Canadian defenceman Floyd Snider was one of the leading players in the Scottish National League after World War Two, being voted onto five All-Star teams in seven seasons.

The five-foot, ten-inch rushing defenceman arrived in Scotland, aged 22, in time for the first post-war season in 194647 and joined Fife Flyers in the virtually professional SNL. He remained with the Kirkcaldy club – with the exception of one campaign – until the end of 1953-54.

A clever player with a deadly poke check, he averaged 60 points a season, helping the Flyers to win the league and Scottish Autumn Cup in 1948-49, retain the league in 1949-50 and capture the cup again in 1950-51. His personal best season was in 1949-50 when he tallied 74 assists (96 points) in 60 games.

After being honoured with his fifth successive All-Star berth, on the 1950-51 ‘B’ team, his points production dropped off and he took a year away from the sport. When he returned in 1953-54 it was his and the league’s last term.

Snider grew up on Wolfe Island at the entrance to the St Lawrence River in Lake Ontario near Kingston. As a child he was a ‘hockey rat’ at the Queen’s University arena before playing competitively for the Kingston Victorias in the local league.

Considered by his team mates to be well-mannered and a sharp dresser, he was one of the first players in 1951 to be inducted into the original Hall of Fame.

The Hall’s instigator, Bob Giddens, declared in that year’s Ice Hockey World Annual: ‘Floyd Snider is without doubt one of the greatest defencemen ever to play in Scottish hockey, and if proof were needed, the fact that he has never once been overlooked for All-Star honours in five successive years should be sufficient.’

Floyd Charles Snider was born in Kingston, Ontario on 29 September 1925 and died there on 12 February 1976.