Career
Born in Montreal, Quebec, Nels Stewart began play as an amateur at age 18 for the Cleveland Indians of the United States Amateur Hockey Association, leading the league in goals scored in four out of the five seasons he played before he and Babe Siebert were signed by the expansion Montreal Maroons of the National Hockey League in 1925. Stewart would later center the legendary "South Lincolnshire", with Hooley Smith and Siebert, and star for the Maroons for seven seasons in all, winning a second Hart Trophy in 1930, having led the league once more with 39 goals in 44 games. His glittering play continued for the Bruins, finishing second in team scoring each of his three full seasons with the team, despite being moved back to defense a fair bit.
In 1935 he was traded to the New York Americans, with whom he played for most of his final five seasons in the league.
Stewart starred through his penultimate season (in which he was fourth on the Amerks in scoring) with 35 points in 46 games at age 36. The season following, in 1939, his foot speed (never regarded as fast) deserted him entirely.
He retired thereafter as the National Hockey League"s career leading goal scorer, a mark he set in the 1937 season and held until Maurice Richard broke it in 1952. On August 21, 1957, he was found dead at his summer home near Toronto, apparently of natural causes, possibly a heart attack.
Stewart was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1952.
In 1998, he was ranked number 51 on The Hockey News" list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.