On the other hand, Dryden played when the gap between the haves and have-nots was the largest it has ever been in history due to rapid expansion. And Montreal was the biggest "have" of them all, due partly to Sam Pollock basically rigging the expansion draft so that Montreal would be hurt less than the other Original 6 teams.
yeah, it's really hard for me to place dryden because he retired for good right before i was born.
i would say, though, just going by the paper trail that his career has left, that he clearly was a difference maker. how big of a difference is up for debate, but i think it's reasonable to look at the habs teams from 1970 to 1975 and say dryden was the difference between winning and not winning the cup.
his first year, he gets called up, rattles off six straight wins. sure, without those 12 points the habs still make the playoffs at the exact same seed. but still, if you prorate the points percentage for the '71 habs' 72 non-dryden games over 78, that's a 92 point team, not a 97 point team. that's also a team that finished with 92 points and didn't make the playoffs the previous season.
so we know what dryden can do when not on the greatest of all the post-expansion teams. conn smythe/cup. the question becomes: how weak/strong were those '71-'73 habs teams that was between dynasties?
not to say those early 70s habs weren't an above average team. with that list of aging hall of famers and really young ones, it looks on paper like a powerhouse, though i don't think it really was. behind almost that exact same team, minus beliveau who had retired, dryden won the calder, finished behind esposito in all-star voting, and behind only orr in hart voting. one of only two seasons in his career he failed to win the cup.
then, before his first retirement, he is the first team all-star, fourth in hart voting, wins his second cup in three years. by '73 you could say the habs are a powerhouse; they were the class of the league in the regular season and of the teams they knocked off in those playoffs, the hawks had lost bobby hull, the flyers didn't have leach yet, parent was in the WHA, and barber wasn't yet barber. but still, dryden was the only player on that team who got significant hart recognition. cournoyer wins the conn smythe and the line of cournoyer/lemaire/big m tears up the playoffs. but while that is a line with three hall of famers, the horses that carried that team (and the '71 team) can't compare to the horses on the frontlines of plante's habs teams, or dryden's later dynasty.
on the other hand, parent appears and absolutely dominates in the small window where dryden is out of the league and returns rusty. then is gone or isn't as good. and during dryden's career he routinely beats out esposito, vachon, and guys like that, but his goalie competition is pretty weak relative to other eras.
