the best of his time at forward passing . In the 1935 – 36 season , Thompson became the first goaltender to get an assist by intentionally passing the puck with his stick to a fellow player . Thompson was not the first goaltender to actually register an assist , but he was the first to make an intentional assist with his stick . In the 1917 – 18 season , Georges Vézina was credited with an assist after making a save with his leg pads , and the rebound went to a fellow forward . Legacy . Thompson ' s points percentage in a season of . 875 , recorded in the 1929 – 30 season , still remains a record . His 38 wins during that season was a Boston record that was eclipsed only in the 1982 – 83 season , by Pete Peeters ( who won 40 of 62 games played ) ; since then , no Bruins goaltender has had more than 37 wins in a season . Thompson is the all - time Bruins leader for games , wins , shutouts and goals - against average . Throughout his entire NHL career , Thompson accrued 81 shutouts , which is sixth all - time in NHL history , and was second to only George Hainsworth ( who had 94 ) when Thompson retired . He also posted seven shutouts in the playoffs . He is fifth all - time in goals - against average , allowing on average only 2 . 08 per a 60 - minute span . He led all goaltenders in regular season games played 10 times , and in regular season wins five times . In 1959 , Thompson was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame . He died in Calgary on February 9 , 1981 .