Derek Sanderson

At 6 foot, 185 pounds, Sanderson carved a niche as one of the premier penalty-killers in NHL history. He elevated the role to another level with a trademark sweep check, highly proficient face-off skills and an uncanny knack to score goals at a manpower disadvantage. The latter did much to change the nature of the around the game, as the short-handed team became the aggressor more often rather than be content to take a defensive posture and time off the clock.

Upon his retirement as a player after the 1977–78 season, Sanderson was the league leader in career shorthanded goals. Nearly half a century after his last appearance with Boston, he still holds the Bruins team record for most career shorthanded goals (six) in the playoffs, a mark that he shares with Ed Westfall, his longtime line mate. Through the 2021-22 campaign, his 24 short-handed tallies in the regular season ranked third behind Brad Marchand and Rick Middleton in club history.

Born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Sanderson was the son of Canadian Army Private Harold A. Sanderson, and Caroline Hall Gillespie from Dysart, Scotland.[1] His older sister Karen was born while his father was serving in France in 1944.[2] As a young boy, Sanderson took to hockey, skating countless hours on a scaled-down version of an NHL rink, which his father built and maintained while his mother served hot chocolate during breaks in the action. The rink spanned two backyards of small cookie-cutter houses on lots provided at modest prices to servicemen such as Harold upon their return home.[3]

Sanderson played junior hockey in his hometown with the Niagara Falls Flyers of the Ontario Hockey Association. His time with the Flyers saw him being named to the Second All-Star Team in 1965–66, to the First All-Star Team in 1966–67 and winning the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy as the top scorer in the OHA also in 1966–67.[4] In 1964–65, Sanderson helped the Flyers reach the Memorial Cup finals where they faced the Edmonton Oil Kings,[5] winning the championship in five games.[6] After spending four years in the OHA, Sanderson turned pro by signing with the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League in 1965–66, and made his professional debut that season by playing two games with the Bruins.[4] Sanderson also played two games in the CPHL with the Oklahoma City Blazers in 1965–66, recording one goal.[7]

After brief stints with the Bruins in the two previous seasons, Sanderson earned a permanent roster spot in the 1967–68 season. The 21-year-old made an immediate impact, scoring 24 goals and 49 points in 71 games. He also had 98 penalty minutes, establishing himself as something of a "tough guy" in the league.[4] At season's end, Sanderson was awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy as the Rookie of the Year, an honor that teammate Bobby Orr had claimed the previous year. It remains the only time in Bruins history that they had consecutive Calder Trophy winners.[8]

Although Sanderson had been an elite scorer in junior hockey, his role on the very talented Bruins was to centre their more defense-minded third line with right wing Ed Westfall and either Wayne Carleton or Don Marcotte at the left side. It wasn't long before Westfall and Sanderson emerged as the most accomplished penalty-killing tandem in the league.[9] Nonetheless, Sanderson was an underrated offensive threat who scored at least 24 goals in seven different seasons. In the 1970–71 season, he had a career-high 29 goals even though he seldom saw action on the power play.

Sanderson helped the Bruins capture consecutive East Division titles in the (1970–71 and 1971–72) seasons. He was a key contributor for the team that won the Stanley Cup in 1971–72 against the New York Rangers, its second in three seasons.[10]

All the while, the Sanderson became a sports celebrity not unlike Jets quarterback Joe Namath, who was all the rage in New York at the time. Like Namath, the long-haired Bruins heartthrob received much publicity for his numerous female companions and lavish ways, which included a Rolls-Royce car and circular bed.[11] Named by Cosmopolitan as one of the sexiest men in America, he was the subject of gossip columns, a frequent guest on television talk shows and regularly photographed in the company of glamorous women.[12]

In the 1969–70 playoffs, the Bruins faced the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Finals. Boston led the best-of-seven series three games to none, and Game 4 was tied 3–3 at the end of regulation play.

Rather than open the extra period with his top guns on the ice, head coach Harry Sinden played a hunch and chose the more defensive-minded trio of Sanderson, Wayne Carleton and Ed Westfall instead.

“I would prefer a line that would make sure or try and make sure the other team didn’t score," Sinden explained to the Boston Herald in 2020, the 50th anniversary of the historic game. "I wanted to play a line that would make sure (the Blues) didn’t score. And the longer the game went, the better chance we had."

Forty seconds into the extra period, Sanderson controlled the puck behind the Blues goal line, at which point defenseman Bobby Orr broke in from near the blue line. His short pass found its way to Orr through a maze of legs and sticks, and the defenseman fired a short wrist shot past goaltender Glenn Hall, clinching the Bruins' first Stanley Cup in 29 years. Orr famously went airborne in a Superman-like pose after the puck entered the net, an image that would be one of the most iconic in sports history. In 2017, on the 100th anniversary of the league, fans voted the so-called Flying Goal as the greatest in its history. [13] It also turned out to be the signature moment of Sanderson's career. [14]

In the summer of 1972, Sanderson made headlines when he signed what was then the richest contract in professional sports history. The Philadelphia Blazers of the new World Hockey Association signed Sanderson to a five-year, $2.65 million contract that made him the highest-paid pro athlete in the world at the time.[15] He received $600,000 in cash as part of the agreement, an offer that the Bruins declined to match. The remainder of the money was to be spread over 10 years. The longterm deal was a monumental gamble for the fledgling Blazers, who admitted that they could not afford it even if every one of their home games sold out. Yet the hope was that one of the biggest names in hockey would give the team instant credibility and a gate attraction for years to come.

Sanderson's time with the Blazers was as short-lived as it was disastrous. He scored three goals in only eight games with the new team. "I could skate as well as Nureyev could dance," he told the New York Times in a 1983 interview. "But after I got the million dollars, I didn't pay attention to anybody."

On Nov. 1, in a game at Cleveland, Sanderson suffered a back injury when he slipped on a piece of paper on the ice. When the center was fit to return weeks later, club management insisted that he remain inactive. It was widely speculated that it had hoped to prod Sanderson to bolt the team and void his lucrative agreement. He didn't take the bait, though, and his contract was bought out for $1 million after the season.[16]

After Sanderson and the Blazers parted ways, he returned to the Bruins for two seasons but suited up for only 54 games. He got off to a solid start in the 1973–74 campaign — 20 points in 29 games — but he quickly fell out of favor with impatient Bep Guidolin, who was in his first season as an NHL head coach. "I'm tired of hearing Derek Sanderson is going to do this, Derek Sanderson is going to do that," Guidolin said. "I'm tired of hearing all the things he's going to do and never does." The veteran was demoted to the Boston Braves of the American Hockey League for three games then traded to the rival New York Rangers, with whom he and the Bruins had feuded for years.

Meanwhile, Sanderson continued to make news off the ice. Along with New England Patriots receiver Jim Colclough and the New York Jets star football quarterback Joe Namath, he opened "Bachelors III", a trendy nightclub on New York City’s Upper East Side. Negative publicity over some of the club's less than reputable patrons led to problems and eventually Sanderson had to get out of what went from a "goldmine" to a money-losing venture.[17]

The aborted venture started a downward spiral in which Sanderson would bounce from team to team, never being able to stay with a team for more than two full seasons, mainly because of his addiction to alcohol. Although Sanderson had a good first season with the Rangers by recording 50 points in 75 games, he was traded eight games in to the St. Louis Blues next season. In St. Louis, Sanderson set career highs in assists and points scored in a season with 43 assists and 67 points, but recurring knee and alcohol problems prompted Blues management to trade him in 1976–77 to the Vancouver Canucks in return for a first-round pick in the 1977 draft.

Sanderson made a bad first impression with Canucks management before a regular-season game had been played. In the pre-season, he was involved in a brawl at a local strip club that left him in a hospital, where tests showed an extremely high level of alcohol as well as evidence of cocaine, sleeping pills, Seconal and Valium. Sanderson scored 16 points in 16 games with the club before he was sent to the minors because of disciplinary reasons. As was the case in St. Louis, the front office grew impatient with his personal and health issues and released him after the season.

The Pittsburgh Penguins signed Sanderson as a free agent in 1977–78. He played 13 games with the Penguins and eight more in the minors before his release. When no takers stepped forward before the next season, he retired from the game.[18]

In April 1979, Sanderson married Rhonda Rapport, a former Playboy Bunny from Chicago. Their son, Scott Leslie Sanderson, died at birth on October 4, 1981, in Niagara Falls. According to a story in the Toronto Star by Ellie Tesher on March 21, 1982, the couple separated soon after that, and Rhonda Sanderson's detailed questions about their son's death led to an investigation by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. "Because of this situation, an innocent life was lost and I almost died, too," she told Tesher. "It mustn't happen to other women. They must learn to speak up when they know something's wrong."

During his career, Sanderson made several bad business investments and lost millions of dollars in the process. Beset with severe health and financial problems, he led a vagabond existence. A low point came at Central Park in New York City one day. While hung over, he was found sleeping on a bench. [16] By his estimate, he survived 10 hip surgeries, prostate cancer and two heart attacks.

Less than a decade after Sanderson set up Orr for one of the most memorable goals in hockey history, his teammate returned the assist. In late 1978, Orr found his ex-teammate to be in dire straits in Chicago and checked him into a local hospital. Doctors informed Orr of the prognosis, which he shared with Sanderson in no uncertain terms. "You're a full-blown alcoholic and a drug addict, It's over. You've got to go to rehab." Orr told him, according to a Sports Illustrated interview years later. Orr paid for the first rehab session, and when the patient suffered a relapse, he covered for the second round as well. "He never left me," Sanderson would say of Orr later. [19]

Sanderson eventually beat his demons before he embarked on a second career as a sports broadcaster. He spent 10 years with New England Sports Network and WSBK-TV with play-by-play announcer Fred Cusick. Wanting to make sure that other hockey players would not follow his path, Sanderson organized The Professionals Group at State Street Global Advisors, where he was Director of The Sports Group that provided professional financial advice to athletes in the 90s.[19]

In 2012, Sanderson became the Managing Director of The Sports Group, in Boston. His team worked with athletes and high-net-worth individuals, but he is not currently listed on the company's website.[20] His second autobiography, Crossing the Line: The Outrageous Story of a Hockey Original, written with Kevin Shea, was released in October 2012.[21] His first autobiography, I've Got To Be Me, written with Stan Fischler, had been published in 1970.[22] In September 2013, Sanderson received the Hockey Legacy Award from The Sports Museum at TD Garden.[23]