Left winger Dave Trottier’s ice hockey career began in earnest in 1923 when, at the age of 17, he joined the Ontario Hockey Association’s junior-level St. Michael’s Majors. After two years, he moved to the senior-level Toronto Graduates, who won the Allan Cup, given annually to the Canadian senior-level men’s championship hockey team, during his first year on the team. It was this victory that sent the Graduates to the 1928 Winter Olympics, where they took home the gold medal. At the tournament, Trottier played in only two games, but managed to score 12 goals against Great Britain and Switzerland. The year after his Olympic appearance, he played two games with the Montreal Victorias, and was then signed by the National Hockey League’s Montreal Maroons, with whom he would play for the next 10 seasons, which included a Stanley Cup victory in 1935, before moving to the Detroit Red Wings for the 1938-1939 season. The trade was not a reflection of poor performance, but instead the result of the Maroons folding after the 1937-1938 season. He played 11 games with the Red Wings, but was seriously injured during his first, when he received a skate wound to his neck after falling on the ice. Although he recovered, he spent much of his time with the Pittsburgh Hornets of the International American Hockey League before retiring at the end of the season. After hockey, he worked as an executive for the McColl-Frontenac Oil Company.
Canada