Ken Block (ice hockey)

Kenneth Richard Block (born March 18, 1944) is a retired professional ice hockey player who played 455 games in the World Hockey Association and one game in the National Hockey League.

Playing career

After a solid junior career with the Flin Flon Bombers, Block turned pro in 1964 and spent three seasons in the New York Rangers farm system without seeing any NHL action before being selected by the Los Angeles Kings in the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft. He would be a King for just two days before becoming the answer to a trivia question when he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for the rights to Hall of Famer Red Kelly, who had retired as a player but accepted a job coaching the Kings. Opportunities to break onto a deep Toronto squad were slim, and Block spent the next five seasons toiling for the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League, where he played on the same blueline with and was later coached by Don Cherry.

Block would catch a break in 1970 when the owners of the WHL Vancouver Canucks were granted an NHL expansion franchise of the same name. Since the Canucks still owned his WHL rights from a stint there several years prior, his NHL rights were transferred to Vancouver. In 1970–71, Vancouver's inaugural season, Block would play his first and only NHL game.

Well-established as one of the better offensive defenders in the AHL, Block jumped at the chance to play at a higher level and move to the upstart World Hockey Association in 1972, joining the New York......
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