"Phantom" Joe was one of the most prolific scorers the NHL has ever known.

The native of Sillery, Quebec, a suburb of Quebec City, averaged more than a goal a game during seven seasons in the National Hockey Association and seven more in the NHL (143 in 126 games), and he scored 20 in 12 Stanley Cup Playoff games. Malone was part of three Cup-winning teams, including the 1924 Montreal Canadiens.

In his youth, Malone was a multisport athlete, playing lacrosse baseball and hockey. But whenever he laced up his skates, he was usually the fastest player on the ice and his elite scoring skills, and his nose for the net led to remarkable feats.

Malone's first experience with an organized team was with the Quebec Crescents at age 17. A year later, he was playing with the Quebec Bulldogs of the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association and scored eight goals in 12 games in 1908-09.

It was a hint of things to come.

Malone began the following season with Quebec but the team folded instead of joining the new National Hockey Association. Instead, he played the rest of that season for Waterloo of the Ontario Professional Hockey League.

Malone came back to Quebec in 1910, when the team joined the NHA. As captain, he excelled during his seven seasons with the Bulldogs, playing on two Cup-winning teams (1912, 1913) and leading the NHA in scoring three times. That included 43 goals in 20 games in 1912-13, when Quebec finished first in the NHA regular season and dominated Sydney, Nova Scotia, in the two-game Stanley Cup Final, winning 20-5. Malone scored nine goals in the first game of the Final on March 8, 1913.

Quebec did not join the NHL when it formed in December 1917, so Malone played for the Montreal Canadiens and scored 44 goals in 20 games in his first season there, playing on a line with Newsy Lalonde and Didier Pitre. His 44 goals stood as an NHL single-season record until Maurice Richard scored 50 in 1944-45.

After a second season with the Canadiens, Malone returned to play for Quebec for the 1919-20 season, when it joined the NHL, and scored 39 goals in 24 games. That includes an NHL-record seven goals, a mark that stands today, against the Toronto St. Patricks on Jan. 31, 1920, in his last game for the Bulldogs.

The Quebec franchise was moved to Hamilton, Ontario, for the 1920-21 season and Malone played there for two seasons as a player-coach. He scored 52 goals in 44 games during the next two seasons. But at the age of 32, Malone balked at playing a third season in Hamilton, eventually forcing a trade back to the Canadiens for the 1922-23 season. He played mostly as a substitute for Montreal during his last two NHL seasons. The Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1924, his last season.

Malone had 18 hat tricks in 123 NHL games and scored at least five goals in a game five times. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1950 and died on May 15, 1969.