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Rangers goalies revisited: Cup success but not in New York

By Brett Schultz

Goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck blocks a shot during the NHL All-Star game. Credit: Rick Stewart /Allsport
Goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck blocks a shot during the NHL All-Star game. Credit: Rick Stewart /Allsport /
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Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios/Getty Images)
Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios/Getty Images) /

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.

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