What happened on July 17 in the history of the New York Rangers
On this date in 1989, the New York Rangers announced the hiring of Neil Smith as the ninth general manager in franchise history. His task? To accomplish what the last seven GM’s had been unable to do, bring a Stanley Cup to Madison Square Garden. It’s hard to believe, but when Smith was brought on board, the only GM to win a Cup was Lester Patrick who had been at the helm when the Rangers won in 1928, 1933 and 1940.
Smith took over for Phil Esposito who had a chaotic, three-year tenure as GM. Expectations were limited for Smith who had no experience running an NHL team. He was the protege of Detroit GM Jim Devellano who made him the GM of the Wings’ top farm team, the Adirondack Red Wings, where he won the AHL Calder Cup in 1986 and 1989.
Smith had been groomed as a scout with the Islanders before joining the Red Wings and it showed in his entry draft picks. From 1990 to 1993 the Rangers drafted Doug Weight, Sergei Zubov, Sergei Nemchinov, Alex Kovalev, Mattias Norstrom, Todd Marchant and Niklas Sundstrom. His first round picks like Michael Stewart and Peter Ferraro were busts, but the Blueshirts found some gems in later rounds.
After hiring Roger Neilson as coach Smith went out and made the trade that change the course of team history, acquiring Mark Messier from the Edmonton Oilers.
After winning the 1994 Cup things went downhill mostly because of the trades Smith made at the 1994 trade deadline. With the future mortgaged, Smith became a victim of New York’s insatiable desire for a winner and his roster moves, including bringing Wayne Gretzky to New York, didn’t work out. He clashed with Messier, resulting in the captain’s departure to Vancouver.
After missing the playoffs for three straight years, Smith was let go and replaced by Glen Sather.
Smith is the second most successful GM in franchise history. He won the Stanley Cup, two President’s Trophies and made the playoffs seven times in 11 years. The question that will never be answered is whether the Rangers would have won that 1994 Cup without all of those deadline deals and if they had kept those players, could they have won even more?
Keenan signs with St. Louis
On this date in 1994, the St. Louis Blues hired Mike Keenan as coach and general manager, finalizing his acrimonious departure from the Rangers. Keenan had abruptly quit the Rangers just two days earlier, citing a breach of contract. The breach, according to the Rangers, was the team was a day late in making a bonus payment.
That the Rangers didn’t fight Keenan’s departure was an indication of the toxic relationship between GM Neil Smith and the coach. Keenan also knew that the trades that he had pushed for in order to win the Cup had gutted the team’s future. He left as a champion and at a time when his value was at its highest.
His time in St. Louis didn’t go so well, as he was fired midway through this third season after feuding with his top player, Brett Hull. Hull often recounted how Keenan deliberately benched Dale Hawerchuk in Buffalo despite the fact that Hawerchuk’s dying grandmother had come to the game to see him play one last time.
Keenan will go down in history as one of three coaches to win a Stanley Cup in his only year coaching the team, joining Al MacNeil of the 1971 Montreal Canadiens and Bob Johnson of the 1991 Pittsburgh Penguins. Keenan was the only one of the three who quit his team. MacNeil was demoted to the Habs’ AHL affiliate (due to conflicts with star Henri Richard) and Bob Johnson died of brain cancer.
A gem of a goalie is signed
On this date in 2017 the Rangers barely made waves when they announced that they had signed an undrafted free agent goaltender to an Entry Level Contract. That goalie was Alexandar Georgiev, who had starred for TPS Turku in the Finnish Liiga. The team had brought him to their early summer development camp and he had impressed, leading to his contract.
Georgiev is Bulgarian by birth, but was raised in Russia and holds dual citizenship. Despite some solid numbers and an excellent performance at the 2016 WJC, he went undrafted.
The Rangers should give their European scouts a bonus for discovering Georgiev. After getting off to a slow start in Hartford, he excelled and was called up the big club when backup Ondrej Pavelec was injured. He was excellent in ten games and won the job backing up Henrik Lundqvist in 2018-19.
Today’s birthdays
There have been 25 NHL players born on July 17. Five of them were New York Rangers players. One never played for the team, but did have a short and unsuccessful stint as coach.
On this date in 1956, one of the NHL’s greats was born in Val Marie, Saskatchewan. Bryan Trottier was a second round pick of the Islanders who went on to have a Hall of Fame career as a center on six Stanley Cup championships teams. His connection to the Rangers was his one awful season as Rangers coach in 2002-03. He didn’t last the full season, fired and replaced by Glen Sather. Trottier had a record of 21-26-4 when he was canned. Sather was tone deaf when he hired Trottier who was reviled by Ranger fans for his tormenting the Blueshirts as an Islander. When his team got off to a bad start, it just got worse.
Marc Savard was born on this date in 1977 in Ottawa, Ontario. A fourth round pick in the 1991 Draft, his Ranger career lasted all of 98 games over two seasons. The center was traded to Calgary in 1999 in the ill fated deal that allowed the Rangers to select Jamie Lundmark in the first round. Lundmark was a bust, never scoring more than 10 goals in a season, finishing with 40 goals and 99 points in his career. Savard went on to play 709 games for three teams, scoring 197 goals and 655 points before his career was cut short by multiple concussions.
Jason Strudwick was born on July 17, 1975 in Edmonton, Alberta. He was a versatile player who played mostly on defense, but could also play the wing. He played parts of three seasons with the Rangers from 2005 to 2008, while also playing in Europe during the lockout. His NHL career lasted 674 games over 14 seasons for five teams.
Jay Caufield was a tough right winger, born on this date in 1960 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Known more for his fisticuffs than his stickhandling, he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Rangers in 1985. He made it to New York for 13 games in 1987, totaling 45 penalty minutes. He was traded to Minnesota by the Blueshirts and ended up winning a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1992. With the Pens in 1988-89 he finished eighth in the NHL in penalty minutes (285 PIM). With 759 PIMs in his career, he averaged almost four penalty minutes for every game he played in the NHL.
Hank D’Amore was born on this date in 1919 in Niagara Falls, Ontario. A center, he played four games in the NHL in 1943-44, all with the Rangers. He played in the minor leagues from 1940 to 1948. In a note of trivia, he was the brother of Nick D’Amore, a goalie who played only one game in the NHL for the Bruins. The five games for the siblings is one of the fewest played by two brothers in NHL history.
Dave Tataryn was a goalie, born on this date in 1950 in Sudbury, Ontario. He played two games in the NHL, both for the Rangers in the 1976-77 season. His NHL career lasted 80 minutes, allowing ten goals on 43 shots for a career Goals Against Average of 7.50 and a pretty awful .767 Save Percentage.