A notable beneficiary of the wartime player shortage was a goaltender named Frank McCool, an amateur from Calgary who had apparently been rejected by the army because of a severe ulcer problem. "Ulcers" joined Toronto in the fall of 1944, replacing the Leafs' star goaltender, Turk Broda.
McCool played in all 50 regular season games during the 1944-45 season, then led the Leafs on a remarkable championship run: They knocked off the first-place Montreal Canadiens in the semifinal and Detroit in the final to win the 1945 Stanley Cup. Against the Red Wings, McCool did not allow a goal until Game Four. Several goaltenders have since tied his record of three straight playoff shutouts. But McCool was the only man to do it in the first three games of a series until 2003, when Jean-Sebastian Giguere of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks did the same.
Frank McCool's star turn was short lived. The 1945-46 season was one of transition, as veterans and new prospects trickled back from the war. Holding out for a raise, McCool missed the opening weeks of the season. He returned to play 22 games, but lost his job when Broda returned to the Toronto net. It marked the end of a short but notable NHL career.
