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Steve KraftcheckSteve Kraftcheck played his early hockey in Hamilton Noted AHL star defenceman set records held for decades, inducted into league’s Hall of Fame in 2008 Although born in the hamlet of Tinturn, Ontario, just outside of Smithville, Steve Kraftcheck played his early hockey in Hamilton. He would go on to an illustrious career in the professional ranks, and while he did play in the National Hockey League, his legacy was with the American Hockey League. He also played with the Hamilton Aerovox team for three seasons at this time, including the championship OHA Junior B club of 1948 that won the title and the Sutherland Cup in 1948. After that he played some minor pro for San Francisco of the Pacific Coast Hockey League before signing up with the Cleveland Barons of the AHL for the 1949-50 season. Known as one of the steadiest and smartest defencemen in the AHL, he would become a perennial all-star with the league, holding a 40-year record of 453 points (67 goals, 386 assists) in his 13 seasons with the AHL, a record that was not broken until 2005. He played in 157 NHL games, scoring 11 goals. He played in five AHL all-star games, and his efforts have been rewarded numerous times.
While Kraftcheck was honored by the Hamilton Bulldogs as a Hometown Hockey Hero in 2003, and inducted into the Rochester Americans’ Hall of Fame, he was inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame in 2008. Kraftcheck was also the first winner of the AHL’s Eddie Shore Award (1958-59), which is presented to the league’s top defenceman. Although Kraftcheck died in 1997 in his Rhode Island home, his son Bruce was present during the AHL Hall of Fame ceremonies in Binghamton, New York. “I was born in 1962 and he retired in 1964 so I never really got to see him play but I’ve read many of his clipping from his scrapbooks that my mother kept,” the younger Kraftcheck said when representing his late father at the ceremony. “He loved hockey. He thought it was a great life.”
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