Vic Hadfield Trade

[Scintillating10]

Who replaced Hatfield on GAG line?

 

[reckoning]

Who replaced Hatfield on GAG line?

Steve Vickers.

 

[Scintillating10]

Steve Vickers.

Easy to see why Rangers traded Hatfield then. They had young player to take his place. They were just moving his contract. Was this done to sign Sanderson?

 

[quietbruinfan]

I always felt Ratelle was the steal in the deal. His clean living gave him about three years of top production after the trade. Originally it was supposed to be Gilbert, who Francis disliked, and who was about done. There was also some talk about Walt Tkachuk, who was a fine center and Bruin killer. He also faded very fast...Thank goodness they "settled" for Ratelle.

 

[Section 104]

Brad Park was having problems with skin rashes so the Rangers gave him legal steroids which made him fat. When he got to Boston, they stopped that and washed his uniform everyday instead of once a week. Ratelle the Bruins reduced his practice time.
Middleton was partying too much and GM John Ferguson felt Esposito needed Ken Hodge to dig pucks out of the corner. As it turned out, Hodge was too old and Don Cherry gave Middleton the tough love he needed.
As mentioned Francis was furious Hadfield was caught on national tv laughing at a fan’s joke (Marv Albert said The Cat and another Rangers front office man went to NBC the day after to watch the tapes and “were not pleased”). You also had money men in Gulf and Western which owned the team who weren’t happy with the payroll.
When the WHA started in 1972 virtually every NHL team lost a player of importance except the Rangers. They increased their payroll and kept their stars. They did eliminate the defending Stanley Cup champion three straight years but didn’t win the Cup…or even make a return trip.
FWIW Esposito felt the Rangers were too complacent about losing compared to how it was in Boston. Later when he was running the team (often poorly and scatterbrained but that’s another story) the only old time Ranger willing to help him was Ed Giacomin.

 

[reckoning]

A couple of notes about this Rangers era from the excellent book We Did Everything But Win:

- The person running MSG at the time ( can't remember his name, but it was the person who preceded Sonny Werblin) was very focused on the bottom line and cutting costs. When was the last time you could say that about the Rangers? He was putting pressure on Francis to trim the payroll, which made Hadfield the prime candidate.

- According to the book, when Sinden and Ferguson were talking about dealing Ken Hodge, Sinden wasn't looking for Middleton, he wanted Steve Vickers. Ferguson wouldn't give Vickers up, and offered Middleton instead. Sinden took it because he just wanted to get rid of Hodge, who had worn out his welcome in Boston. Don Cherry has said that Ken Hodge was the only player he coached who he hated.

The trade still would've been a clear win for Boston had it been Vickers, but his offensive peak would have fallen short of Middleton's

 

[Mike C]

Thanks for the info. Those Ranger teams in early to mid 70's were super talented.

Also, as I recall, the team wanted "new blood" after playoff failures and Hadfield was in his own words "the sacrificial lamb"

I think the organization felt Steve Vickers was the 2nd coming and would lead them to the promised land

 

[Scintillating10]

I just watched game 7 against the Flyers. Rangers team came within a hair of winning a Cup. Eliminate Montreal and take Flyers to game 7, good team.