Do you remember Gary McAdam?
Every week, we’ll look at a forgotten Calgary Flames player in the weekly series “A Flame From the Past.” Of course, the player had to have played a significant number of games for the Flames – at least a full season. Each week, I’ll put every Flames season (since moving to Calgary) in the Wheel of Names. This week, it landed on the 1981-82 season, with the player we’ll look at in today’s article being Gary McAdam
Born in Smiths Falls, Ontario, a town an hour outside of the Nation’s Capital (and a town I’ve frequented on multiple occasions for poutine), McAdam started his junior career with his hometown Bears, scoring a goal and four points in 25 games in 1971-72. He made his major junior debut the following season for the Ottawa 67’s of the Ontario Hockey Association, scoring 14 goals and 22 points in 61 games.
In 1973-74, the forward played for the St. Catherines Black Hawks of the same league, scoring 30 goals and 67 points in 67 games. Entering his draft year, McAdam scored 24 goals and 77 points in 65 games, leading to the Buffalo Sabres picking him with the 53rd overall pick in the 1975 draft.
McAdam’s first professional season was split between the American Hockey League and National Hockey League. He played 24 games with the AHL’s Hershey Bears, scoring 14 goals and 27 points. With the Sabres, McAdam scored a goal and three points in 31 games.
In 1976-77, McAdam became a regular for the Sabres, scoring 13 goals and 18 points, along with a goal in six post-season games. The following season was one of McAdam’s best, scoring 19 goals and 41 points in 79 games. His final season in Buffalo saw him score six goals and 11 points in 40 games before being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, finishing the season with five goals and 14 points.
McAdam’s first full season with the Penguins in 1979-80 saw him score the same stat line as two seasons prior, 19 goals and 41 points. After 34 games in 1980-81 where he scored five goals and 12 points, he was traded to the Detroit Red Wings where he scored five goals and 19 points.
A funny connection with Smiths Falls is that they’ve produced three NHLers, all of whom played for the Detroit Red Wings at one point in their career. The other two are Terry Carkner and Don McKenney.
Once again, McAdam was traded, this time to the Calgary Flames for the 1981-82 season, where he scored 12 goals and 27 points in 46 games. If he kept this pace over a full 80 games, McAdam would’ve scored 20 goals and 48 points. However, he spent a portion of the season with the Central Hockey League’s Dallas Black Hawks.
McAdam re-signed with the team that drafted him, the Sabres, to start the 1982-83 season. He played just four games and mainly played with the AHL’s Rochester Americans, where he scored 40 goals and 69 points en route to a Calder Cup. He holds the record for 11 shorthanded goals that season in the AHL.
In 1983-84, he signed with the Washington Capitals, scoring a goal and six points in 24 games and was traded again, this time to the New Jersey Devils where he scored nine goals and 15 points in 38 games. That was basically it for his NHL career, but McAdam scored 32 goals and 52 points in 70 AHL games in 1984-85. His final 15 NHL games were spent with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1985-86 before he hung up his skates.
Overall, McAdam scored 96 goals and 228 points in 534 career games, along with six goals and 11 points in 30 post-season games.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for FlamesNation, Oilersnation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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