Punch Imlach George " Punch " Imlach ( March 15 , 1918 – December 1 , 1987 ) , was an NHL coach and general manager . He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame . Early career . Born in Toronto , Imlach played junior hockey in the OHA for the Toronto Young Rangers ( 1935 – 38 ) and senior hockey with the Toronto Goodyears ( 1938 – 40 ) and the Toronto Marlboros ( 1940 – 41 ) . He enlisted in the army during World War II , where he coached for the first time , with an army team in Cornwall , Ontario . He was invited to training camp by the Detroit Red Wings after being discharged , but felt he had put on too much weight and declined . Imlach played for the Quebec Aces of the QSHL from 1945 – 49 and spent 11 seasons with the team , becoming coach and then general manager , and then vice - president and part - owner of the franchise . After the 1956 – 57 season , Imlach moved to professional hockey , hired by the Boston Bruins as general manager of their Springfield Indians farm team . Before the season ended , Imlach had made himself head coach as well . After the season , team owner Eddie Shore took back control of the team , leaving Imlach without a job , although he was still under contract to the Bruins . Joining the Maple Leafs . In July 1958 , at the age of 40 , the Toronto Maple Leafs hired Imlach as one of the team ' s two assistant general managers , along with King Clancy . However , the Leafs did not have a general manager , and Imlach instead reported to a seven - member committee headed by Stafford Smythe which oversaw the team ' s business operations . In November , Imlach was named general manager , and a week later he fired coach Billy Reay . Reay had been offered the general manager job before Imlach was hired , but turned it down . Initially , Imlach said he was replacing Reay with Bert Olmstead as player - coach , but almost immediately , he changed his mind and made himself head coach . Imlach was known as a harsh taskmaster . He had a preference for older players , many of whom were his strongest supporters as they felt Imlach was giving them their last chance at winning the Stanley Cup . By contrast , many younger players , such as Frank Mahovlich , chafed at Imlach ' s autocratic coaching style . Imlach took over a team that had finished last the previous season and was mired in last place again at the time he took over for Reay . However , the team staged a strong run late in the season and finished a point ahead of the New York Rangers for fourth place , allowing them to squeeze into the playoffs . They defeated the favoured Boston Bruins in the first round before losing to the league - leading Montreal Canadiens in five games in the Stanley Cup Finals . Three years later , Imlach led the Leafs to their first Stanley Cup in 11 years . He won three more Cups in 1963 , 1964 and 1967 . In February 1964 , he traded Dick Duff , Bob Nevin and three young prospects – Rod Seiling , Arnie Brown and Bill Collins – to the Rangers for Andy Bathgate and Don McKenney . While Bathgate and McKenney played key roles in the Leafs ' Cup win that year , Imlach may have traded away the Leafs ' future in the process . Nevin played a major role in the Rangers ' resurgence in the late 1960s , while Duff won four more Cups with the Canadiens . The players acquired by the Leafs were both gone following the next season . In the 1965 intra - league draft , Imlach left Gerry Cheevers , a young goaltending prospect , unprotected . He was snapped up by the Boston Bruins and went on to have a Hall - of - Fame career there . Following expansion of the NHL from six teams to 12 for the 1967 – 68 season , the Leafs struggled and Imlach responded by pulling off another big trade . In February 1968 , he sent Mahovlich , 20 - year - old Garry Unger , Pete Stemkowski and the rights to Carl Brewer to the Detroit Red Wings for Paul Henderson , Norm Ullman and Floyd Smith . Two months later , he sent 28 - year - old Jim Pappin to the Chicago Black Hawks , where he would become one of that team ' s top scorers . In December 1968 , Imlach was asked by Stafford Smythe to give the coaching job to John McLellan , but Imlach refused and told Smythe to fire him or leave him alone . During the season , Mike Walton walked out on the team , saying he wouldn ' t play for Imlach again . He returned about a week later . On April 6 , 1969 , minutes after an early and embarrassing playoff elimination at the hands of the Boston Bruins , Imlach was fired by the Leafs . He still had a year remaining on his contract , which paid him about $ 35 , 000 a year . In the dressing room after the announcement was made , veteran Leafs Johnny Bower and Tim Horton both said they would leave with Imlach ( they both returned the following season , although neither would remain with the Leafs for long ) . Imlach ' s assistant , Clancy , had previously said that he would walk away if Imlach was fired , but he was persuaded to stay with the team . Jim Gregory was immediately announced as Imlach ' s replacement as general manager . Building the Sabres . After being fired by the Leafs , it was expected that Imlach would join the NHL ' s new Vancouver franchise . Imlach , Joe Crozier , and Foster Hewitt had become partners in the Vancouver Canucks of the Western Hockey League and were in line to become owners of the Vancouver NHL team . But they didn ' t have the financial resources to buy the team , which went to Medical Investment Corporation ( Medicor ) . Medicor bought the WHL Canucks for $ 2 . 8 million , with Imlach making a reported gain of more than $ 250 , 000 . He was offered a job with the NHL Canucks , but instead accepted an offer from the NHL ' s other expansion team , the Buffalo Sabres , as their first coach and general manager in 1970 . Imlach suffered a heart attack on January 7 , 1972 , and stepped down as Sabres coach in May after being told by doctors that fatigue would put his health at risk . Joe Crozier filled in as interim coach after Imlach ' s heart attack and was given the job outright for the 1972 – 1973 season . In the 1974 entry draft , Imlach — frustration with the excessive tedium and length of that year ' s draft proceedings — deliberately selected an imaginary Japanese center , Taro Tsujimoto , supposedly of the Tokyo Katanas , in the 11th round ( 183rd overall ) . Only after weeks had passed did the league discover that Tsujimoto did not in fact exist . Today , the league officially records the 183rd selection of the 1974 entry draft as an " invalid claim " . During the 1974 – 75 NHL season , the Sabres , coached by one of Imlach ' s former players , Floyd Smith , made the Stanley Cup finals in only their fifth year of existence . But the team went into decline after that season . With notable exceptions like Gilbert Perreault and Rick Martin , many Sabres players feuded with Imlach , particularly Jim Schoenfeld , Sabres ' captain from 1974 – 77 , whom Imlach criticized publicly . After being eliminated in the second round of the playoffs in 1978 , Imlach promised sweeping changes to the roster , but the changes never came . With the team off to an 8 – 10 – 6 record , Imlach was fired by the Sabres on December 4 , 1978 , along with coach Marcel Pronovost . Controversy in Toronto . In July 1979 , Imlach returned to the Leafs as the right - hand man of owner Harold Ballard , his longtime friend . It was a controversial return , one that involved the dismantling of a team that had faced the Montreal Canadiens in the 1978 playoffs and was viewed by many as having a promising future . On his first day with the team , Imlach told the media that the Leafs only had five or six good players and the rest of the team needed to be improved . Imlach implemented a dress code which required that all players wear a jacket and tie when in the Leafs ' offices . Tiger Williams was fined $ 250 for not wearing a tie , and the fine would have doubled for a second offence . Players were no longer allowed to drink beer on plane and bus rides back from road games . Imlach quickly butted heads with Leafs captain Darryl Sittler , using confrontational tactics to try to undermine his influence on the team . Imlach also disliked Sittler ' s prominent role in the NHL Players Association ; during Imlach ' s first stint with the Leafs , he was well known as an ardent foe of the union and its executive director , Alan Eagleson . In September , Imlach went to court in an unsuccessful attempt to get an injunction to stop Sittler and teammate Mike Palmateer from appearing on the TV show " Showdown " . Sittler had a no - trade clause in his contract and , through his agent , had insisted on $ 500 , 000 to waive it . With Sittler apparently untouchable , Imlach traded Sittler ' s best friend Lanny McDonald to the moribund Colorado Rockies on December 29 , 1979 . An anonymous player told the " Toronto Star " that Ballard and Imlach made the trade specifically to undermine Sittler ' s influence on the team . Eagleson , who was also Sittler ' s agent , called the trade " a classless act " . Imlach offered Sittler to the Sabres in return for Perreault , but was turned down . He rejected an offer from the Philadelphia Flyers who were said to be willing to trade Rick MacLeish and André Dupont for Sittler . In March 1980 , after Floyd Smith was injured in a car accident and acting coach Dick Duff led the team to two lopsided defeats , Imlach named himself as coach . Imlach was able to get the Leafs to squeak into the playoffs , albeit with a record five games under . 500 — the first of 13 straight seasons without a winning record . Imlach named assistant Joe Crozier as his successor after the season . It looked like the Leafs were ready to accept an offer for Sittler from the Quebec Nordiques when Imlach had another heart attack in August 1980 . Ballard used the opportunity to name himself acting general manager and hold talks with Sittler , and the two agreed that Sittler would return to the team as captain for the 1980 – 81 season . Ballard also signed Börje Salming to a new contract with terms that Imlach had refused to offer . Before the end of 1981 , Imlach was back running the Leafs as general manager . During the Leafs ' training camp in September 1981 , Imlach suffered a third heart attack , which was followed by quadruple bypass surgery at Toronto General Hospital . Ballard became interim manager and told the media that Imlach ' s poor health meant that " he ' s through as general manager . " Imlach was never officially fired , but when he tried to return to work in November , he found that his parking spot at Maple Leaf Gardens had been reassigned and Gerry McNamara had been made acting general manager . Imlach never returned to work and his contract was allowed to expire . He suffered a fourth heart attack in November 1985 at a casino while on vacation in Las Vegas and died after a fifth heart attack in 1987 at age 69 . Over his career , Imlach amassed a coaching record of 423 wins , 373 losses and 163 ties to go along with four Stanley Cups . His 365 wins with the Leafs are still the best in franchise history . He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 1984 .