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.
Never a flashy scorer or high-profile superstar, Jim Bartlett made a nice career for himself in the American Hockey League over 16 seasons with the Providence Reds, Springfield Indians and Baltimore Clippers, and was one of the AHL’s most consistent performers of his time.
The feisty winger made his AHL debut in 1955-56, recording 47 points and 110 penalty minutes in 50 games and capturing a Calder Cup championship with the Reds. It would be the first of 12 career 20-goal seasons for Bartlett.
Bartlett matched an AHL record on Jan. 5, 1958, when he scored two goals in a five-second span against Rochester and goaltender Gerry McNeil.
In 1959-60, Bartlett played most of the year in the NHL with the New York Rangers, but recorded 10 points in 21 games for Springfield and then averaged a point per game in the postseason as the Indians won the Calder Cup.
Bartlett played the entire 1960-61 season with the Boston Bruins, his final taste of the NHL before spending most of the next 12 years exclusively in the AHL. Bartlett almost had his hockey life cut short in 1963 when he was hit in the eye with a stick, but he came back strong and as a member of the highly-regarded “B-Line” with Pierre Brillant and Stan Baliuk, led the Reds in scoring in 1964-65.
He joined the Baltimore Clippers in 1966, and reached the Calder Cup Finals one more time in 1972.
Bartlett ranks eighth on the AHL’s all-time list with 360 goals, 19th all-time with 742 points and ninth with 955 career games played. He also wound up with 1,037 career penalty minutes.
| Career AHL Statistics – Jim Bartlett | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular Season | Playoffs | ||||||||||
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
| 1955-56 | Providence Reds | 50 | 28 | 19 | 47 | 110 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 27 |
| 1956-57 | Providence Reds | 63 | 21 | 22 | 43 | 105 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 27 |
| 1957-58 | Providence Reds | 59 | 25 | 21 | 46 | 86 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 11 |
| 1959-60 | Springfield Indians | 21 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 12 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 15 |
| 1961-62 | Providence Reds | 62 | 31 | 34 | 65 | 80 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| 1962-63 | Providence Reds | 67 | 28 | 38 | 66 | 87 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 10 |
| 1963-64 | Providence Reds | 72 | 26 | 39 | 65 | 75 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 1964-65 | Providence Reds | 71 | 22 | 36 | 58 | 92 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1965-66 | Providence Reds | 68 | 19 | 26 | 45 | 70 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1966-67 | Baltimore Clippers | 67 | 30 | 21 | 51 | 81 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 6 |
| 1967-68 | Baltimore Clippers | 71 | 22 | 29 | 51 | 71 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1968-69 | Baltimore Clippers | 73 | 25 | 23 | 48 | 40 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 10 |
| 1969-70 | Baltimore Clippers | 65 | 30 | 28 | 58 | 34 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| 1970-71 | Baltimore Clippers | 63 | 14 | 25 | 39 | 51 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 1971-72 | Baltimore Clippers | 11 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 18 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 14 |
| 1972-73 | Baltimore Clippers | 72 | 24 | 16 | 40 | 31 | – | – | – | – | – |
| AHL Totals | 955 | 360 | 382 | 742 | 1037 | 80 | 27 | 22 | 49 | 138 | |
