Andrew Alexander "Spuds" Hebenton (October 3, 1929 – January 29, 2019) was a Canadian professional ice hockey right winger. At the time of his retirement, he held the record for the longest streak without missing a game in professional hockey history.
The following season his rights were purchased by the New York Rangers of the NHL, for whom he played for eight seasons. Hebenton scored his first NHL goal on October 16, 1955, in New York's 4-1 loss at Boston. He scored twenty goals or more in five of those seasons, his best year coming in 1958–59, when he scored 33 goals and 29 assists and was the runner up for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for gentlemanly play, which he had won in 1956-57. After the 1962–63 season, the Boston Bruins acquired Hebenton in the waiver draft, for whom he played his final NHL season. He played 630 straight NHL games in all, breaking the record for the most consecutive games which is now currently held by Phil Kessel.
Hebenton's rights were sold by Boston after the 1963–64 season to the Portland Buckaroos of the WHL, and he remained in Portland for the rest of the league's history (barring two seasons back in Victoria), becoming one of the WHL's all-time leading scorers and perennial stars, and missing only two games. He was a perennial winner of the Fred Hume Cup for gentlemanly play, winning it nearly half the seasons it was offered, the final time when he was 43 years old.
From the last six game of the 1951-52 to the first two of the 1967-68 season, Hebenton played at 1,062 consecutive regular season professional games. Including playoffs, which aren't included in NHL records, Hebenton played a total of 1,131 consecutive games. Hebenton missed the games in 1967 to attend the funeral of his father in Winnipeg.
In all, Hebenton played in 630 NHL games, scoring 189 goals and 202 assists for 391 points. He likewise played in 1056 PCHL/WHL games, scoring 425 goals and 532 assists for 957 points. Hebenton's remarkable consecutive games streak lasted at least from the 1952 season through to the end of the 1967 season—he missed three games in 1951 for the Victoria Cougars and two games in 1967/1968 with the Portland Buckaroos-so the streak was likely longer, for an unrivalled total of at least 1,054 consecutive games. By contrast, Doug Jarvis' professional streak—the second longest in history—is 988 games. He died on January 29, 2019, in at an assisted living facility in Gresham, Oregon, at the age of 89.
Hebenton was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
1946–47 | St. Boniface Canadiens | MAHA | — | — |
1946–47 | Winnipeg Canadians | MJHL | 15 | — |
1947–48 | Winnipeg Canadians | MJHL | 34 | 6 |
1949–50 | Cincinnati Mohawks | AHL | 0 | — |
1949–50 | Montreal Royals | QSHL | 0 | — |
1950–51 | Victoria Cougars | PCHL | 12 | 2 |
1951–52 | Victoria Cougars | PCHL | 81 | 5 |
1952–53 | Victoria Cougars | WHL | 46 | — |
1953–54 | Victoria Cougars | WHL | 29 | 0 |
1954–55 | Victoria Cougars | WHL | 20 | 2 |
1955–56 | New York Rangers | NHL | 8 | 2 |
1956–57 | New York Rangers | NHL | 10 | 2 |
1957–58 | New York Rangers | NHL | 17 | 4 |
1958–59 | New York Rangers | NHL | 8 | — |
1959–60 | New York Rangers | NHL | 4 | — |
1960–61 | New York Rangers | NHL | 10 | — |
1961–62 | New York Rangers | NHL | 10 | 0 |
1962–63 | New York Rangers | NHL | 8 | — |
1963–64 | Boston Bruins | NHL | 8 | — |
1964–65 | Portland Buckaroos | WHL | 16 | 0 |
1965–66 | Victoria Maple Leafs | WHL | 12 | 14 |
1966–67 | Victoria Maple Leafs | WHL | 19 | — |
1967–68 | Portland Buckaroos | WHL | 10 | 0 |
1968–69 | Portland Buckaroos | WHL | 26 | 0 |
1969–70 | Portland Buckaroos | WHL | 9 | 0 |
1970–71 | Portland Buckaroos | WHL | 10 | 14 |
1971–72 | Portland Buckaroos | WHL | 12 | 2 |
1972–73 | Portland Buckaroos | WHL | 26 | — |
1973–74 | Portland Buckaroos | WHL | 16 | 2 |
1974–75 | Seattle Totems | CHL | 0 | — |
1974–75 | Portland Buckaroos | WIHL | 0 | — |
|
|