By: Steve McClure | Follow me on Twitter / X @stmcclure1993
Happy 69th birthday to former Bruin Stan Jonathan. The diminutive but unflinching left-wing of the ‘Lunch Pail Era’ Bruins played 392 regular season games for Boston.
Bruins’ head coach Don Cherry had seen Stan Jonathan play for the Peterborough Petes during the 1974-75 season and asked GM Harry Sinden to draft him. It took him until the fifth round, but Sinden drafted Jonathan number 86 overall in the 1975 NHL draft. According to Cherry, “Of all my discoveries, Jonathan is the one in which I take the most pride.”
Born in Ontario and growing up on the ‘Six Nations Indian Reserve’, Jonathan— the sixth of fourteen children—was an extremely hard worker and made the most of his hockey opportunities. Most notably, the 5’8” 175-pound instantly made a name for himself as one of the league’s premier pugilists in what was already a Big Bad Bruins era.
During his rookie season of 1976-77, the left wing only produced 71 shots on goal, but he scored on seventeen of them—good for the best shooting percentage in the NHL (23.9%). The following season he managed 121 shots—and another high shooting percentage (22.3%)—resulting in a career high 27 goals. His productivity along with his heavy hitting and willingness to drop the gloves resulted in the fans selecting him as the team’s ‘7th Player Award’ recipient in 1978.
Jonathan was hampered by injuries in the 1978–79 season—only appearing in 33 regular season tilts, but he managed 21 goals the following season and racked up 208 penalty minutes for good measure. With the likes of heavyweights such as Jonathan, John Wensink, Terry O’Reilly, and Al Secord, the Bruins of the late 1970s and early 1980s were not easily pushed around.
In November of 1982, lingering behind younger left-wingers Mike Krushelnyski and Luc Dufour on the Bruins roster, Jonathan was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins for cash. He played 19 games for the Penguins before retiring in 1983.
Stan Jonathan was named to the Boston Bruins ‘All-Centennial Team’ last fall. Happy birthday to a Boston Bruins fan favorite!
to a Boston Bruins fan favorites
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