Joe Leto, Pres. Garden City Retired Men’s Club Ed Westfall NHLHockey all-star, George Salem, Program Director Garden City retired Men’s Club On Monday October 26th, the Garden City Retired Men’s Club enjoyed an exciting and memorable presentation by Ed Westfall, star NHL player and TV broadcaster for the New York Islanders. Ed quickly brought us back to a special period in our lives, reminiscing with him the days we played ‘hockey’ in the streets with an old stick and a tennis ball. He talked on his successful climb from the streets of Canada, through the Canadian Junior League to a position of defense forward behind the legendary Bobby Orr. “It wasn’t easy” he said “and the pay, although adequate, was no comparison to the contract players receive today.” When the Islanders won the first Stanley Cup, the payroll for the entire team was 1.8 million dollars, much less than a single average player receives today. At the young age of 18, Ed joined the Boston Bruins, where he helped the Bruins win two Stanley cups and joined the All Star ranks in the 1960’s. After 11 years he moved to the newly formed New York Islander. He played seven years for the Islanders, starting with the Isles first year in the league. He was named the first Captain ever for the team. He went on to play 1,226 NHL games, scored 231 goals and 394 assists, and was four time All Star. After retiring from his playing days in 1979, Ed was TV broadcaster for the Isles with his partner Jigs McDonald. In days gone by, we often talked about the ‘hot stove league’ where in the winter we would gather around an old coal stove and talk current and old time baseball. Today we sat around and thoroughly enjoyed a ‘hot stove league’ discussion with Ed Westfall. Thank you Ed.