As part of the American Hockey League’s 70th anniversary this season, theahl.com will be taking a look at some of the legendary careers that have been carved in the AHL over the last seven decades.
The first professional hockey player ever to record 100 points in a season, Carl Liscombe dominated the American Hockey League in the early days of the circuit.
Born in Perth, Ont., Liscombe recorded 21 points in 48 games with the Pittsburgh Hornets in 1936-37, the AHL’s first season. Liscombe won a Stanley Cup with Detroit in 1943, then returned to the AHL with the St. Louis Flyers in 1946.
Skating for the Providence Reds in 1947-48, Liscombe scored 50 goals and tallied 118 points in 68 games, setting a pro hockey record for scoring. He was the first recipient of the AHL’s Les Cunningham Award as the regular-season most valuable player, winning in both 1948 and 1949.
Liscombe’s 118-point campaign also earned him the first Wally Kilrea Trophy as the league’s top scorer. And because he broke Kilrea’s AHL scoring record, the award was renamed the Carl Liscombe Trophy in his honor from 1948 until 1955.
Liscombe was a First Team AHL All-Star in 1948 and a Second Team selection in 1949, when he led the Reds to the Calder Cup championship after scoring 55 goals in the regular season, an AHL record that would stand for 34 years.
All told, “Lefty” spent parts of eight seasons in the AHL, picking up 382 points in 352 games. Liscombe was 88 years old when he died in 2004 of complications from leukemia.
| Career AHL Statistics – Carl Liscombe | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular Season | Playoffs | ||||||||||
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
| 1936-37 | Pittsburgh Hornets | 48 | 8 | 13 | 21 | 23 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 1937-38 | Pittsburgh Hornets | 5 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 17 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1939-40 | Indianapolis Capitals | 24 | 8 | 11 | 19 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| 1940-41 | Indianapolis Capitals | 19 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 7 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1946-47 | St. Louis Flyers/ Providence Reds |
63 | 35 | 32 | 67 | 16 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1947-48 | Providence Reds | 68 | 50 | 68 | 118 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 1948-49 | Providence Reds | 68 | 55 | 47 | 102 | 2 | 14 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| 1949-50 | Providence Reds | 57 | 13 | 29 | 42 | 16 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| AHL Totals | 352 | 176 | 206 | 382 | 100 | 32 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 8 | |
