Confirmed with Link: Ratelle's #19 To Be Retired

[Deleted member 23124]

Finally. Now get the Cook brothers up there.

Let's not forget Little Davey Kerr.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Fast going for his 3rd number in 4 years. Interesting, but not Derek Armstrong-level crazy

 

[Tawnos]

Don't you mean #4?

The Bread Line was:

#6 Bun Cook-#7 Frank Boucher-#5 Bill Cook.

Ron Greschner is the greatest Ranger #4, but I'm not sure they should retire his number. He doesn't have any significant leaguewide achievements nor did the team while he was around.

 

[Tawnos]

Talking about the old-timers of Rangers history, I actually believe that they should have hanging in the rafters every single player who spent at least half their career in a Rangers uniform who is also in the HHoF. So that would be:

#1 Eddie Giacomin*
#1 Chuck Rayner**
#2 Art Coulter**
#2 Brian Leetch*
#3 Ching Johnson**
#3 Harry Howell*
#5 Bill Cook
#6 Bun Cook
#6 Neil Colville
#7 Frank Boucher**
#9 Andy Bathgate*
#9 Lynn Patrick**
#10 Edgar Laprade
#10 Clint Smith
#11 Babe Pratt**
#12 Bryan Hextall
#19 Jean Ratelle*

*Has (or will have) a banner
**Number is retired for another player

In terms of influence, each person can decide from themselves if Gump Worsley should be added to #1 and Brad Park to #2, since both had significant careers with the Rangers, but played longer elsewhere.

 

[THE BIG WHISTLE]

The Bread Line was:

#6 Bun Cook-#7 Frank Boucher-#5 Bill Cook.

Ron Greschner is the greatest Ranger #4, but I'm not sure they should retire his number. He doesn't have any significant leaguewide achievements nor did the team while he was around.

He was the greatest stickhandler of all time.

 

[Inferno]

we should totally retire MDZ's numbers.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

we should totally retire MDZ's numbers.

We should hang the banner next to the opponent's goal. That was his sweet spot

 

[bobbop]

When the Rangers retired #7 (before many of you were born), they also acknowledged and honored many other #7's at the ceremony (Frank Boucher, Red Sullivan etc.)but that was the extent of the ceremony.

One name and number I don't see on some of these lists is #2 Brad Park. He was the second best defenseman in the NHL for most of his years with the Rangers.

 

[TheMorningSkate]

Pretty much every dad/grand dad I've talked to lists this guy as his favorite player... I'm mid-twenties so clearly I've never seen him play. If you guys could compare him to a current NHLer who would you pick?

 

[NickyFotiu]

The Bread Line was:

#6 Bun Cook-#7 Frank Boucher-#5 Bill Cook.

Ron Greschner is the greatest Ranger #4, but I'm not sure they should retire his number. He doesn't have any significant leaguewide achievements nor did the team while he was around.

I might have retired Gresh before some we already retired. Gresh was a huge part of this team in my eyes. His personality, his stickhandling, his being willing to play any position. We did go to the cup with him in 1979 and the conference finals in 1986. Now my opinion is biased since he is in my top 5 all time favorite players. Me and my dad still talk about a 3 game stretch where once each game he would do a end to end rush and score a goal.

 

[ThreeLeftSkates]

But I was wrong: just a fantastic player. As I've said in previous posts, I can still see and hear the puck, shot from the point by Dale Rolfe in March 1972, hitting Ratelle's ankle......in retrospect, the injury that may have cost us the Cup that year.

The GAG Line was flying until that happened. What could have been.

 

[Deleted member 23124]

The Bread Line was:

#6 Bun Cook-#7 Frank Boucher-#5 Bill Cook.

Ron Greschner is the greatest Ranger #4, but I'm not sure they should retire his number. He doesn't have any significant leaguewide achievements nor did the team while he was around.

Thanks for the clarification.

Gresh doesn't need "league wide" achievements. He broke nearly all of Howell's records and held them until Leetch broke them. He spent his entire career with the Rangers. I see no reason not to raise his numbers....we're honoring him as a Ranger. If Howell and Leetch are up there, Gresh deserves to be.

 

[NickyFotiu]

Fast going for his 3rd number in 4 years. Interesting, but not Derek Armstrong-level crazy

Fast has the ultimate joke comeback in the lockerroom. Whenever somebody makes fun of him he can say there is only 1 guy in this lockerroom that has had his jersey # retired by the NY Rangers.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Fast has the ultimate joke comeback in the lockerroom. Whenever somebody makes fun of him he can say there is only 1 guy in this lockerroom that has had his jersey # retired by the NY Rangers.

I remember it happening to Bure and Rozsival haha.

 

[Maximus]

The GAG Line was flying until that happened. What could have been.

Not a question in my mind it cost us the Cup. Ratelle was on pace for a ridiculous 145 points that year and was at time of his injury arguably the most dominant player in the league that year even with the Bruins having such a great team as well.

You add a healthy Ratelle who who scored at an insane 1.72 points per game pace before he got hurt by that ill timed Rolfe slap shot to the team that lost in 6 games to Boston that season in the Cup finals, it's obvious that it cost us the Cup.

All that said, thank the good lord #19 will be going up the rafters of MSG where it should have been probably 30 years ago around the time he was inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame.

I was probably around 10 years old when I started to truly understand and follow the Rangers in 1971. To this day Jean Ratelle will likely always be my top 3 favorite Ranger players of all time that I actually saw play. He was so ****ing good in all facets of the game and easily is one one of the greatest players I've ever seen live in my lifetime.

For those of you young ones, do yourself a favor when you get a spare moment or two and go to Youtube and type in Jean Ratelle highlights and give yourself a treat....he really was that good....

 

[Tawnos]

Thanks for the clarification.

Gresh doesn't need "league wide" achievements. He broke nearly all of Howell's records and held them until Leetch broke them. He spent his entire career with the Rangers. I see no reason not to raise his numbers....we're honoring him as a Ranger. If Howell and Leetch are up there, Gresh deserves to be.

Meh. Howell played in the pre-Bobby Orr era of the league. Defensemen didn't put up points the same way. Easy to surpass his numbers if you play long enough in the uniform. Hell, Brad Park had more points as a Ranger than Howell did and he did it in half the number of seasons.

Gresh is an important Ranger, but not number retiring important.