Eddie Joyal must have felt as if he was rubbing elbows with NHL royalty when he joined the Detroit Red Wings as a rookie in 1962-63.
Legend Gordie Howe took the Alberta center under his wing and the youngster produced 10 points in his first 14 NHL games. Joyal played for Detroit in the 1963 Stanley Cup Final, generating five shots and a goal (assisted by Howe) in Game 4 of the series loss to the Maple Leafs.
Joyal's early success with the Red Wings is being mentioned today as the league marks his death at age 86. But Joyal is probably best known for his time wearing a Los Angeles Kings jersey. He had his most productive seasons for the Kings.
In his second NHL season, on Jan. 18, 1964. Joyal supplied the insurance goal in Detroit goalie Terry Sawchuk's 2-0 shutout against the Montreal. It was Sawchuk's 95th career NHL shutout to move him past George Hainsworth for first place on the league's All-time shutout list. Sawchuk finished his career with 104 shutouts and held the shutout mark for 45 years before Marty Brodeur claimed it.
Another Joyal highlight was netting the game winner against Johnny Bower to give Detroit a 3-2 series lead against Toronto in the 1964 Stanley Cup Final.
“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 a 2016 interview. "We should’ve won that series, but we blew it.”
The Red Wings traded Joyal in the spring of 1965 to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto received Joyal, Autry Erickson, Larry Jeffrey, Lowell MacDonald and Marcel Pronovost from Detroit for Andy Bathgate, Billy Harris and Gary Jarrett.
Fan Favorite in LA
Joyal's big break was being selected by the Los Angeles Kings in the 1967 expansion draft. The season before, Joyal spent most of his season in the minors. In his first four seasons in Los Angeles, he scored 33, 23, 18 and 20 goals.
He was a fan favorite in Los Angeles and Kings owner Jack Kent Cooke game him the nickname "The Jet" as a marketing strategy. He said he wanted fans to appreciate his speed and scoring ability.
" 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 Los Angeles, Joyal scored 105 goals and register 204 points in 319 games. in his NHL career he showed 128 goals and 134 assists for 262 points. Her played for the Edmonton Oilers in the WHL.