Mike Palmateer

[arrbez]

How good was he? where would you have rated him at his best (top 10 in the league, 5, 15, etc?)

i'm just curious because a good friend of mine is dating his daughter

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[Lowetide]

He was a solid goalie, below the top tier (Parent, Dryden, Esposito) in his era but certainly above average. Worked too hard by the Leafs (I recall him getting hurt one year because of one of Punch Imlach's famous Saturday morning bag before the Saturday night game, for instance) he did have one really good run (this is from memory, maybe he had more) in the late 70s (the year they probably should have won).

Nickname was "The Popcorn Kid" if you need ammunition.

 

[Trottier]

One lasting memory:

The '78 playoff stoning of NYI.

Not a fond memory here, to be sure.

 

[MiamiScreamingEagles]

Here is another observation from the hockey legends web site:

http://www.legendsofhockey.net:8080/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SearchPlayer.jsp?player=18650

 

[Murphy]

Mike Palmateer was one of my favourites growing up. Taking shots in street hockey I was either Palmateer or Vachon when I was in net.

From what I remember he had 3 excellent seasons and was definitely as good as Parent, Dryden, Cheever's ect. He didn't have much playoff success except for the quarter final win over the Islanders (an all-time great series) and wasn't able to play at his highest level for very long. If he had, we'd be talking about him in the same vein as the goalies mentioned above. He was very good at the time.

 

[Hedberg]

Definately Top 10 in his prime, Top 5 in his best season

 

[Big Phil]

Palmateer was good but not in the same class as Parent, Dryden or even Cheevers. He did have one very good seaosn in '77-78. And if the Leafs had a better team in front of him I could have seen him with at least a Cup final appearance.

His claim to fame would have to be making the save on Billy Harris of the Isles in the '78 series in game 7 OT. Two minutes later Lanny McDonald scores and the Leafs win. What a save he made though!

 

[David]

Mike Palmateer was one of the most exciting goalies to watch because of his style of play with acrobatic saves and the way he would come rushing out to the blueline (literally!) to challenge the shooters on breakaways and smother the puck or poke it away. You never see anyone do this anymore. Palmateer did this quite often.

Palmateer was a pretty good goalie but not an exceptional one and nowhere near in the same class as a Dryden. He would have exceptional games but could not sustain this level of play which makes someone great.

Because of his style of play and having a bit of an underdog air about him, his games were always so exciting to watch and you always ended up cheering for the little guy. Yes, he was a very small goalie who made up for it with quick reflexes.

Even to this day, Mike Palmateer remains the only Leaf player that I actually cheered for.

 

[reckoning]

Palmateer was good but not in the same class as Parent, Dryden or even Cheevers. He did have one very good seaosn in '77-78. And if the Leafs had a better team in front of him I could have seen him with at least a Cup final appearance.

His claim to fame would have to be making the save on Billy Harris of the Isles in the '78 series in game 7 OT. Two minutes later Lanny McDonald scores and the Leafs win. What a save he made though!

The Leafs of that era were a strange team- their top 5 players (including Palmateer) could match up well against the best of the league, but the rest of the team were borderline AHLers. The Leafs- Isles `78 Game 7 pops up on ESPN Classic once in a while ( one of the few 70s games that the CBC didn`t accidentally erase or lose). Palmateer was brilliant. Everyone remembers McDonald`s goal but that game wouldn`t have seen overtime if not for Palmateer.

Allan Bester has always spoken very highly of Palmateer about how helpful and encouraging he was early in Bester`s career. Helping out rookies was something a lot of veteran goalies didn`t do often in those days.