Absurd Goalie Monday: Wilf Cude

Time to look back at a different time, a different era, and a time where we had a decent amount of British players in the league. This is a time were because franchises came and went, the goalies often were just hanging around, waiting for someone to get injured. Luckily, for this week's AGM-- he got on with a lot of teams because of injury. However, he has been blamed for being part of the darkest days of one of the leagues most hallowed franchises. This week, the profile of Wilf Cude.

Born in Barry, South Wales, Great Britain; Cude honed his craft when he moved over to Winnipeg, Manitoba, playing for St. Vital Athletic Club for three years and then moving to the senior leagues with the Winnipeg Wellingtons in the 1928-29 season. The 1929-30 season had Cude play with the Melville Millionaires, going 13-6-1 in 20 games that season.

In February of 1930, Cude signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates; but would never play a game there as the Pirates would relocated to Philadelphia and become the Quakers. The 1930-31, Cude would make his NHL debut with the Quakers, but would only go 2-25-3 in 30 games for the hapless Quakers, who could disband after the season.

With a lack of jobs, Cude would pretty much go anywhere and everywhere in the 1931-32 season. He would play two games with the Chicago Blackhawks (1-1-0), one game in relief for the Boston Bruins (no decision), and one game with the IHL's Syracuse Stars (a tie). Cude would spend most of the time that season in the Can-Am League with the Boston Cubs, finishing with a 7-7-1 record in 15 games. Cude played in the Can-Am again in the 1932-33 season, while returning to Philadelphia with the Arrows, going 21-9-2 in 32 games, then 2-3 in five playoff games.

In a cross-league trade, Cude was traded from Philadelphia to the Montreal Canadiens before the 1933-34 season, but would only play one games (a win and shutout) for the Canadiens. Cude would play in the IHL for 19 games with Syracuse (no record available), before the Canadiens loaned out Cude to the Detroit Red Wings for a bulk of the season. With the Wings, Cude went 15-6-8 with four shutouts, then going 4-5 in nine playoff games.

Cude would be returned to the Canadiens in the 1934-35 season, compiling a 19-23-6 record in 48 games, then 0-1-1 in two playoff games. It would be a bit worse for Cude in the 1935-36 season, only putting up a 11-26-10-- though he did have six shutouts in that season. The 1936-37 season was a bounce-back year for Cude, going 22-17-5 in 47 games, but going 2-3 in five playoff games. Back for the 1937-38 campaign, Cude had a 18-17-12 record, then 1-2 in the playoffs. The 1938-39 season saw Cude split work with Claude Bourque, as Cude played in 23 games with an 8-11-4 record.

For the 1939-40 season, Cude lost his spot with the Canadiens after only seven games (1-5-1) and spent most of the season in the AHL with the New Haven Eagles, playing in 44 games with a 23-18-1 record, then going 1-2 in three playoff games. Cude would return to the Canadiens again in the 1940-41 season, but only for three games, completing with a 2-1 record before retiring.

To note, Cude played in the Howie Morenz Memorial Game and the Babe Siebert Memorial Game, which were two of the first few All-Star games to take place.

After hockey, Cude owned a private distribution company in Quebec for British American Oil. After a lengthy illnes, Cude passed away in May of 1968 at the age of 57. Cude is an Honored Member of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame.

He wasn't the biggest guy and didn't seem to have the most routine route to the NHL; he stuck to it and kept himself out there before getting the break he needed in Montreal. It just shows that if you stick around through the toughest of times, you will get rewarded at some point in time.

Absurd Goalie Monday: Joe Miller

It's time to go into the way back machine for this AGM entry, who has quite the tale to tell. This goalie was a top amateur goalie, who plotted his way through the ranks, ended up with a sub-par team, but still managed to earn a Stanley Cup championship in probably the most unlikely way and I don't mean because of the team he was on. This week, we profile the career of Joe Miller.

Miller started out his career back in an exhibition based league, playing for the Pittsburgh AA's, where he would dominate, winning 37 out of the 40 games he played in at only 16 years old. Miller would stay in the exhibition league, playing the 1917-18 season with the Renfrew Creamery Kings-- but he would only play in seven games with a 4-3-0 record.

With the 1918-19 season, Miller would move to the Ottawa City Hockey League to play for the Ottawa New Edinburghs. Miller would play only four games in the first season, going 3-1-0 with two coming by way of shutout. The 1919-20 season would give Miller more time, with seven games played and a 4-2-0 record. In both the 1920-21 and 1921-22 season, Miller would see a downturn in his stats, even though he got more time in the net. The '20-21 season had Miller in the net for 11 games with a 4-6-1 record, while an 13 game season in '21-22 would yield a 4-7-2 record. The New Edinburghs would improved for the 1922-23 season, with a 10-6-2 record for Miller at the end of the season and a playoff appearance, which would end badly with a 1-3-1 record, where apparently ties were possible. Miller's last season with the New Edinburghs would be the 1923-24 season, where he would go 9-3-0 in his 12 games, but go 0-2 in the playoffs.

With the 1924-25 season, Miller would go back to Pittsburgh to play with the Fort Pitt Panthers of the USAHA. Miller would play 22 games, going 17-5-0; but the playoffs seemed to be a hinderance to him, going 1-3 in his four appearances. Miller would move to the Central Hockey League (the first incarnation) and play with the St. Paul Saints in the 1925-26 season. Miller would post six shutouts in his 38 games during the '25-26 campaign. The Saints moved to the AHA in the 1926-27 season, which had Miller play 30 games with a 13-12-5 record.

NHL teams were lined-up to get Miller, and he would finally sign. Miller would play with the New York Americans in the 1927-28 season for half of the season, going 8-16-4 in 28 games. The second half of the season, Miller went to the CPHL to play for the Niagara Falls Cataracts, where he would put up two shutouts in the 13 games he played there.

Yet, the 1928 playoffs were something that Miller never would have gotten to if it wasn't for a little luck. In the Stanley Cup finals, New York Rangers goalie Lorne Chabot got injured during Game Two. Rangers' GM Lester Patrick had a deal in place with the Americans to take Miller out on a loan, but the Montreal Maroons wouldn't allow Miller to play in Game Two, forcing Patrick to take the reigns, and win. Miller would take over in Game Three of the Finals, which would be the only game he lost. Miller only let in three goals in the last three games of the Finals, carrying the Rangers to winning the Stanley Cup.

After the Cup Finals, the Americans got Miller back, but would trade him to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Roy Worters. The 1928-29 season was rough for Miller, as he played a league high 44 games, but had one of the worst records with a 9-27-8 record with an astonishing 11 shutouts. It wouldn't get much better for the 1929-30 season for Miller or the Pirates, as he would go 5-30-3 in his 43 games. The Pirates moved from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia to become the Quakers, but the change of scenery didn't help Miller, as he would go 2-9-1 in 12 games for the Quakers.

Miller would play one more season in the IHL with the Syracuse Stars in the 1931-32 season, but would go a subpar 5-12-3 in 20 games. After that, he would hang up the pads for good.

Miller passed away at the age of 62 in 1963.

Though he didn't have the most orthodox career, he was able to get the job done when called upon and was able to deal with being thrown into the Finals with no prep at all. Of course, the teams he did play on seemed to let him down a bit once he got to the NHL, but he was the king of the amateurs and had enough buzz about him to get a deal in the NHL and get his chance, albeit in the most unorthodox way possible.