( Photo Credit: Legends of Hockey / HHOF.com )
By: Mark Allred | Follow Me On Twitter @BlackAndGold277
Happy 63rd Birthday To Former National Hockey League Forward Dwight Foster!
Foster was born on April 2nd, 1957 in Toronto, Ontario and grew up in Canada’s most popular city for a better part of his childhood. After playing many years of youth hockey around the mecca of hockey (Toronto) Dwight joined the Ontario Hockey Associations Kitchener Rangers as a 17-year-old. After Fosters rookie season which he contributed 39-51-90 numbers in 70 games during the 1974-75 season, he would go onto play the next years in Kitchener serving as the team’s captain. In his OHA career, all with the Ranger club Dwight would post 171-250-421 numbers with his best year offensively in his second to last season in Kitchener going 60-83-143 earning the leagues Eddie Powers Trophy for most points.
Dwight was selected by the Boston Bruins in the 1977 National Hockey League Amateur draft with the B’s taking him with the 16th pick in the first round. That same year Foster was also selected by the now-defunct World Hockey Association when the Houston Aeros took him in the first round with the 10th overall pick. He would start his professional hockey career bouncing up and down from the NHL Boston club to the minor pro affiliate the Rochester Americans. With the Americans team, he posted 11-21-32 numbers in 25 appearances and even played several games for the Broome Dusters in the North American Hockey League posting 1-3-4 numbers in 7 games. The Broome Dusters played their games at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton, New York, and the Dusters club was actually the inspiration for the movie “Slap Shot” per Wikipedia.
After spending his first four seasons with the Bruins team posting 47-70-117 numbers in 192 games played, Foster signed as a free agent in July of 1981 with the Colorado Rockies organization following the 1980-81 season where he had his best NHL campaign contributing 24-28-52 in 77 games for Boston. After playing one season in Colorado, Foster and the Rockies franchise would relocate the organization to New Jersey in June of 1982 and be named the Devils. Not spending much time in the Ocean State in October of 1982 Dwight was traded to the Detriot Red Wings for cash.
After playing several seasons with the Red Wings organization, in March of 1986 Foster was traded to the Boston Bruins for his second tour of duty for Edmonton, Alberta native Dave Donnelly who totaled 9-12-21 numbers in 62 games for the Bruins. Joining the Boston club late in the 1985-86 season, Foster didn’t register a point for the Bruins in their remaining 13 games of the season but in his final NHL campaign in 1986-87 he would contribute 4-12-16 numbers in 47 games.
Dwight’s NHL career saw him play for four teams appearing in 541 games posting 111-163-274 numbers and 420 penalty minutes. After ten seasons playing in the top professional league in the world, Foster would hang up his skates and retired in 1987 due to knee injuries. They say his best years in the NHL were when he centered Rick Middleton and Stan Jonathan for the Bruins which was a nice mix of offensive capabilities with the added grit factor.
Check out the new Black N’ Gold Hockey Podcast episode 172 that we recorded below on 3-26-20! You can find our show on many worldwide platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Stitcher.
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