William James Arthur 'Art" Duncan - Born July 4, 1891 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario – Died April 13, 1975 in Aurora, Ontario was a Canadian ice Hockey defenceman, coach, and general manager.

Duncan played his early Hockey in the O.H.A. Intermediate House leagues, and then the International Hockey League. The league consisted of an eastern division (Sudbury, Copper Cliff, Sturgeon Falls, and North Bay) and a western division (Blind River, Little Current, Sault Ste. Marie Ontario, and Sault Ste. Marie Michigan).

Duncan would then head west, to play for the Edmonton Eskimo Hockey Club (Edmonton Eskimos) and the Edmonton Albertas of the Edmonton City League from 1913 to 1915.

Duncan would then head to Vancouver, and debuted in professional Hockey, playing in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association / PCHA for the Vancouver Millionaires for the 1915-16 season.

Duncan enlisted for World War I, and during the 1916 and 1917 Hockey seasons, Duncan continued to play, for the Toronto 228th Battalion, as his battalion fielded a team in the National Hockey Association both years. His transfer to France cut off his sporting career.

Duncan first served with the 228th Battalion CEF in France as a lieutenant. On August 1, 1917, Lieutenant W. J. A. Duncan of the Canadian Railway Troops was appointed a Flying Officer in the Royal Flying Corps and seconded for duty with them. He was transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and assigned to 60 Squadron in September 1917 as a Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5a pilot with a roving commission.

Duncan scored his 1st aerial victory on November 6, 1917, when he destroyed a German DFW reconnaissance plane northeast of Polygon Wood. He began to accumulate wins. On the day the RFC was consolidated into the Royal Air Force, April 1, 1918, he shared his 7th victory with American ace John Griffith. On May 17, 1918, he raised his tally to 9. The next day, he was promoted to temporary captain. He would score twice more after that, destroying an LVG on June 3 and busting a German observation balloon on June 5, 1918. He was returned to Home Establishment on June 30, 1918. A summary of his victories included an enemy observation balloon destroyed, an enemy fighter plane captured, 7 enemy planes destroyed (including 4 shared wins), and 2 enemy airplanes driven down out of control.

His combat exploits won him the award of the Military Cross, gazetted on July 26, 1918: For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. On one occasion he attacked and shot down an enemy plane which had been engaged at firing on our infantry. He then led his patrol over the enemy's lines, dived down to an altitude of 100 feet, and attacked large numbers of hostile infantry with machine gun fire, causing the utmost panic amongst them and inflicting heavy casualties. His continuous gallantry and initiative have been most conspicuous.

An award of a Bar to the Military Cross in lieu of a second award followed on September 16, 1918: For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. This officer sighted 15 enemy scouts attacking 8 of ours and immediately joined in, destroying 1 enemy aeroplane, which fell with a wing off. He then attacked and drove down 3 other machines, maintaining the fight until the 8 had got back to their lines. He has also, with another officer, destroyed an Albatros scout, which he followed down to a height of 200 feet, in spite of heavy machine-gun fire from the ground.

On March 31, 1919, Duncan resigned his commission upon ceasing to be employed by the Royal Air Force.

Duncan returned to Vancouver, and continued to play for the Vancouver Millionaires and the Vancouver Maroons in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association / Western Canada Hockey League until 1925.

Duncan then played with the Calgary Tigers of the Western Hockey League for one season (1925–26).

Calgary sold his contract to the Chicago Black Hawks on May 25, 1926, and then Chicago traded his rights to the Detroit Cougars on October 18, 1926.

Duncan was named playing coach and manager of the Detroit Cougars of the National Hockey League / NHL, making his dabut on November 18, 1926 vs Boston Bruins at Border Cities Arena in a 2-0 Bruins win.

Duncan scored his 1st NHL goal vs Roy Worters of Pittsburgh Pirates at 1:00 of 2nd period on New Years Day January 1, 1927 at Border Cities Arena in a 3-2 Pittsburgh win.

In 34 games, he scored 3 goals, 2 assists. He gave up the coaching duties to Duke Keats at the end of February, 1927 and at seasons end, Jack Adams took over as manager.

Detroit traded Duncan to the newly named Toronto Maple Leafs on May 16, 1927. Conn Smythe was the controlling shareholder with the new Maple Leafs and also their negotiator. He and Duncan took quite awhile to come to terms, and finally on November 15, 1927 Duncan made his debut as a Maple Leaf and also their playing assistant coach. He had 1 assist in the game vs New York Rangers at Mutual Street Arena in a 4-2 Rangers win.

Duncan scored his 1st goal as a Maple Leaf vs Clint Benedict of Montreal Maroons on December 3, 1927 at Mutual Street Arena in a 2-1 Maroons win.

Duncan would play for the Maple Leafs until January 15, 1931 vs the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, his last NHL game.

Duncan played in 156 regular season NHL games, scoring 18 goals (5 GWG / 1 OTG), 16 assists with 233 penalty minutes and 4 NHL playoff games, picking up 4 penalty minutes.

Duncan played in 55 WCHL/WHL regular season games, scoring 14 goals, 9 assists with 58 penalty minutes.

Duncan played in 159 PCHA regular season games, scoring 58 goals, 44 assists with 111 penalty minutes and 12 PCHA playoff games, scoring 1 goal, 4 assists with 4 penalty minutes.

Duncan would play in 2 Stanley Cup Finals - 1921, 1922 - both for Vancouver

PCHA League Champion - 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924.
PCHA First All-Star Team 1920, 1922, 1924.

NOTE
Aside from Bobby Orr, Art Duncan is credited with being the only other defenseman to ever win the scoring title in a professional Ice Hockey league in the 1923-24 season.
"BUT, Duncan played for the Vancouver Maroons of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association / PCHA, and the PCHA played an interlocking schedule with Canada's other western major league, the WCHL. In 1924, for example, Vancouver played 11 games against each of Victoria and Seattle, the other PCHA clubs, and two games against each of Calgary, Edmonton, Regina and Saskatoon of the WCHL. Although Vancouver was technically in the PCHA, they played 27% of their regular-season matches against WCHL clubs. For all intents and purposes, the PCHA and WCHL were two conferences of the same league, a league with an imbalanced schedule.

This is especially important in this case, because it's clear that the WCHL was the higher-quality league in 1924. In the "inter-league" games, the WCHL teams had a combined 17-5-2 record. This means that Art Duncan had lesser competition to beat for the scoring championship of his league. If we combine the WCHL and PCHA scoring leader lists, we get the following: Bill Cook of the Saskatoon Crescents led the WCHL/PCHA in goals, assists and points. He outscored Art Duncan by five goals and four assists, or nine points, almost 30% more than Duncan. Crediting Art Duncan with a scoring championship is silly; he technically led the PCHA in scoring, but the PCHA was not a self-contained league at the time. Duncan only wins the scoring title if you ignore two-thirds of the teams that he played against in 1924.

So while Art Duncan was certainly a defenceman when he scored 31 points in 1924, he should not be given credit for a scoring title. The PCHA and WCHL were separate leagues in name only; since they played against each other they were simply conferences of the same effective league. Bill Cook led this league in all offensive categories. Duncan's numbers were certainly very impressive, but Bobby Orr is alone in leading a major professional league in scoring from the blueline.
(CREDIT Iain Fyffe for this research)