You won’t find these brothers in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Nonetheless, the hockey careers of goaltending siblings Ken and Len Broderick are interesting and play and sit fairly prominently in Canadian hockey history. Len is one of just a handful of OHL goalies to win the Dave Pinkney Trophy in consecutive seasons. Ken twice played for Canada at the Winter Olympics and has a bronze medal to show for it.
Len Broderick
The older of the two, Len played four years of Junior A hockey with the Toronto Marlboros between 1955-56 and 1958-59. In 1956-57, he had a 2.48 goals against average over 42 games. He earned the Dave Pinkney Trophy for the lowest GAA and helped the Marlboros to a second place finish in the eight team league. However, Toronto was upset in the semi-finals of the Robertson Cup playoffs by the St. Catherines Teepees.
The following year, 1957-58, Broderick was once again awarded the Pinkney Trophy with a 3.28 GAA over 40 games. The Marlboros dropped to fourth place in the eight team league but won the Robertson Cup championship, with a win over the Hamilton Tiger Cubs in the finals. Toronto got revenge on St. Catherines, upsetting the first place Teepees in the semi-finals. The Marlboros then lost to the Ottawa-Hull Canadiens in the Eastern Canada Memorial Cup finals.
In that 1957-58 season, Len appeared in his only National Hockey League game. Property of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Broderick was loaned to the Montreal Canadiens for a single game because Jacques Plante fell sick. Len allowed two goals on 22 shots and the Habs beat the Maple Leafs 6-2.
What was unique about that single NHL games was that it got Len on a hockey card. In the 1957-58 Parkhurst set, he is featured front and centre on action card number 21 captioned ‘Canadiens on Guard’. It is the only hockey card that featured Broderick and is valued at twice that of a common card.
In 1959-60, Len took his only real shot at pro hockey. He backed up Jacques Marotte with the St. Paul Saints in the IHL. Marotte played 69 of 72 games with Broderick getting into just three games. His goals against average was a lofty 5.33. The Fred Shero coached Saints won the championship, beating the Muskegon Zephyrs in the finals.
Ken Broderick
Ken, younger by two years, also played his junior hockey with the Toronto Marlboros. He played three years with Toronto from 1958-59 to 1960-61 then an additional year of junior with the Brampton 7-Ups.
In his second season with the Marlboros, Broderick played in all 48 regular season games for the team, posting four shutouts. Toronto placed first overall in the seven team league but were swept by the fourth place St. Michael’s Majors in the semi-finals.
In 1960-61, Ken played in 45 of 48 regular season games for the Turk Broda coached Marlboros. As is the cycle of junior hockey, Toronto finished last out of seven, 13 points behind the sixth place Peterborough TPT’s. That year, he also played his first pro hockey, appearing in three games in the IHL with the St. Paul Saints.
1964 was the first Olympics for Broderick. The games were held in Innsbruck, Austria and Ken played in six games, posting a 4.16 GAA. Canada placed fourth behind the Soviet, Sweden and Czechoslovakia.
The following year, he played for Canada at the IIHF World Championships. At the tournament held in Tampere, Finland, Canada once again finished fourth. The top three were the same but Sweden and the Czechs switched spots. Despite finishing out of the medals, Broderick put up great numbers with a 2.20 GAA over five games.
If we were to ask Ken Broderick what the pinnacle of his hockey career was, I’d assume he’d say the 1968 Winter Olympics. In Grenoble, France, Canada got on the podium with a bronze medal finish, behind the Soviets and Czechs. Over five games, Ken posted a 2.57 GAA and shared duties with another future NHLer Wayne Stephenson. Broderick was named top goaltender in the tournament.
As a pro player, Ken had a career that spanned from 1965-66 to 1977-78. He played in the WHL, CHL, AHL, NAHL, NHL and WHA. His top season in the minors came in 1972-73 with the San Diego Gulls of the WHL. Over 51 games, he had a 2.94 goals against average and three shutouts. The Jack Evans coached Gulls finished third of six during the regular season and lost in the opening round to the Phoenix Roadrunners. However, Broderick was honoured with the George Leader Cup as WHL MVP and the Outstanding Goalkeeper Award.
Ken’s NHL career was limited to 27 games between 1969-70 and 1974-75. He played in seven games with the Minnesota North Stars in 1969-70 then didn’t play another game in the NHL until 1973-74 when he appeared in five with the Boston Bruins. In 1974-75, he played 15 more with the Bruins.
In the World Hockey Association, Broderick played 40 games for the Edmonton Oilers in 1976-77 with an additional three in the playoffs. The following year, 1977-78, his last in pro hockey, Ken played nine games with the Oilers and 24 games with the Quebec Nordiques.
The Ken Broderick rookie card appears as number 197 in the 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee set. Valued as a common card, Broderick is shown as a member of the Minnesota North Stars. As mentioned, Ken would play seven games with the North Stars in 1969-70 and then would not play an NHL game over the next three seasons.
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