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.