![Schultz got to kiss the Cup twice in his four years with the Flyers. [Philadelphia Flyers]](/images/stories/flexicontent/l_schultz-cup.jpg "Legend::Schultz got to kiss the Cup twice in his four years with the Flyers. [Philadelphia Flyers]")
For the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1970s, “The Hammer” was but one component of a multi-faceted toolbox that yielded back-to-back Stanley Cup championships.
The Flyers selected left wing Dave “The Hammer” Schultz in the fifth round, 52nd overall, of the 1969 National Hockey League Entry Draft. The native of Waldheim, Saskatoon, showed early promise as a goal scorer.
From junior hockey through his first year as a professional with the Eastern Hockey League’s Salem Rebels, Schultz recorded consecutive seasons of 35, 31 and 32 goals. But with the Rebels, Schultz also posted 356 penalty minutes.
Although he never would be a prolific goal scorer, Schultz would continue to pound away on opponents. He spent the next two seasons in the American Hockey League (a total of 774 penalty minutes) before settling in with the Flyers in 1972-73.
Single-season record for penalty minutes
In four full seasons with the Broad Street Bullies, as the rough-and-tumble team came to be known, he averaged 347 penalty minutes. His total of 472 in 1974-75 remains an NHL single-season record.
Schultz’s best offensive season was 1973-74, when he reached 20 goals for the only time in his NHL career and tallied 36 points. The Flyers won the Stanley Cup that season and the next one.
![Schultz showed plenty of fight while racking up 2,294 penalty minutes in 535 NHL games. [Philadelphia Flyers]](http://www.papuck.com/images/73_Shultz_fight.jpg)
Trades led Schultz to the Los Angeles Kings for 1976-77. He then spent the final three seasons of his career among the Kings, Pittsburgh and Buffalo in the NHL and the Sabres’ AHL affiliate in Rochester.
He retired as a player after that campaign and began a sporadic coaching career: only five seasons but across three decades, starting in 1985-86 with the New York Slapshots of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League. In the 1990s, he coached teams in the Colonial Hockey League, East Coast Hockey league and United Hockey League.
Schultz was to have been the original head coach of the UHL’s expansion Lehigh Valley Xtreme, which also had a logo and a full line of merchandise but no arena. Plans to build one in Allentown in 2000 never came to fruition.
His last stint behind the bench came in 2004-05, when he took over mid-season for the UHL’s Elmira Jackals.
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