Gerald Michael Cheevers (born December 7, 1940) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) and World Hockey Association (WHA) between 1961 and 1980. Cheevers is best known for his two stints with the Boston Bruins, whom he helped win the Stanley Cup in 1970 and 1972. Cheevers won more than 300 games between two professional leagues. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1985.
Following his retirement, he coached the Bruins from 1980 to 1985. He subsequently worked as a commentator for both the Hartford Whalers and Bruins.
He was the first to decorate his goaltender mask with stitch markings where a puck had struck, leading to the contemporary tradition of goaltenders decorating their masks.
Cheevers played minor ice hockey at St. Catharines. At age 16 in 1956, he played for Toronto St. Michael's Majors in the Ontario Hockey Association. After consecutive seasons playing a single game for the Majors, and six games in the 1958–59 season, he became the starting goalie for the 1959–60 season and went 18–13–5 with a 3.08 goals against average (GAA), and won the Dave Pinkney Trophy for lowest GAA in the league. In the 1961 playoffs, he led the Majors to the J. Ross Robertson Cup championship, the George Richardson Memorial Trophy championship and the 1961 Memorial Cup championship, with a shutout in the first game. Cheevers played part of that final junior season as a forward.
Start of professional career (1961–1965)
With the Toronto Maple Leafs holding the rights to sign Cheevers, he started the 1961–62 season with their Sault Thunderbirds farm team in the EPHL, playing in 29 games with a 13–13–3 record with 3.55 GAA. He followed his stint with the Thunderbirds with five games in the AHL for the Pittsburgh Hornets. Also during the 1962 season, Cheevers made his NHL debut for the Maple Leafs on December 2, 1961, making 35 saves in a 6–4 victory over the visiting Chicago Black Hawks. Cheevers then finished out the year playing for his fifth different team of the year, appearing in 19 games for the Rochester Americans, as well as in four playoff games.
Similarly, Cheevers split time between two teams in the 1962–63 season, starting for the Sudbury Wolves of the EPHL in 51 games. He appeared in all eight playoff games helping the team reach the finals, where they were defeated 4–1 by the Kingston Frontenacs. Cheevers also played 19 games for Rochester that year, finishing with a losing record of 7–9–3 with one shutout.
For his final two seasons in the minors, Cheevers played exclusively with Rochester and was their starting goaltender. During the 1963–64 season, Cheevers started 66 games of the regular season, going 38–25–2 with three shutouts and a 2.84 GAA.
Cheevers' final season in the minors came in the 1964–65 AHL season, where he was the final goaltender in league history to play every game (coincidentally, he did this one season after his future Bruins teammate Eddie Johnston was the final goaltender to do so in the NHL). He finished the year with a record 48–21–2 (with the wins being a league and team record) to go with five shutouts and league-best 2.69 GAA; he was awarded the Harry "Hap" Holmes Memorial Award as the league's best goaltender. During the postseason, Cheevers went 4–1 in the first round, resulting in Rochester earning a second round bye to the championship series. Rochester defeated the Hershey Bears for the Calder Cup championship.
First stint with the Bruins (1966–1972)
The Boston Bruins drafted Cheevers in 1965, despite Toronto general manager Punch Imlach trying to slip him through unselected by listing him as a forward. He saw his first action with the Bruins in the 1965–66 season, playing in seven games, although he spent the bulk of the that season with the Bruins' farm club, the Oklahoma City Blazers of the Central Professional Hockey League. During the 1965-66 season, Cheevers went 16–9–5 with a 2.49 GAA. In the postseason, Cheevers was a near perfect 8–1 as he helped the team defeat the Minnesota Rangers to win the Adams Cup. In the following season of 1967-68, Cheevers split his time with the Bruins and the Blazers, playing in 22 games for Boston. He recorded his 1st NHL shutout on November 10, 1966, versus the Toronto Maple Leafs. He made 26 appearances for the Blazers, where he had a 14–6–5 record with a 2.80 GAA, as he helped them repeat as Adams Cup champions, going 8–3 during the postseason.
With the six-team expansion in 1967, and the Bruins losing goaltenders Bernie Parent and Doug Favell to the expansion Philadelphia Flyers, Cheevers became the number one goaltender in Boston for the next five seasons.
Cheevers' first full season as a starter for the Bruins came in the 1967–68 NHL season, where he finished with a winning record of 23–17–5 along with a 2.83 GAA, and a .907 save percentage. He also started to wear a mask regularly, the first time being on October 11, 1967. He helped the Bruins make the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons, but they were swept in the first round by Montreal. Cheevers had another solid year in the 1968–69 NHL season, going 28–12–12 with a 2.80 GAA. During the postseason, Cheevers recorded his first playoff shutout on April 2 vs the Toronto Maple Leafs and recorded his second the following day as the Bruins reached the semifinals, where they were defeated by Montreal in six games.
The following year in the 1969–70 NHL season, Cheevers had a break-out season and started the year with a shutout streak of 151 minutes, 26 seconds. After shutouts of Oakland (6–0) and Pittsburgh (4–0), Cheevers' streak ended at on October 25 at the 31:26 mark of the Bruins' 4–2 win in Oakland. He went on to finish the year with a record of 24–8–8 with four shutouts, a 2.72 GAA, and an improved .919 save percentage. During the postseason, Cheevers went a nearly perfect 12–1 to bring home Boston's first cup in 29 years.
Cheevers had another great season the following year going 27–8–5 with a 2.73 GAA and .918 SV% with three shutouts, as the Bruins finished with a league best record. However, he and the Bruins were upset by the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs. Cheevers and the Bruins bounced back in the following season, as he went undefeated in 32 consecutive games, an NHL record that still stands. He finished the year with a 27–5–8 record, achieving career bests in both GAA, with 2.50, and a .920 SV%. During the postseason, Cheevers split time with Eddie Johnston, and went 6–2 with two shutouts, with the last one being in the decisive Game 6 as Boston won their second Cup in three years.
Throughout this time, he started gaining a reputation as a driven, "money" goaltender. Cheevers held the Boston Bruins' record for most playoff wins by a goaltender (53) until it was surpassed by Tuukka Rask in 2021. Former Bruins general manager Milt Schmidt once stated in his 2002 book Without Fear that "Cheesy (Cheevers) was a big-money player, one of the greatest. When the need was there to make one big save to save a game, Cheesy was there."
On July 27, 1972, Cheevers signed with the upstart Cleveland Crusaders of the World Hockey Association for the 1972–73 WHA season. He would ultimately play over three seasons for the Cleveland Crusaders. He later commented on his surprising exit from the Bruins:
I was struggling to make the money I thought I deserved with the Bruins, They had a negotiator who was a pretty hardcore guy. He was a lawyer and didn't know much about Hockey. They offered me a very minimal raise. It sort of hit me. I called Tommy Johnson, who was our coach, and said, 'Tommy, I can't take this. I've got an offer that'll stagger you.' He said, 'Don't do anything. Come back in three or four days,' so I came back in three or four days and Tommy said, 'I'm here to offer you whatever the other team offered you.' I told him what Cleveland offered and he said, 'Can't do it, Gerry. Do they need a coach?