Still Flying High - Al Secord
AL Secord, born March 3, 1958, played eight of his 12 NHL seasons with the Blackhawks. Drafted 16th overall in 1978 by the Boston Bruins, Secord began his NHL career at 20 years old. Scoring 16 goals in his first season and 23 in his sophomore campaign, Secord was traded to the Blackhawks after failing to score in the first 18 games of his third season (December 18, 1980).
Secord thrived in Chicago, both offensively and physically. The 1981-82 season saw Secord become part of the «Party Line» with Denis Savard and Steve Larmer. He would post 44 goals and 303 penalty minutes, becoming the only player in league history to score 40 goals and 300 penalty minutes in a season.
The following season (82-83) Secord would become the second of only three Blackhawks to reach the 50-goal plateau (Bobby Hull-1961 and Jeremy Roenick-1991). Scoring 54 goals and 32 assists for a career high 86 points. Secord still found time to notch 180 penalty minutes. Secord, for his time in the 1980s and even today, is an outlier for NHL players. Not only did he score goals, but he fought, a lot! Never one to back down, Secord was willing to dance with all-comers in defense of his teammates. In his eight seasons with Chicago, Secord would have 92 fights against some of the biggest and baddest players of the era. Secord would do the dance with the likes of Bob Probert, Tie Domi, Joey Kocur and Chris Nilan among others. His most frequent battles were with Bob McGill of the Toronto Maple Leafs. They would square off six times.
Injuries plagued Secord from 1983 to 1985, and it took about two seasons for him to get his mojo back. The 1985-86 season was his bounce back season as he tallied 40 goals and 36 assists for 76 points while ringing up 201 penalty minutes.
Secord would become part of a five-player trade that sent him and Ed Olczyk to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Rick Vaive, Steve Thomas, and ironically, frequent fight partner Bob McGill. Secord would spend a few uneventful years in Toronto and Philadelphia before re-signing with the Hawks as a free agent in 1990. He retired following that season. Secord would return to hockey in 1994 when he played two seasons for the Chicago Wolves in the International Hockey League (IHL).
For his scoring prowess, Secord would be selected as an All-Star in 1982 and 1983. In 466 regular season games for the Blackhawks, Secord scored 213 goals and 160 assists for 373 points. Most notably of course is his 1426 penalty. In 68 playoff games, he scored 20 goals and 27 assists for 47 points and 266 penalty minutes. Secord's overall regular season numbers were 766 games played, 273 goals, 223 assists for 496 points and, 2093 penalty minutes. Playoffs numbers were 102 games played, 21 goals, 34 assists for 55 points and 266 penalty minutes.
Secord was honored by the Blackhawks with One More Shift on November 12, 2017 (see video).
Al Secord currently lives in Southlake, Texas and still flies high as pilot for American Airlines.
