SAN JOSE — Wayne Thomas, who spent 45 years in professional hockey, first as an NHL goalie with three Original Six franchises, and then began a post-playing career that included over two decades with the San Jose Sharks as a coach and executive, died Wednesday after a long battle with cancer, the team announced. Thomas was 77.
Following his retirement as a player in 1981, Thomas spent over a decade coaching, both as an assistant in the NHL and as a head coach in the now-defunct IHL, before joining the Sharks in 1993 to work as an assistant to the general manager and assistant coach.
Over the next 21 years, Thomas would assume a larger, day-to-day role in working with the Sharks’ goaltenders, including Evgeni Nabokov, the organization’s all-time winningest goaltender. He later became the Sharks’ assistant general manager, where he was involved in all aspects of the team’s on- and off-ice operations.
Thomas retired from the Sharks as vice president and assistant general manager in 2015.
Thomas, born in 1947 in Ottawa, Ontario, played in the NHL from 1972 to 1981, spending two seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, two with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and four with the New York Rangers.
Before starting his professional career, Thomas played three years at the University of Wisconsin under legendary coach Bob Johnson, recording a shutout in his first game in 1968, an 11–0 victory against Pennsylvania. In 1970, Wisconsin’s first season in the WCHA, he helped lead the team to the Frozen Four Tournament in Lake Placid, New York.
The Maple Leafs originally held Thomas’ NHL rights, but he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings organization in 1968 and eventually to the Canadiens in 1970.
Thomas spent the 1970-1972 seasons in the American Hockey League with Montreal and Nova Scotia, capturing the Calder Cup in 1972 with Nova Scotia.
Thomas made his NHL debut the following season with the Canadiens, becoming the 10th goalie in NHL history to record a shutout in his debut, with a 3–0 victory against the Vancouver Canucks. He won his first seven consecutive home starts, and recorded an 8–1 record, along with a 2.37 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage.
During the 1973-74 season, Thomas’s goals-against average (2.77) was the fourth-best in the NHL, and on March 10, 1974, he set a Canadiens record with 53 saves in a 5–4 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins (since tied by Carey Price).
In June 1975, he was traded to the Maple Leafs in exchange for a first-round draft pick. The 1975-76 season would be his best, as he played in a career-high 64 games, posted 28 wins, and was selected to the 1976 NHL All-Star Team.
The Rangers claimed Thomas in the 1977 Waiver Draft, and he would spend the next four seasons in New York, working in tandem with John Davidson.
Thomas ended his NHL playing career in 1981, finishing with a 103-93-34 record, a 3.34 GAA, and 10 shutouts. Wayne also appeared in 82 Stanley Cup playoff games with Toronto and the Rangers.
After his playing career, he was hired by the Rangers as a goaltending coach, one of the first in professional hockey, a position he held until the end of the 1984–85 season.
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In 1985, Thomas became the head coach of the Salt Lake Golden Eagles of the International Hockey League (IHL). In his second year in Salt Lake City, the Golden Eagles won the League’s Championship, the Turner Cup, and Thomas was awarded the Commissioner’s Trophy as the IHL’s Coach of the Year.
Between 1986 and 1993, Thomas served as an assistant coach with the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues.
He is survived by his wife, Barb (Baeder); daughters Gretchen Kane of New York, NY, and Abra Larson of Deephaven, MN; and brother Gary Thomas of Richmond, Ontario. A public celebration of Wayne’s life will be held in mid-August in Minneapolis.