Milt Schmidt ✝

Milton Conrad "Milt" Schmidt (March 5, 1918 – January 4, 2017) was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre, coach and general manager, mostly for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL), where he was a member of the Kraut Line. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961. In 2017 Schmidt was named one of the \'100 Greatest NHL Players\' in history.\n', ' Schmidt\'s early years were spent in Kitchener, where he attended King Edward Public School. In high school, he briefly attended Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School, but dropped out at age 14 in order to work to support his family (his father had become too ill to work regularly), and took a job at a shoe factory. He made 18 cents per hour ($3.20 per hour in 2018 dollars) while working there and claimed that he knew the value of the dollar. (NHL Network January 2009) He continued playing junior hockey with the Kitchener Empires and Kitchener Greenshirts. Schmidt was a childhood friend of fellow Hall of Famers Woody Dumart and Bobby Bauer. At about the age of 20, while still playing for the Boston Bruins\' former AHL farm team, the Providence Reds, Schmidt was invited to try out for the St. Louis Cardinals MLB National league pro baseball team, but knew himself well enough from his own previous youth baseball experience that while he could hit the ball out of the park, that he would usually strike out many more times than hitting home runs in his past.\n', ' Schmidt played junior hockey with Dumart and Bauer in Kitchener, Ontario before their rights were all acquired by the Bruins in 1935. After playing a final year of junior hockey in Kitchener, Ontario, and half a year with the Bruins\' AHL Providence Reds farm team, Schmidt would be called up to the Bruins during the 1937 season. He would quickly prove himself as a hardnosed centre, a skilled stickhandler and smooth playmaker.\n', '