Eddie Joyal, a center who broke into the NHL alongside Gordie Howe and became a fan favorite in Los Angeles after Kings owner Jack Kent Cooke branded him “The Jet,” has died at 86. The NHL confirmed his death Sunday.
Born May 8, 1940, in St. Albert, Alberta, Joyal learned the game on a frozen river downhill from his home. He signed with Detroit and ground through two minor-league seasons — 37 goals in Edmonton, a full year in Pittsburgh — before the Red Wings called him up in 1962-63. He produced 10 points in his first 14 NHL games, with Howe taking the young Albertan under his wing.
Joyal suited up for the 1963 Stanley Cup Final against Toronto. In Game 4, he scored a goal assisted by Howe — one of five shots he generated in the series loss.
The following January, Joyal supplied the insurance marker in Terry Sawchuk’s 2-0 shutout of Montreal, the 95th of Sawchuk’s career and the one that pushed him past George Hainsworth for first on the NHL’s all-time shutout list. Sawchuk finished with 104. The record held for 45 years until Martin Brodeur broke it.
In the 1964 Stanley Cup Final, Joyal beat Hall of Fame goaltender Johnny Bower for a game-winner that gave Detroit a 3-2 series lead over the Maple Leafs. Detroit lost the series in seven.
“We beat Toronto 2-1 in Toronto and that was a pretty big deal for me, but we didn’t win the series,” Joyal told the St. Albert Gazette in 2016. “We should’ve won that series, but we blew it.”
Detroit shipped Joyal to Toronto in the spring of 1965 in a multi-player swap that brought Andy Bathgate, Billy Harris, and Gary Jarrett to the Red Wings. Joyal played only 14 games for the Leafs before spending most of the next two years in the AHL. He put up 83 points in 70 games for Rochester in 1966-67 — the kind of minor-league season that makes a coach take notice.
The 1967 expansion draft handed him a second act. Los Angeles selected him, and Joyal responded with 33, 23, 18, and 20 goals across his first four seasons on the West Coast. Cooke hung “The Jet” on him as a marketing hook, selling fans on speed and scoring.
“I don’t know where he got the idea that I was a Jet,” Joyal told the St. Albert Gazette. “We used to have races in training camp in L.A. and I never came in better than fourth in the races.”
In four and a half seasons with the Kings, Joyal scored 105 goals and 204 points in 319 games. Los Angeles traded him to Philadelphia in January 1972, and he closed his NHL career as a role player with the Flyers.
Across 465 NHL games spanning four franchises — Detroit, Toronto, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia — Joyal totaled 128 goals and 134 assists for 262 points. He played four more seasons in the World Hockey Association with the Alberta/Edmonton Oilers, scoring 22 goals twice, before retiring in 1976.
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