In NHL,Mohns collected710 points

Published 12:00 am Friday, February 14, 2014

Doug Mohns, a durable and versatile skater who lasted 22 seasons in the National Hockey League, playing in seven All-Star games, died Feb. 7 in Reading, Mass. He was 80.

The cause was myelodysplastic syndrome, a blood and bone marrow disorder, said his wife, Tabor Ansin Mohns.

For most of his career, which extended from 1953 to 1975, Mohns was a stalwart of the old, compact NHL — when there were only six franchises, rivalries were especially intense, no one wore a helmet and players were intimately acquainted with the strengths and weaknesses of players on every other club.

He played 11 seasons for the Boston Bruins and had his most productive period in Chicago, playing for the Black Hawks (now the Blackhawks), before finishing his career in the era of expansion with the Minnesota North Stars, the Atlanta Flames and the Washington Capitals.

Agile, swift and sturdy on the ice and tough to separate from the puck once he controlled it, Mohns could play both as a wing on the front line and on defense. When he retired, he was in the career top 10 in regular-season games played, with 1,390. He is still in the top 40.

Though not primarily a scorer, he was, in the early 1950s, among the first wave of players to adopt the slap shot, and he had four consecutive seasons with Chicago, from 1965 to 1966 through 1968 to 1969, in which he scored more than 20 goals, often skating on the left wing with Stan Mikita at center and Ken Wharram on the right, a combination known as the scooter line. Over his career, he scored 248 regular-season goals and had 462 assists.

Douglas Allen Mohns was born on Dec. 13, 1933, in Capreol, Ontario, where his father worked for a railroad. He was a gifted skater from an early age; according to his website, he was offered a contract with the Ice Capades when he was 7.

He began playing organized hockey at age 14, became a Canadian junior hockey star with the Barrie Flyers and ascended to the Bruins when he was 19. He scored in his first game, a victory over the Montreal Canadiens, though he would have limited good luck against Montreal from then on. He never played on a Stanley Cup winner, but he played in the finals three times, in 1957 and 1958 with Boston and in 1965 with Chicago, losing to the Canadiens each time.

Mohns’s previous marriage to Jane Foster ended with her death in 1988. In addition to his wife, he is survived by a sister, Erma Wilson; a son, Douglas Jr.; a daughter, Andrea Brillaud; a stepson, Greg Ansin; a stepdaughter, Lisa Ansin; and nine grandchildren.