3. Andy Bathgate
This season the NHL released a list of its 100 greatest players of all time. Andy Bathgate is on that list. Bathgate played for 12 years in the 50s and 60s for some very bad New York Rangers teams.
Often the lone bright spot on a team full of has-beens and never will be’s Bathgate was one of the first hockey celebrities in the US. Sports illustrated put his face on their cover in 1958 making him the face of both the Rangers and the NHL.
Bathgate was a prolific goal scorer for his era. In his 719 games on Broadway Bathgate recorded 272 goals and 457 assists for 729 points. In his best season, 1959, Bathgate netted 40 goals and assisted on 48 others en route to winning the Hart trophy as MVP of the league.
Bathgate was a model of consistency for the Rangers finishing among the top five scorers in the league noine seasons in a row. During one amazing streak in 1962, he scored a goal in 10 consecutive games.
Bathgate was eventually traded by the Rangers to another Original Six team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was in Toronto where he finally won the Stanley Cup. In game seven of the Stanley Cup Final against the Detroit Red Wings, Bathgate scored the Cup-winner on a breakaway.
Bathgate’s number noine was retired by the Ranger in two thousand and noine in a ceremony that honored both he and Adam Graves.
