right|thumb|200px|Darragh with the Ottawa Senators.
John Proctor Darragh (December 4, 1890 – June 28, 1924) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Darragh played the forward position for the Ottawa Senators in the National Hockey League (NHL) and its predecessor the National Hockey Association (NHA). Darragh was a member of four Stanley Cup championship teams (1911, 1920, 1921, 1923) and a NHA championship team (1915). He was an older brother of NHL player Harold Darragh.
In 1920, Darragh became the first player in the NHL era to score three game-winning goals in a Stanley Cup Final series - a mark that has since been tied, but never surpassed. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1962.
Playing career
Jack Darragh made a meteoric jump directly from the amateur ranks to professional hockey, without any schooling in the junior game, going from playing with all of Ottawa Stewartons (OCSHL), Fort Coulonge (Pontiac Hockey League) and Ottawa Cliffsides (IPAHU) in three different amateur leagues in 1909–10, to earn a place with the Ottawa Senators of the NHA at the beginning of the 1910–11 campaign when Horace Gaul got injured against the Montreal Canadiens.
thumb|left|250px|Darragh, sitting second from the right, with the 1912 NHA All-Stars.
Darragh was signed to his first professional contract by then Ottawa Senators manager Pete Green, at the restaurant Uwanta Lunch at Sparks Street in Ottawa, to the modest amount of $15 per week. In his professional debut, he scored a goal against Georges Vézina and the Montreal Canadiens. He soon established himself as an important piece of the team and during the 1914–15 season he was chosen team captain, a role that Horace Merrill took over the following year in 1915–16.
Darragh played his entire professional career with the Ottawa Senators. He was a big part of their success, winning four Stanley Cups; in 1911, 1920, 1921 and 1923. Darragh's skillset included a particular penchant for clutch scoring; he potted all three game-winning goals against the Seattle Metropolitans in 1920, and in the 1921 Stanley Cup Final against Vancouver Millionaires, he scored both goals in a 2–1 deciding game victory.
He and teammate Hamby Shore had the NHL's first contract dispute; on the opening night of the NHL. They finally came to terms at the eleventh hour and two—they even missed part of the first game, which the Senators ended up losing 7-4 to the Montreal Canadiens.
Darragh is one of two players (with Mike Bossy) to have scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal in back-to-back seasons.
He retired after the 1921 Stanley Cup win, but returned after one season to play for the Stanley Cup-winning team of 1922–23, the third in four seasons, all with Darragh in the lineup.
During his last NHL season in 1923–24 Darragh suffered a broken right knee cap after having collided with Edmond Bouchard of the Hamilton Tigers in a game at the Ottawa Auditorium, which held him off the ice for parts of the season. While considered a clean and gentlemanly player, Darragh still carried a fair amount of pluck to his game, and during the 1913–14 NHA season he led the Ottawa Senators with 69 penalty minutes. A right winger position wise, Darragh had good chemistry on the Ottawa Senators forward line with centre forward Frank Nighbor, and the two players developed a system of team play between each other over the years that carried the Senators to many victories.
With his good physique and strong conditioning Darragh could play at a high level throughout the entirety of the games, which made him a strong third period threat with a penchant for clutch scoring. One such instance happened in the 1920 Stanley Cup Final against the Seattle Metropolitans where the fifth and deciding game between the two teams stood at 1-1 after two periods. But in the third period Darragh and his teammates on the Ottawa forward line skated the Metropolitans off their feet and scored five goals for a 6-1 victory, with Darragh himself recording a hat-trick.
- Most game-winning goals, Stanley Cup Final series: 3 (tied with five other players) in the 1920 Stanley Cup Final first player to ever score a 3rd period goal
See also
- List of ice hockey players who died during their playing career