Hugh Plaxton: The Goalie Who Wasn’t a Goalie

One of the more unusual cards in my Goalie Archive belongs to Hugh Plaxton, a player who wasn’t known as a goaltender.

Plaxton was a forward. He represented Canada at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, where Canada won the gold medal. Plaxton was one of the tournament’s dominant offensive players, scoring 12 goals in only three games.

After stepping away from high-level hockey, Plaxton returned during the 1932–33 season and played 17 NHL games with the Montreal Maroons, recording one goal and three assists.

During his brief NHL stint, Plaxton reportedly played one game in goal for the Maroons, allowing five goals in a loss. A forward appearing in net sounds bizarre today, but in an era before teams routinely carried dedicated backup goaltenders, unusual situations like this occasionally occurred; many players pre-1960 are featured in the archive for reasons like this.

For collectors, Plaxton is equally interesting. The 1928 Olympic Salem Biler #2 hockey card is believed to be his only contemporary player card and therefore his rookie card. It predates his NHL career by several years and represents him from the era in which he became an Olympic champion.

The forensic collector's thoughts are that the player charging toward the Swiss goal is believed to be Dave Trottier, while the Swiss goalie is Adolf Martignoni. Hockey historian Joe Pelletier identifies the tall trailing Canadian as likely Hugh Plaxton, although he notes the identification isn't absolutely certain.