3 NHL Games
October 29, 1981 Detroit Red Wings vs Calgary Flames. 12-4 win.
October 31, 1981 Detroit Red Wings vs Minnesota North Stars. 4-5 loss.
November 1, 1981 Detroit Red Wings vs Vancouver Canucks. 3-1 win.
Late October, 1981 Georges Gagnon was recalled to the NHL's Detroit Red Wings when their veteran netminder, Gilles Gilbert, was injured with a bruised forearm. The injury forced Gilbert to sit out three games. Corrado Micalef tended goal for the Red Wings and Gagnon sat as his backup for that period. At the time of his recall, Gagnon had just started his third year of pro hockey and was coming off a strong 1980/81 season that saw him capture the James Norris Memorial Trophy for the IHL's fewest goals against (shared with Claude Legris).
Georges shared some fun facts from his stint as an NHL goaltender.
"While we were on the road in Minnesota at the middle of my 3 games, I was getting on the hotel elevator to go down to meet the bus and Billy Martin the former Detroit Tigers coach was standing there. We spoke for about 2 minutes. Because I grew up 20 minutes away from Tiger Stadium and was and still am a Tiger fan, it was special getting to meet the fiery one in person. Lo and behold a few years later he passed away.
Second fun fact. Having grown up just 20 minutes across the border in McGregor, I needed about 20 tickets for my immediate family to be able to come and see the two games I was dressed at the Joe. Management had to work hard to come up with those extra as players only got 4 tickets each, if my memory is correct.
Third fund fact. Mark Pare, a linesman from LaSalle, across the border, was part of the crew on one of the nights. A photographer from the Windsor Star took a picture of him from across the arena and it happened to be while he was standing at the blue line chirping with me on the bench. That photo, with me in it, I understand, hangs in the LaSalle Ice Arena as recognition of his accomplishments." (1)
Gagnon retired from professional hockey in 1987 and settled in the city he had played most of his career, Kalamazoo. His #1 jersey was retired by the Kalamazoo Wings in 2019.
Career stats from hockeydb.com
Born May 24 1959 -- McGregor, ONT
Height 5.09 -- Weight 156
| RS Scoring | RS Goalie Stats | PO Scoring | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | Lge | GP | A | PIM | Min | GA | EN | SO | GAA | W | L | T | Svs | Pct | GP | A | PIM |
| 1976-77 | Windsor Spitfires | OHA | 40 | 1 | 19 | 1887 | 178 | 0 | 0 | 5.66 | ||||||||
| 1977-78 | Oshawa Generals | OHA | 27 | 1 | 11 | 1580 | 115 | 1 | 0 | 4.37 | ||||||||
| 1978-79 | Oshawa Generals | OHA | 42 | 2 | 14 | 2264 | 167 | 3 | 1 | 4.43 | ||||||||
| 1979-80 | Kalamazoo Wings | IHL | 18 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 2 | ||||||||||
| 1980-81 | Kalamazoo Wings | IHL | 33 | 4 | 0 | 1904 | 88 | 3 | 1 | 2.77 | 5 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| 1981-82 | Kalamazoo Wings | IHL | 59 | 5 | 31 | 3403 | 210 | 2 | 1 | 3.70 | - | - | - | |||||
| 1982-83 | Kalamazoo Wings | IHL | 56 | 4 | 8 | 3011 | 213 | 0 | 1 | 4.24 | 7 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| 1983-84 | Baltimore Skipjacks | AHL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3.00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 0.905 | - | - | - |
| 1983-84 | Kalamazoo Wings | IHL | 67 | 5 | 27 | 3 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 1984-85 | Kalamazoo Wings | IHL | 63 | 5 | 24 | 11 | 1 | 6 | ||||||||||
| 1985-86 | Kalamazoo Wings | IHL | 63 | 4 | 22 | 3718 | 211 | 3 | 3 | 3.40 | 6 | 0 | 2 | |||||
| 1986-87 | Hershey Bears | AHL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 10.50 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 0.708 | - | - | - |
| 1986-87 | Kalamazoo Wings | IHL | 43 | 2 | 16 | 2543 | 180 | 1 | 0 | 4.25 | 20 | 21 | 1 | 1279 | 0.877 | 5 | 1 | 12 |
(1) September, 2020 email interview with Georges Gagnon and NHLbackups.com
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