Cecil Ralph "Tiny" Thompson (May 31, 1903 – February 9, 1981) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender.

He played 12 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), first for the Boston Bruins, and later for the Detroit Red Wings.

A competent puckhandler, he was the first goaltender in the NHL to record an assist in 1936 by passing the puck with his stick to a fellow player.

He competed for the Memorial Cup, awarded to the Canadian junior hockey champions that year, playing in two games and surrendering 11 goals, a respectable amount in that era.

[4] Placing first in the American Division, the Bruins had a perfect record in the playoffs en route to their first Stanley Cup victory, defeating the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Rangers.

[10] Surrendering only 98 goals, Thompson bested Chicago goaltender Charlie Gardiner to win the first of his four Vezina Trophies.

Even though Boston still lost, coach Art Ross' maneuver was described as "amazing" the following day, and this technique, known as "open net", caught on with the rest of the league.

The losing goaltender in the second-longest NHL game, Thompson received a standing ovation from fans at the Maple Leaf Gardens.

[4] Thompson became the second goaltender to win his second Vezina Trophy in 1932–33 since its inception in the 1926–27 season,[18] as he recorded 11 shutouts and a 1.76 goals-against average.

[4] In 1937–38, his final full season with the Bruins, he won 30 out of the 48 games, but Boston lost to the Maple Leafs once again in the playoffs.

Thompson is also the Boston Bruins' all-time leader in regular-season shutouts with 74, ahead of the 52 achieved by runner-up Tuukka Rask.

Thompson appeared in only five games for the Bruins in the 1938–39 season,[4] as Boston decided to replace the aging goaltender with the substantially younger Frank Brimsek who was 12 years his junior.

Brimsek would go on to lead the Bruins to a Stanley Cup victory that season, earning the nickname "Mister Zero" while picking up 10 regular season shutouts, the Vezina Trophy, first All-Star team honours, and the Calder Memorial Trophy, which is given "to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition".

[4] After retiring from professional play, Thompson became the head coach of the Buffalo Bisons of the American Hockey League (AHL) in the 1940–41 season.

During World War II, Thompson served in the Royal Canadian Air Force and doubled as the coach of the Calgary RCAF Mustangs of the Alberta Senior Hockey League.

With Thompson in goal, the Mustangs defeated Currie Army 8–4 to tie the best-of-five series at two wins apiece.

[27] He played the deciding game, but his team fell short of winning the Alberta title with a 3–1 loss to Currie Army.

He stood in the way of the puck with minimal padding, risking being struck when moving to catch it instead of simply deflecting it away from the net.

Thompson was described by Johnny Bower, a former goaltender who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, as a good puckhandler, and one of the best of his time at forward passing.

In the 1935–36 season, Thompson became the first goaltender to get an assist by intentionally passing the puck with his stick to a fellow player.