The farm system seeded by Canadiens GM Frank Selke in the later 1940s began to bear fruit in the early 1950s. In 1953, it yielded a Stanley Cup, the first of six he’d win with Montreal. Today’s sad news is that the last surviving member of that ’53 Montreal team died earlier this week: the former centre Paul Masnick, pictured above on the left, was 92.

Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1931, he played junior for his hometown Pats before joining Montreal in 1950. That’s Selke pictured here, above, sitting in a grove of his recruits in a photograph dating to (at a reasonable guess) the start of that championship ’52-’53 season, which would put all four players at 21 or 22. Arrayed here with Masnick are fellow centremen Reg Abbott and Jean Béliveau with left winger Dickie Moore rounding out the group. Selke, Masnick and Moore got their names etched on the Cup that year; Abbott and Béliveau weren’t so fortunate. Each of those two skated in three regular-season games but neither one saw any ice in the playoffs. Abbott’s statistics were and remain blanks — he failed register a goal or assist, incurred no penalty minutes — and he never played another NHL game. For his part, Béliveau, scored five goals in his three games, launching a career that nobody has to be reminded to celebrate. Masnick played in half of Montreal’s 12 playoff games that year, scoring a single goal against the Boston Bruins in game three of the Final, a 3-0 Montreal win.

Masnick played in parts of five seasons for Montreal. His best offensive numbers came in the regular season of 1953-54, when he scored five goals and 26 points, which was one more than Elmer Lach got that year, and eight behind Béliveau. Masnick went on to play for the Chicago Black Hawks and Toronto Maple Leafs. After playing his last NHL game in 1958, he continued on in the WHL and IHL, skating for the Saskatoon Quakers, Victoria Cougars, and St. Paul Fighting Saints, among other teams.

(Image: Weekend Magazine/ Louis Jaques/ Library and Archives Canada/ e002505710)