The highlight reel from Norm Beaudin’s hockey career has enough scenes to fill a book – a goal Beaudin also saw through in 2023.
Member of the starting lineup for the St. Louis Blues’ first NHL game. First player signed by the Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association. His first and only 100-plus point season as a junior or professional, playing on a line with Bobby Hull in 1972-73.
Check, check and check.
At the top of the list for Beaudin however sits one distinct moment: Beating the Houston Aeros in four straight games for the WHA’s 1976 Avco World Trophy.
That year’s Jets team is scheduled to gather May 11 for a reunion in Winnipeg, with WHA icons Ulf Nilsson and Peter Sullivan also among those scheduled to be in attendance.
“No doubt about that. It was definitely the highlight of my career … and certainly something I’ll never forget,” Beaudin, who grew up in Montmartre, said in a phone interview with Grasslands News.
Winning the trophy also known as the Avco Cup didn’t just involve beating a run-of-the-mill team though, Beaudin recalled.
“We not only had to beat Houston but we had to beat up Gordie Howe and his whole family,” Beaudin said with a laugh from his Vancouver-area home.
“I remember one time I went in the corner with him and I think I hit him somehow and he wasn’t too happy with it so he came after me and I sort of got behind the referee and said ‘OK Gordie, I’m OK.’ But if you did something to him you know you’d get it back.”
Now 82 years old, Beaudin played 25 games in the NHL and 309 more in the WHA before spending his final professional season in Switzerland.
On the way to Winnipeg, Beaudin said he will also be stopping May 4 in Regina to attend a celebration of life for his brother Bob, who drowned while on vacation in Mazatlan, Mexico in March. But the Jets’ reunion will bookend the trip on a much-welcomed happier note.
“I’m sure looking forward to it, and it’ll be a great time to get together and reminisce on what we did and how we won and how we celebrated with the Winnipeg fans who are great fans,” said Beaudin. “It’ll be a hell of a good time to get together and see all the guys that were part of it.”
