Hugh's Highland View: Behind the scenes with a former goalie

I was in the sports-loving community, sitting alone in my Plymouth Fury, watching a group of neighbourhood teenagers enjoying a game of street hockey.

I guess I better explain.

It was in the days when I was a regional scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs and I was determined to sign a just-turned-18-year-old goaltender to the NHL club’s negotiation list.

I had been watching him play junior hockey in Pictou County that winter, but there was a catch: in the six-team NHL, a youngster couldn’t put his signature on a contract before turning 18. That’s the way it worked in that pre-expansion era. Sign him too soon and he would no longer be eligible to join the offending club.

I sat in cold rinks that year, watching the netminder perform with the junior Trenton Scotias, saying nothing in advance that I was interested in getting his signature on the dotted line.

I began following Lyle Carter rink to rink, after getting a tip from hockey-astute Gordon (Crow) Curley, Sr., who I knew well from drop-in discussions I had in the New Glasgow corner store he operated across from the CNR station.

Crow told me the kid was so good he started the season playing with former senior players on the Brookfield Elks in the Truro and District Hockey League. In mid-season, Trenton’s Billy Dee added the netminder to the Trenton Scotias to prepare for provincial junior playoffs against the powerful Halifax Kingfishers.

After seeing Lyle in action, I rated him the hottest prospect in Nova Scotia.

I heard Gerry Regan, the future premier, then a scout for the Boston Bruins, was also chasing Carter for the Beantowners. Other scouts were also around. I soon became determined to do everything I could to land Lyle for Toronto.

Of local interest, Carter’s teammates that year included Frankie, Ale and Gerard MacDonald, Bob Curley, Johnny and Stew Young. They narrowly missed upsetting the Kingfishers who had players from across the Maritimes.

In those days, there was no NHL entry draft on television. There was no draft, period. As long as a player turned 18, he could be signed to what was called a C form, immediately becoming the property of the signing organization.

I got Lyle’s birth date, then waited for weeks.

I confirmed a meeting with Lyle on his birthday at his home. I got there early. He came over to the car and said the street hockey game would be over soon. He came back a few minutes later, explaining that the big match was going into overtime. I waited some more.

Finally, we were sitting at the Carters’ kitchen table. Lyle signed, the Leafs got him and I had a happy trip back to New Glasgow.

The rest is history.

Lyle had a good camp in September and was assigned to the junior Brampton Seven-Ups, operated by the Leafs. From there, he played in the International, Eastern, Western and American leagues, and, eventually, 15 games with the California Golden Seals.

Mixed in was the 1964-65 season when Lyle played for the Fleming Mackell-coached New Glasgow Rangers, who won the Maritime senior championship and reached the Allan Cup playdowns in Sherbrooke, Que.

Why only 15 NHL games?

In 1971-72, Lyle was showing promise – until a game in Buffalo. That’s when he and Richard Martin collided. Lyle was taken off the ice on a stretcher. He returned in two weeks, but never really recovered.

After our get-together in Brookfield, he played junior in Brampton; senior with the Windsor Maple Leafs and New Glasgow; senior in Newfoundland with Buchans Miners, Gander Flyers and Conception Bay CeeBees; and minor professional with Cleveland Barons, Toledo Blades, Clinton Comets, Montreal Voyageurs, Muskegon Mohawks, Salt Lake Golden Eagles, Oklahoma City Blazers, New Haven Nighthawks, Syracuse Eagles and Greensboro Generals.

Though briefly in some places, he became familiar with the North American hockey map.

I mustn’t list Lyle’s sports achievements without mentioning that he was so good at softball that many diamond observers called him the best softball player ever to play in the sport. He was so good in the Mainland Softball League that he was chosen most valuable player 10 times. He was an all-Canadian four times and was named one of the 30 best Canadian players of all time.

In 1984, he was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame. He could easily have made it for either sport alone.

After hockey and softball, he got interested in horse racing, owning and training his own stable of horses. For years, he’s written sports for the Truro Daily News.

Lyle and I have often talked about his career.

“The dream was to get (to the NHL) and play there,” he’s said. “The thing that stands out to me, and I’ve got to say this, and it’s something I tell young people: Look, there were players there in the NHL who were no better than my teammates with the New Glasgow Rangers; there were players no better than the guys I grew up with back in Brookfield. I say that because I think people build it up in their minds, so I really believe to this very day that I could have played five or six years in the NHL.”

He addressed why it ended quickly.

“After all this waiting and waiting and waiting to get there, when I got injured in Buffalo, it just ruined my whole dream.”

From my vantage point, I don’t feel there was one reason for him to paint the picture with negative tones. He made the NHL, and he became recognized as one of the best softball players in Canada.

To me, that’s a dream well achieved.