George Hainsworth legendary Montreal and Toronto goalie

On our walk at Woodlawn Cemetery in Kitchener, Ontario, my wife discovered the grave of legendary NHL goalie George Hainsworth.

Born in Toronto’s Beaches neighborhood, George eventually settled in Berlin, Ontario (now Kitchener), where he spent his entire amateur hockey career before stepping onto the NHL stage in 1926.

Hainsworth’s big break came when he replaced the late George Vezina, who tragically died of tuberculosis. In Vezina’s honour, the NHL created the Vezina Trophy, awarded to the league’s top goaltender.

George Vezina 

George Hainsworth dominated early on, winning the Vezina Trophy for the first three consecutive years after its inception. His 1928-29 season remains legendary: he set an NHL record with 22 shutouts—a mark that still stands—while posting a phenomenal 0.92 goals-against average over just 44 games. Tony Esposito’s second-best record of 15 shutouts underscores how extraordinary this feat was.

Even more impressively, during the 1930 playoffs, Hainsworth went 270 minutes and 8 seconds without allowing a goal—that’s over 4 and a half games of perfect netminding, a record that still stands.

In 1933, the Montreal Canadiens traded Hainsworth to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for goalie Lorne Chabot. Hainsworth led the Leafs to the Stanley Cup finals in 1935 before being replaced by the legendary Turk Broda in 1936.

Lorne Chabot

George Hainsworth’s name remains etched in hockey history as one of the greatest goalies of all time.

Sadly, the two-time Stanley Cup winner and 1961 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, George Hainsworth died in a head-on-collison in Gravenhust, Ontario on October 9, 1950. He was only 57.

1893-1950