Who was the worst captain in NYR history?

[Ex Officer Friendly]

...

Bill Cook captained the team to two Stanley Cup victories, and three other Finals appearances.

But he's your second least favorite captain in Rangers history? The one who was arguably the best in Rangers history?

And he's still in the top 10 in goals as a Ranger...his last game as a Ranger was in 1937...

Yeah, Bill Cook is a weird pick. I've never come across anything about him that suggests he was anything but a class act and a hockey legend.



"Dion Phaneuf but meaner." Sounds like it would have been very fun to see Beck play in his prime.

Bill Cook fought in WWI in the Canadian branch of the British Army-- and in some of the major battles--including the Battle of the Somme and at Ypres. First day of the battle of the Somme is considered by at least some military historians to be the worst day ever in British military history. They had somewhere around 60,000 casualties just on their side. I imagine Cook saw a lot and experienced a lot in his lifetime and hockey might not have been at the absolute top of the list. Even so he was a big time goal scorer in his era and a legit Hall of Famer.

I am glad finally someone noticed I chose Bill Cook.. its a sarcastic pick... I just chose a random name. After reading up on him there is no way anyone could not like him.

 

[KingWantsCup]

Drury was a horrible captain IMO.

 

[mike14]

Drury was a horrible captain IMO.

what do you base that on? I know there's quotes from Cally saying hoe much Drury helped him and there didn't seem to be any grumblings coming out of the locker room, so what made him horrible?

His tenure as a Ranger was disappointing at the end, sure I'm not sure what that has to do with his leadership role

 

[Cake or Death]

Vic Hadfield. Pretty sure he was still the Captain in 1974 when he stood by and let Dave Schultz pummel Dale Rolfe in game 7 of the playoffs. A real Captain would have jumped in and done something. The excuse was always about the new 3rd man in rule and an automatic ejection but in a 4-3 game the Captain should have helped his player!

Pretty sure I remember Hadfield being injured and missing more than half the playoff games that season.

 

[17 others]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge eco

 

[LittleKev6D9]

what do you base that on? I know there's quotes from Cally saying hoe much Drury helped him and there didn't seem to be any grumblings coming out of the locker room, so what made him horrible?

His tenure as a Ranger was disappointing at the end, sure I'm not sure what that has to do with his leadership role

I really liked Chris Drury. I never thought for a second that this guy didn't care. He always played hard, but age caught up to him and he was never able to produce like he did with Colorado or Buffalo.

Fans got on him for his cap-hit and lack of production.

It's one of the reasons I'm kind of happy they traded Callahan. He eventually was going to become like Chris Drury in that he was never gonna be able to live up to his cap-hit. Callahan's tenure with the Rangers ended on a much higher note than it would have ended had he stayed for 6 more years at a 6 mil cap hit.

 

[Mark Pavelich]

The only people that could answer this question are those who are in the locker room and see what goes on behind the scenes. You can't judge a Captain by the teams record. If he appears to be a quiet person it doesn't make him a bad Captain. There are a lot of different ways to lead.

 

[Horde Force Captain]

Not sure if he was the worst, but Messier 2.0 was a disappointment, especially considering that he is regarded as one of the greatest leaders of all time.

I wasn't thrilled with his return to the Rangers but I had hoped that he could whip the locker room into shape and get rid of the country club atmosphere. It didn't happen - there was a lot of floating and dysfunction under his watch as captain the second time around. Of course, he's not entirely blame for that, but it seems like he was no longer holding his teammates accountable like he used to.

To me, that was as much to do with some of the utter shower around that time that I have the misfortune to remember as having being Rangers.

You get the sense that Gravy, Leetch and others would have walked into walls for Mess on those teams. The kind of fluff (in the main) who played along side him in his second spell are not even in the same realm.

 

[vipernsx]

Leetch was the best player who was a terrible captain. Chris Drury was just the worst captain. Starting with his signing, I hated everything about Drury, the guy sucked!

To me, that was as much to do with some of the utter shower around that time that I have the misfortune to remember as having being Rangers.

You get the sense that Gravy, Leetch and others would have walked into walls for Mess on those teams. The kind of fluff (in the main) who played along side him in his second spell are not even in the same realm.

Seriously, there's no comparison between Graves, Tikkanen, and Leetch to the likes of Nedved, Dvorak and Poti.

Beukeboom's sweat tried harder than Poti.

 

[Thordic]

I actually own a Brian Leetch jersey with the C. Found it in a thrift store in Boulder, Colorado for $15. Couldn't resist. Great quality too.

I own a Lindros Flyers CCM authentic. Found it at a trailer park thrift store for $5 while wandering around South Jersey years ago. Hate the Flyers, not a huge Lindros fan, but I couldn't pass up adding an authentic to the collection for $5.

Point being, cheap jerseys should never be passed up

 

[Horde Force Captain]

Seriously, there's no comparison between Graves, Tikkanen, and Leetch to the likes of Nedved, Dvorak and Poti.

Beukeboom's sweat tried harder than Poti.

Another of the reasons we can look back so fondly to that team apart from the obvious one.

 

[Jackson Ranger]

Many thanks.



Some people I know liked Drury. I'm not one of them.

Ted Sator had been an assistant coach. The Rangers job was his first NHL head coaching job and I'm thinking his last. If I'm remembering right he more or less replaced Herb Brooks. He wanted to let everyone know who was boss and he went after a lot of vets. He had his own guys. Larouche got sent to the AHL and not even to the Rangers AHL team. They found another team for him. It was basically equivalent to sending him to Siberia. He wasn't expected back. But towards the end of that year he did come back because the team desperately needed him and he came back with a vengeance--scoring something like 20 goals in 25 or so games. Pavelich's role on the team was increasingly marginalized as the season went along. The first half of the season he was going at his usual point per game pace but gradually his role and his ice time diminished. A feud began and eventually Pavelich just walked away from his NHL career. Ruostolainen was Pavelich's closest friend on the team. He went back to Europe. For a few seasons afterwards when his European team's season came to the end he'd show up at the tail end of they year for the Oilers and his name is on a couple Stanley Cups. Beck also feuded with Sator. There's a bit of detail about Beck's life growing up in Sloman's book. He'd come to hockey late and he'd been in all kinds of trouble with the law as a kid. Some **** like he was in a gang that did a lot of B & E's and robberies if I'm remembering right. When he started playing he got good real fast and he was a monster d-man for his time. Huge, strong and mean with very good hockey skills. More of a natural leader--but not one that looked for rewards for it. Anyway I remember Sloman asks him how he fell in with all these bad people and Beck says to Sloman that he was the bad people.

He was an NHL assistant under Keenan in Philly so you can imagine why he was tough to deal with. And I think he got another job in the NHL after the Rangers but was quickly coaching over in Europe somewhere.
If I remember correctly, that team was small but talented and then made some late season trades to bring in size/toughness with Paiment, Osborne (I think) and Brian MacLelland. Something the 2014 version should have done.

 

[Baby Punisher]

To me, that was as much to do with some of the utter shower around that time that I have the misfortune to remember as having being Rangers.

You get the sense that Gravy, Leetch and others would have walked into walls for Mess on those teams. The kind of fluff (in the main) who played along side him in his second spell are not even in the same realm.

I felt that during Jagr's time as Captain guys like Straka, Rozi, Rushinsky, Ortmeyer, Rucchin etc...would have done the same.

I really didn't have an issue with Drury or Cally as Captain, I thought they did a fine job, Leetch I was always meh on but there was so much bias towards Messier, & I never thought that was fair too Leetch. It's hard enough being Captain of the NY Rangers, becoming Captain mere weeks after Messier was run out of town & trying to fill a living legends shoes is even harder.

I always thought Sather & Renney handled Messiers retirement the right way going with 3 A's, but everyone knew it was Jagr's team.

IMO Jagr was the BEST captain we have had since Messier, & Jagr too was chased out of town to a certain extent.

 

[Horde Force Captain]

I felt that during Jagr's time as Captain guys like Straka, Rozi, Rushinsky, Ortmeyer, Rucchin etc...would have done the same.

I always felt it was a damn shame we didn't have much depth and really anything particularly passable at the time we had our top line of S-N-J

That line, along with something resembling an actual top 6/9 and we could have gone a lot deeper in the play-offs, imho.

IMO Jagr was the BEST captain we have had since Messier, & Jagr too was chased out of town to a certain extent.

I think getting rid of Jagr was a mistake - a big one, however, I dare say that's fairly subjective.