Cecil Dillon

Playing in the shadows of the likes of Frank Boucher and Cook brothers, Bill and Bun, it is easy to understand how a player like Cecil Dillon was one of the most underrated players of his day.

But in 10 NHL seasons, 9 with the Rangers, Dillon was the consummate professional, never missing a game with the Rangers.
In 409 consecutive games he scored 160 goals and 281 points.

A right winger with a left handed shot, Dillon made a name for himself early playing on a line with Butch Keeling and Murray Murdoch. The trio were instrumental in the Rangers' 1933 Stanley Cup championship, especially Dillon. In 8 games he scored 8 goals and 10 points in 8 games, leading all NHLers in scoring. Had there been a playoff MVP award back then, Cecil Dillon was sure to have won it that spring.

From 1936 through 1938 he led the Rangers in scoring three consecutive years, joining an exclusive club of Boucher, Bill Cook, Andy Bathgate, Phil Esposito and Wayne Gretzky as the only players to do so.

Dillon, who was known to love Frank Boucher's stories, most of them completely fabricated, about his days in the RCMP, was sold to the Detroit Red Wings for the 1939-40 season, Dillon's last season in the NHL. That year the Rangers won another Stanley Cup, as Dillon prepared to say good bye.

Dillon was one of the very few American born players in the early days of the NHL. Dillon was born in Toledo, Ohio on April 26th, 1908 although he actually grew up in Thornbury, Ontario.

Dillon returned to Thornbury after hockey and worked for the local phone company. He died at the age of 61 in 1969.