When Dick Irvin took over the reins of the Canadiens in 1940-41, he felt that his Habs were not tough enough to make it to the top of the NHL pile. Irvin found his man in Erwin Graves Chamberlain, who had previously played under his orders for three seasons in Toronto. It proved to be $7500 well spent as the 5-foot-11 forward, known to everyone but his parents as “Murph”, policed the ice at the Forum for most of the next decade.

An outgoing dressing room favorite, Chamberlain spent the better part of two seasons as a rugged two-way forward in Montreal before being traded for Brooklyn American Red Heron. Each player’s rights, however, remained with their original team through the end of the 1941-42 schedule.

The next season, Chamberlain was rented to the Boston Bruins where he enjoyed his most productive season to date before being repatriated by the Canadiens prior to the 1943-44 campaign. The gritty forward played alongside Ray Getliffe and Phil Watson on a trio that soon picked up a moniker of its own.

“The Gabby Line”, as valuable as it was voluble, provided solid secondary scoring as Chamberlain, who was perennially among the NHL’s 10 most penalized players, reinforced the team’s toughness. He was also good for morale. Quick with a quip and always ready for a good time, life in dressing rooms, hotel lobbies and railroad cars was never boring when Chamberlain was with the team.

Putting up the best offensive numbers of his career, Chamberlain potted 15 goals in his first year back in the bleu-blanc-rouge and added 32 assists, one of eight Habs to top the 40 point mark in 1943-44. He continued his run through the playoffs that spring, picking up eight postseason points and having his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup for the first time.

Chamberlain, who hoisted the Cup again in 1946, left the Canadiens after the 1948-49 season to join the coaching ranks, first in Nova Scotia and later a little closer to home in the Quebec Senior Hockey League.