According to Gabriel Foley of Pro Hockey Rumors, former Toronto Maple Leafs right winger Ron Ellis of Lindsay, Ontario passed away on Saturday at the age of 79. Ellis played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League with the Maple Leafs from 1963 to 1981.
In 1034 NHL regular season games, Ellis had 332 goals and 308 assists for 640 points. He was a +74 with 207 penalty minutes, 118 power-play points, 11 shorthanded points, 50 game-winning goals and 2333 shots on goal.
Ellis represented the Maple Leafs in four NHL All-Star Games in 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1970. He also won the 1967 Stanley Cup with the Maple Leafs. In 70 playoff games, he had 18 goals and eight assists for 26 points. He was a -8 with 20 penalty minutes, four power-play goals, two game-winning goals, and 153 shots on goal. The two postseason game-winning goals came in the 1978 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The first came in a 4-0 Maple Leafs win over the Los Angeles Kings on April 13, 1978 in game two of the Preliminary Round. Ellis scored from Darryl Sittler of Kitchener, Ontario at 1:12 of the first period which put Toronto up 1-0 at the time. The second game-winner came in a 2-0 Maple Leafs win over the New York Islanders on April 21, 1978 in game three of the quarterfinals. Ellis scored from Jimmy Jones of Woodbridge, Ontario and Tiger Williams of Weyburn, Saskatchewan at 14:37 of the second period which also put Toronto up 1-0 at the time.
In Ellis’s NHL career, he had six hat tricks. They came in a 5-3 Maple Leafs win over the Chicago Black Hawks on December 10, 1966, in a 5-5 Maple Leafs tie wit the Minnesota Northstars on February 5, 1969, in a 6-1 Maple Leafs win over the Detroit Red Wings on November 1, 1971, in a 5-3 Maple Leafs loss to the Vancouver Canucks on March 24, 1972, in a 4-2 Canucks win over the Atlanta Flames on December 14, 1974, and in a 6-1 Maple Leafs win over the St. Louis Blues on December 23, 1978.
