Bep Guidolin; ex-Bruin was youngest player ever

Bep Guidolin coached the Boston Bruins in the early 1970s. (globe file photo)

On Nov. 12, 1942, Bep Guidolin laced up for the Boston Bruins and skated into the history books. At 16, he became the youngest person to play in an NHL game.

Mr. Guidolin, who coached a young Bobby Orr on a junior club before assuming the reins of the Bruins, died Monday at a hospital in Barrie, Ontario. He was 82.

"I hate to say this about myself, but what the heck, I could skate - I mean, I could really go, eh?" Mr. Guidolin told The Boston Globe in 2003, recalling that night in 1942 when he joined the Bruins as a left wing against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens. "I got out there, and boy, I thought I was still in junior hockey, I was just flying. But Bingo Kampman caught up to me -not a fast guy, either, Bingo - and, boy, did he lay me out. Welcome to the NHL."

Mr. Guidolin was 16 years, 11 months when he made his NHL debut. The Bruins needed help because of players serving in World War II. Earlier that year, the team had lost their famed Kraut Line - Milt Schmidt, Bobby Bauer, and Woody Dumart - to the war effort.

Mr. Guidolin joined two other young players, Don Gallinger and Bill Shill, on a line.

"They began to call us the Sprout Line," Mr. Guidolin said.

He went on to play nine seasons in the NHL, recording 107 goals and 171 assists in 519 games with Boston, the Detroit Red Wings, and Chicago Black Hawks.

After his playing career ended in 1961, Mr. Guidolin turned to coaching, but his attachment to the Bruins remained.

"I knew that some day I wanted to be their coach," Mr. Guidolin said in 1973. "This feeling never left me, even after I was traded to Detroit and Chicago. Maybe it was only a kid's wild dream, but it stuck."

One of his first coaching stints was behind the bench of the Oshawa Generals, where he tutored a brilliant young defenseman, Bobby Orr.

He would join up with Orr again, this time with the Bruins. Mr. Guidolin coached the Bruins during the 1972-73 and 1973-74 seasons, taking them to Game Six of the Stanley Cup finals before losing to the Philadelphia Flyers.

He also coached in Colorado and served as coach and general manager of the Edmonton Oilers in 1970s when they were in the World Hockey Association.

"Hockey was his life," daughter Barb LeBlanc said. "He wouldn't stop talking about it, especially about his time with the Bruins.

"He had that passion."

Armand Guidolin was born in Thorold. In addition to his daughter, he leaves his wife, Eleanor, and three other children.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this obituary.