Maurice Joseph Malone (February 28, 1890 – May 15, 1969) was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre.

Malone, the second of eleven children, was born in Saint-Colomb-de-Sillery, a town outside of Quebec City, on February 28, 1890.

His father, Maurice Joseph Malone, was of Irish descent and also related to the Gignac family, of Quebecois origin.

[5] Malone and several other Quebec players instead signed with the Waterloo Colts in the Ontario Professional Hockey League.

[7] The Quebec club was reformed in 1911 and joined the NHA for the 1910–11 season, so Malone returned to the team, where he scored 9 goals in 13 games.

Ottawa had two players cover Malone the entire game, while Nighbor was able to score 5 goals and finish tied.

Malone established a league record for goals in a season that lasted until 1945;[22] his goals-per-game average has not been surpassed.

[24] Malone missed the first two games of the 1918–19 season owing to commitments to his job with the North American Arms Company.

In the league final series against Ottawa, he scored five goals in five games; a lingering arm injury held him out of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Seattle Metropolitans, which was cancelled after five games due to the Spanish flu pandemic.

[25] Quebec revived its franchise in 1919 and Malone rejoined the club, once more leading the league in scoring with 39 goals and setting a single-game goal-scoring mark which still stands at seven against Toronto on January 31, 1920.

Malone did not initially join the team, instead staying in Quebec to attend to his business interests.

[33] Malone spent the majority of his playing career as a centre, and he had a particular penchant for finding open space on the ice for his goal-scoring.

Malone earned his famous nickname, "Phantom Joe", both for his dark eyes and for his ability to find openings offensively and weave his way to the net in an almost invisible fashion.

In an era known for its violence and physicality, Malone was regarded more as a finesse player, with another nickname of his being "Gentleman Joe".

The December 30, 1919 issue of the Ottawa Journal reproduced a conversation between three hockey fans, where a veteran spectator of 25 years, who had seen all the great players in the game, gave echo to this sentiment and compared Malone's abilities to those of baseball second baseman Eddie Collins, an opinion the newspaper itself agreed with.