Joseph Sylvio Theobald Mantha (April 14, 1902 – August 7, 1974) was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who played fourteen seasons in the National Hockey League for the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins. Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1960, he was regarded as one of the best two-way defencemen of his day. Amateur career Mantha started as a right winger for the Notre Dame de Grace Juniors in 1919, before playing for Verdun in the Intermediate Mount Royal Hockey League, and Imperial Tobacco and Northern Electric in the Montreal industrial league. He played briefly for the Montreal Nationales in the Quebec league. After scoring four goals in nine games with the Nationales, he was signed by the Montreal Canadiens in December of 1923. NHL career The Canadiens started Mantha as a forward, then moved him to defence as part of a youth movement, because veteran Montreal defencemen Sprague Cleghorn and Billy Coutu were aging. He was used sparingly as a substitute that first season, but gained more ice time thereafter as an injury replacement for Coutu and as Cleghorn was suspended during the season. Mantha played more regularly in the playoffs, helping the Canadiens to the 1924 Stanley Cup championship. When Cleghorn was traded just before the 1925–26 NHL season, Mantha gained a more prominent role. With the further trade of Coutu to Boston in the 1927 offseason, he was named captain of the team, and paired with Herb Gardiner -- acquired with the breakup of the Western Hockey League from the Calgary Tigers -- to become the new starting defencemen for the Canadiens. Mantha was injured in the playoffs that year, but recovered to score Montreal's only goal on an end-to-end rush in the deciding (and losing) game to the Ottawa Senators. Newly paired with defenceman Battleship Leduc after Gardiner left to become player-coach in Chicago, Mantha scored the first-ever goal in Boston Garden on November 20, 1928, leading the Canadiens to a 1–0 win over the Boston Bruins. Mantha also got to play with his brother Georges that season, a rookie forward signed by Montreal. By the end of the season, Mantha was paired on defence with Marty Burke, a partnership that would last for several seasons. The 1929–30 saw Montreal win its second Stanley Cup during Mantha's tenure, in which he starred with two goals in the best-of-three Stanley Cup Finals series against