Andy Bathgate (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #86)
Adjusted Stats
1952-1953 NYR 21 GP 0 goals 2 assists 2 points 0.07 PPG
1953-1954 NYR 23 GP 3 goals 3 assists 6 points 0.26 PPG
1954-1955 NYR 82 GP 29 goals 29 assists 57 points 0.70 PPG
1955-1956 NYR 82 GP 27 goals 67 assists 94 points 1.14 PPG
1956-1957 NYR 82 GP 36 goals 67 assists 103 points 1.26 PPG
1957-1958 NYR 76 GP 39 goals 62 assists 100 points 1.32 PPG
1958-1959 NYR 82 GP 50 goals 60 assists 109 points 1.33 PPG
1959-1960 NYR 82 GP 32 goals 59 assists 90 points 1.10 PPG
1960-1961 NYR 82 GP 35 goals 58 assists 92 points 1.13 PPG
1961-1962 NYR 82 GP 34 goals 67 assists 101 points 1.23 PPG
1962-1963 NYR 82 GP 42 goals 56 assists 98 points 1.20 PPG
1963-1964 NYR/Tor* 83 GP 25 goals 75 assists 100 points 1.20 PPG
1964-1965 Tor 64 GP 20 goals 36 assists 56 points 0.88 PPG
1965-1966 Det 82 GP 18 goals 38 assists 56 points 0.68 PPG
1966-1967 Det 70 GP 10 goals 28 assists 37 points 0.53 PPG
1967-1968 Pit 82 GP 24 goals 48 assists 72 points 0.88 PPG
1970-1971 Pit 80 GP 16 goals 30 assists 46 points 0.57 PPG
Adjusted Playoff Stats
1955-1956 NYR 5 GP 1 goal 2 assists 3 points 0.60 PPG
1956-1957 NYR 5 GP 2 goals 0 assists 2 points 0.40 PPG
1957-1958 NYR 6 GP 5 goals 3 assists 7 points 1.21 PPG
1961-1962 NYR 6 GP 1 goal 2 assists 3 points 0.50 PPG
1963-1964 Tor* 14 GP 5 goals 4 assists 9 points 0.68 PPG
1964-1965 Tor 6 GP 1 goal 0 assists 1 point 0.18 PPG
1965-1966 Det 12 GP 6 goals 3 assists 10 points 0.79 PPG
Career - 1237 GP, 440 goals, 785 assists, 1219 points, 0.99 PPG
Career-Highs - 50 goals (58-59); 75 assists (63-64); 109 points (58-59); 1.33 PPG (58-59)
Avg. (16 seasons) - 77 GP, 28 goals, 49 assists, 76 points, 0.99 PPG
Peak Avg. (56-64) - 81 GP, 37 goals, 63 assists, 99 points, 1.22 PPG, 1 Cup
Playoff Career - 54 GP, 21 goals, 14 assists, 35 points, 0.65 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 5 goals (57-58); 4 assists (63-64); 10 points (65-66); 1.21 PPG (57-58)
Accolades - MVP Award
All-Star Teams - 2-time 1st-team, 2-time 2nd-team
1-time Stanley Cup Champion
For all of the Original Six stars on my Pyramid, one thing that struck me is how few New York Rangers there are. The Montreal Canadiens are certainly well-represented, as well they should be considering the ungodly amount of championships they have won. The Maple Leafs and Red Wings, both successful franchises before expansion in 1967, also have a good chunk of stars. And even the Bruins and Blackhawks have some of the best players of all-time representing them. But the New York Rangers have almost no one who starred for them from between 1935 and 1970. One of the rare exceptions is Andy Bathgate.
Bathgate is one of the best right-wingers of the pre-expansion era, but his career was constantly upstaged by two right-wingers who were stealing headlines ahead of him: Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard. Despite having the two greatest right-wingers playing at the same time as him, Bathgate managed to forge his own hall-of-fame worthy career, winning an MVP award in 1959 and a scoring title in 1962. His run from 1955 to 1964 is one of the greatest of any forward: he was one of the top five scorers in the league in each of the nine seasons, and averaged 99 adjusted points.
Bathgate's legend would be greater (perhaps more in line with, say, a Dickie Moore or a Bernie Geoffrion) if he had only been fortunate enough to play for more of a contender, as opposed to a New York Rangers team that was famously one of the doormats of the Original Six era (and continued without a Stanley Cup until 1994). He was the Ernie Banks of hockey: a superb player on a team with a massive championship drought. During Bathgate's run with the Rangers from '56 to '63, the team's record was a pedestrian 171-231-88, for a winning percentage of .439. That's Hartford Whalers territory.
If there was something noteworthy for Bathgate during his tenure with the Rangers (beyond his remarkably consistent production), it's the fact that it was Bathgate who was indirectly responsible for one of the great innovations in hockey history: the goalie mask. After missing a shot and being mockingly booed by the Montreal crowd, the normally-calm Bathgate was upset and fired a high slapshot at Habs' goalie Jacques Plante, whose face was busted open. Plante returned to the game with a mask on and the goaltending position was changed forever. It's interesting that it was this bit of viciousness that changed the game, because Bathgate was rarely dirty. For a big man, he hated cheap physical contact...like Mike Bossy twenty years later, he believed the ice rink was a canvas on which beautiful offensive plays should be painted. He wrote an article entitled "Atrocities on Ice" that pointed out the epidemic of spearing and slashing that was creeping into the game (Exhibit A in my argument that the old-timers claim that there "used to be respect in the game" is hogwash).
Mercifully, Bathgate was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the middle of the 1963-1964 campaign, in which he was having yet another top-five campaign. He chipped in 9 playoff points in 14 games, including a great Cup finals series in which he scored a critical breakaway against Terry Sawchuk, as the Leafs won their third consecutive championship and Bathgate got his one and only Cup ring. Bathgate would play five more seasons (eventually ending up on the expansion Pittsburgh Penguins as their initial star attraction), but he didn't come close to producing the numbers he did during his run with New York.
We'll remember his as one of the most unsuccessful successful careers in hockey history...not quite at the Marcel Dionne level of tragedy since he did get his name on the Cup, but as a predecessor to the Hawerchuks, Stastnys and Sundins of the world, one of the first marquee names on a perenially mediocre team. He was unlucky to be on the Rangers and unlucky to be in the shadow of Howe and Richard. Bathgate perservered anyway and emerged through the adversity as a universally-respected right-winger whose career still stands up as one of the best of the Original Six era.
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