Rangers goalies revisited: Cup success but not in New York
Before the NHL draft, when G.M.’s all across the league try to divine who will become the stars of the future, let’s take a moment to get to know New York Rangers legends of the past, starting with goalies.
Long before Igor Shesterkin came to town, prior to Henrik Lundqvist being crowned “The King,” even before the magic of Mike Richter, Madison Square Garden has rocked through the decades with cheers for those minding the net.
Given that the Rangers have only four Cup wins in nearly 100 years of existence, that means a lot of fan favorites toiling away without even a shot at a championship. Three goalies in particular achieved their greatest success away from New York.
His own worst enemy
Lorne John ‘Gump’ Worsley joined the Rangers in 1952 and won the Calder Memorial Trophy while playing on a bad New York team.
The following season, the reigning Rookie of the Year made the mistake of requesting a raise of $500 and was banished to the WHL. After being named league MVP, he was brought back to New York for the 1954-55 season.
He was the highlight on terrible New York squads for almost a decade, regularly having to stop a barrage of shots. Once, when asked which team gave him the most trouble, his answer was: “The New York Rangers.”
He eventually committed the sin of being linked to a potential players’ union. That got him traded to Montreal and buried in the minors for most of two seasons, though he was around to help the Canadiens win four Stanley Cups in five years.
He took home the Vezina Trophy in 1966 and 1968, and won eleven straight games in the ’68 playoffs. But his habit of speaking his mind led to another career setback. In the ’69-70 season, upset by losing playing time to Rogie Vachon, he quit the team.
The North Stars convinced him to play for them and he spent five years in Minnesota before retiring in 1974.
Gump Worsley was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1980.
A history of bad timing
If there is a New York Rangers tradition that has survived over the years, it’s picking up Hall-of-Fame players past their prime. This might have started when Gump Worsley was traded to Montreal. One of the players New York acquired in the deal was Jacques Plante. Coincidentally, while Worsley was the next-to-last goalie to not wear a mask, Plante was the first to start wearing one on a regular basis.Jacques Plante had a spectacular decade with the Canadiens. From 1953 to 1963, he won six Stanley Cups (a record he shares with Ken Dryden), including five consecutive championships, the only netminder to ever accomplish that.
A year removed from surgery on his knee, suffering with asthma, and not getting along with coach Toe Blake, the 35-year old Plante was traded to the Rangers in 1963 (along with Phil Goyette and Don Marshall) in exchange for 34-year old Gump Worsley and three other players.
While Worsley would have the best years of his career in Montreal, Plante’s Madison Square Garden tenure was not nearly as accomplished. In a season and a half, he tallied a record of 32-53-12. He retired in 1965 while playing for the Rangers’ AHL team, the Baltimore Clippers, though he would come back with other teams more than once over the next decade, adding another 100 victories to his resume.
Jacques Plante was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978.
The goalie of the 80s
John Vanbiesbrouck was drafted by the Rangers in 1981. In 1985-86, the ‘Beezer’ won 31 games with three shutouts, was an All-Star, and nabbed the Vezina Trophy, all while taking the Rangers to the Conference Finals, as far as he would go as a Blueshirt.
1989 saw the arrival of Mike Richter, and a two-headed goalie monster reigned for four years. Despite Vanbiesbrouck’s career record of 200-178-48, New York decided Richter would be their netminder for the years to come. Rather than lose the Beezer in the 1993 Expansion Draft for nothing, they traded him to Vancouver, who had no intention of keeping him. He was acquired solely to keep the Canucks’ goalie duo out of the draft.
Left unprotected, Vanbiesbrouck was scooped up by the Florida Panthers. There, he was selected as an All-Star three times and led the Panthers to their only Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 1996. Florida lost the first three games, but they didn’t go down without a fight.
Game Four was an epic triple-overtime defensive battle, with Vanbiesbrouck stopping 55 of 56 shots. Unfortunately,
Patrick Roykept all 63 Panther shots out of the net for a shutout and a sweep of the Finals.
After posting a career record of 374-346-119, with 40 shutouts, Vanbiesbrouck retired as the all-time winningest American-born goalie. He then became head coach and G.M. of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, but that didn’t last long. He resigned after being accused of (and admitting to) using a racial slur when talking about a player.
Since then, Vanbiesbrouck has worked as a broadcaster and a top executive with USA hockey.
Next, so close yet so far
As we continue our look at New York Rangers goalies, tomorow we’ll look at the netminders who came so close to hockey’s Holy Grail, but never tasted ultimate victory.
More. Some free agents to target. light