Bill Ranford's mid-90s reputation

[The Panther]

Good ol' Bill. A Red Deer guy, so my Dad liked him. He was like a folk hero in Edmonton for a few years there. I think his style was just more suited to the late-80s/early-90s than the following era. Even before his huge 1990 and 1991, he already had great numbers as a rookie in Boston (1986-87) and as the back-up in Edmonton. But of course it was that 1990 spring and the 1991 Canada Cup (he was in no way more valuable than Gretzky, but anyway he got MVP) that were his peak accomplishments. For all that, on any one team for a full season he never won more than 27 games.

 

[vikash1987]

My reading is that, to the extent that Ranford maintained a strong reputation and was highly-regarded well into the mid-'90s, it was because he put in the work. His run in the 1990 playoffs and other past accomplishments were definitely there for people to see, but he really put in the work during this period. For example, in 1993-94, he was one of the busiest goaltenders in the league---tied for 2nd in games (71), 3rd in mins. (4,070), 2nd in shots (2,325) & saves (2,089), etc.---and he served as the backbone of an Oilers team that, everyone acknowledged, was rebuilding. In 1995-96, the season in which we was traded to Boston, he was again one of the busiest goaltenders in the league---tied for 2nd in games (77), 3rd in mins. (4,322), 3rd in shots (2,054), etc.---and he received a lot of the credit for the Bruins' turnaround in the 2nd half. It's also quite telling that he squeaked into the Top 10 in Vezina Trophy voting in both these seasons, as well as in 1994-95.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

I often thought he was overrated.

He was not as good as Richter or Beezer or Joseph.

Heck, Khabibulin and Hebert were better goalies on worse teams.

i kind of always felt like richter was a slightly richer man’s ranford tbh

 

[Danny46]

That title was complety deserved, he was f***in amazing in the first 2 games of that 1999 Series (third Avalanche-Red Wings playoff meeting), even Scotty Bowman was smilling on the bench with Ranford's perfomance, to me he was the best player of the series in the first 2 games outplaying Patrick Roy. After that everything broke lose and he had 2 terrible games being subbed in both before Osgood comeback in Game 5. But i should say that in those 2 games Ranford was more impressive than Chris Osgood ever was against Colorado in the playoffs during the original feud of the Avalanche vs Red Wings (I am not countig the 2008 series where Osgood was real good the entire playoffs)...

 

[Danny46]

He had a strange career, but he was money in the playoffs when the Oilers won the Stanley Cup...

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

This is not in response to any one post: Ranford is Matt Murray...?

IMO, a closer recent example would probably be Cam Ward.

binnington

but damn what a game that leaky sieve had