On February 28 of 1965, Red Wings winger Val Fonteyne took a hooking penalty in the 3rd period of a 5-1 win over the Canadiens.
After this game, he went 188 games without receiving any penalty minutes, which stands as the longest streak of all time (for skaters).
That streak took him up to December 1 of 1968, when Fonteyne (now with the Penguins) took a tripping penalty in a 4-4 tie against the Golden Seals.
After that, he went 100 straight games without taking a penalty. Only 11 other players in NHL history have had a streak of 100+ games without taking a penalty.
That 100-game streak took him to February 4, 1970, when he took a holding penalty in a 7-5 win over the North Stars.
After that, he went 158 straight games without taking a penalty, which is the 3rd longest streak of all time, trailing only his own 188-game streak, and Kyle Wellwood’s 159-game streak from 2006-2009.
That streak ended in the last game of his last NHL season (1971/72), so he likely would have held the top 2 spots if he kept playing in the NHL. Instead, he went to the WHA, where he took 1 minor penalty in each of his 2 seasons (77 games played and 72 games played).
So basically for the last 597 regular season games of his professional hockey career, which spanned from 1965 to 1974, he took 4 penalties (8 PIM). In his first 375 games he took 11 penalties (22 PIM).
He had 26 PIM in 823 career NHL games. You have to go down to Clint Smith’s 483 games with 24 PIM to find someone with fewer career PIMs. He had 8 PIM in 64 combined NHL + WHA playoff games.
The numbers/streaks mentioned in this video are slightly off from what it actually was, but gives you an idea of the type of player he was (two-way penalty-killing winger):
1 comment
188 game streak without a penalty seems like a record that will never be broken.