Bobby Orr
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Robert Gordon "Bobby" Orr, (born March 20, 1948 in Parry Sound, Ontario) is a retired Canadian ice hockey defenceman and is considered by many to be the greatest hockey player of all-time.
Bobby Orr's ice hockey skills were evident at a very early age. He was signed by Boston Bruins organization at the age of twelve. As a 14-year-old he played junior hockey against eighteen, nineteen and twenty-year-olds. In 1966 he signed his first pro contract with the Boston Bruins. A contract which made Orr the highest-paid player in league history.
In his first professional season he won the Calder Memorial Trophy as top NHL rookie. Injuries limited Orr to just 46 games in the 1967-68 NHL season, but he registered an amazing +65 and won the first of eight straight Norris trophies. In 1969-70 he did the unthinkable by scoring 120 points(six shy of the league record) and becoming the first (and to date, only) defenseman in history to win the Art Ross Trophy as the league's leading scorer. Orr also won his first of three Hart Trophies as regular-season MVP. In that same season he also won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. The photo of Orr flying through the air, his arms raised in victory after scoring the Stanley Cup winning goal is perhaps the most famous hockey photo of all time.
Orr would suffer numerous knee injuries which hampered his short NHL career. In 1976, despite several knee operations that left him playing in severe pain, Bobby Orr was named the MVP in the innaugural Canada Cup Tournement.
Orr was traded to the Chicago Black Hawks in 1976. His injuries rendered him too severely hurt to play, and was forced to retire after playing in only 26 games over the next three seasons. The mandatory three-year waiting period was waived and in 1979 he was enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame at age 31. He was the youngest player to be inducted and one of only ten players to get in without having to wait three years.