Bill Ranford in his prime

[Puckgenius*]

Saw bits of him but not a lot. How good was he in his prime with the Oilers? All I know is, he had a ridiculously quick glove hand. An odd stance as he always kept both his blocker and glove very low and had a gaping five hole but was extremely quick to close it.

Click to read more...

 

[Big Phil]

Very fun to watch in the mold of how we view Tim Thomas today. Too bad Ranford didn't have a prime that long and he kind of faded quickly.

 

[Stephen]

Seemed like an extremely overrated goalie who benefitted from one Conn Smythe run and then benefitting on playing for a horrible team which masked his sloppy goaltending with high shot counts and frequent opportunities to make heroic saves.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

he was also fantastic in the '91 canada cup.

 

[MS]

Seemed like an extremely overrated goalie who benefitted from one Conn Smythe run and then benefitting on playing for a horrible team which masked his sloppy goaltending with high shot counts and frequent opportunities to make heroic saves.

Pretty much. He was capable of hot streaks and got better in the clutch but was generally an erratic flopper, and an absolute sieve post-1992.

 

[ssh]

Can you really say that he had a prime?
He had one excellent playoff run seems to have been a hit or miss in the post-season.
In the regular season he was one of the most consistently ordinary (on average) season-to-season goalies. The problem was that during his career better goalies came into the league and some of the veterans improved their game but Ranford stayed the same. Early in his career he was close to the top and in the end he was nearer to the bottom.

 

[Iain Fyffe]

Seemed like an extremely overrated goalie who benefitted from one Conn Smythe run and then benefitting on playing for a horrible team which masked his sloppy goaltending with high shot counts and frequent opportunities to make heroic saves.

Indeed. He had one "hot" playoffs are was otherwise very pedestrian despite his many spectacular saves (which were offset by his many soft goals). He basically built a career on that Smythe, being absolutely terrible in his later years. You don't see it just by looking at his career numbers, you have to recall how much save percentages in the league were going up while his were stagnant.

 

[Johnny Engine]

Pretty much. He was capable of hot streaks and got better in the clutch but was generally an erratic flopper, and an absolute sieve post-1992.

Yeah, I got into hockey in 1993, so never did get to see a consistently effective Ranford in action, but I remember picking up at least one magazine (maybe it was Hockey Digest), that consistently pumped him up as the clear best goaltender in the league, as late as 96-97. Kind of looked a bit weird then, looks absolutely crazy now.

 

[K1984]

Indeed. He had one "hot" playoffs are was otherwise very pedestrian despite his many spectacular saves (which were offset by his many soft goals). He basically built a career on that Smythe, being absolutely terrible in his later years. You don't see it just by looking at his career numbers, you have to recall how much save percentages in the league were going up while his were stagnant.

Ranford was also spectacular during the '92 playoffs when the Oilers went to the Conference Finals, and as someone else mentioned, he was pretty damn good in the '91 Canada Cup. Post Oilers is when he really started to fall downhill.

 

[Iain Fyffe]

Ranford was also spectacular during the '92 playoffs when the Oilers went to the Conference Finals

If you want to give him credit for only the part of the playoffs that he played well, sure. His save percentage in the conference finals was .840, bringing his overall numbers for that year down to nothing special.

 

[K1984]

If you want to give him credit for only the part of the playoffs that he played well, sure. His save percentage in the conference finals was .840, bringing his overall numbers for that year down to nothing special.

He played all of the playoffs that year. I'm guessing you never watched any of that playoff year for the Oilers? Because you're doing yourself quite a disservice trying to justify your opinion that Ranford sucks based on his SV% in a series where the Oilers were clearly outmatched and swept. Hockey is more than statistics.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

He also had a great reputation in international circles - I'd almost consider him the Seth Martin of the 1990s.

 

[Iain Fyffe]

He played all of the playoffs that year. I'm guessing you never watched any of that playoff year for the Oilers? Because you're doing yourself quite a disservice trying to justify your opinion that Ranford sucks based on his SV% in a series where the Oilers were clearly outmatched and swept. Hockey is more than statistics.

Guess all you like, chief, but you'd lose that one.

At any rate, "spectacular" is not a word I would apply a goaltender who allows 8, 4, 4 and 5 goals in a 4-game loss, against a team that had all of 5 more points than the Oilers that year. Hardly a mismatch.

As such, I'm basing my opinion on how he performed in that series (allowing a lot of goals), not on how nice he made the saves look when he did manege to stop one.

Being spectacular in the first two series does not make his dismal performance in the third go away.

 

[K1984]

Guess all you like, chief, but you'd lose that one.

At any rate, "spectacular" is not a word I would apply a goaltender who allows 8, 4, 4 and 5 goals in a 4-game loss, against a team that had all of 5 more points than the Oilers that year. Hardly a mismatch.

As such, I'm basing my opinion on how he performed in that series (allowing a lot of goals), not on how nice he made the saves look when he did manege to stop one.

Being spectacular in the first two series does not make his dismal performance in the third go away.

Yes, that series was a mismatch, regardless of what regular season results say. The Oilers were getting circles skated around them that series. Suggesting the Oilers lost because of Ranford is pure stupidity.

 

[MadArcand]

Interesting how much hate Ranford gets here. I'm by no means a fan of his, but... how come Vernon, who is basically a carbon copy of Ranford in career regular season and playoff save% and season by season performance, gets constantly mentioned as HoF candidate while Ranford gets trashed? Absurd.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Interesting how much hate Ranford gets here. I'm by no means a fan of his, but... how come Vernon, who is basically a carbon copy of Ranford in career regular season and playoff save% and season by season performance, gets constantly mentioned as HoF candidate while Ranford gets trashed? Absurd.

I'm more than willing to trash Vernon if that's what you'd like.

 

[Hoser]

Interesting how much hate Ranford gets here. I'm by no means a fan of his, but... how come Vernon, who is basically a carbon copy of Ranford in career regular season and playoff save% and season by season performance, gets constantly mentioned as HoF candidate while Ranford gets trashed? Absurd.

Ranford had one Cup run and a Smythe Trophy. Vernon had four Cup runs (and two Cups) and a Smythe Trophy. It's that simple.

 

[Big Phil]

Interesting how much hate Ranford gets here. I'm by no means a fan of his, but... how come Vernon, who is basically a carbon copy of Ranford in career regular season and playoff save% and season by season performance, gets constantly mentioned as HoF candidate while Ranford gets trashed? Absurd.

Vernon was hot and cold, but he was at least HOT again in his career. Ranford never really was after 1991 and his reputation aided him as much as anyone else at that time. Kind of reminds me of how Keith Tkachuk went after his prime. People still had a lot of respect for him because he was a two-time 50 goal guy and you never knew when he'd do it again, but he never did. Ranford was the same way. He always had that mystique about him.

By the way, how in the world did Ranford get selected in the 1996 World Cup as the third string goalie? It was stupid then and looks even worse now. I know 1996 was an off year for goalies but how terrible were the choices when Belfour, Roy and even Fuhr were sitting at home while Ranford wasn't.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i don't remember ranford's '92 run that was mentioned above. but i do remember him being good in '91, the year they were upset in the conference finals by the north stars. i was relatively young, so maybe some of my observations were coloured by his reputation as a big game goaltender, which peaked that summer at the canada cup. (from '90 to '92, it was ranford, not roy, who was considered the most "money" goalie in the world.)

but still, i remember ranford and tikkanen carrying the oilers in '91. can anyone corroborate or contradict?

from my point of view, vernon had more good runs, but they were pretty evenly spaced through a long career where he was always at least an average to above-average NHL starting goalie. ranford had a really good, and at times great, two or three year peak and wasn't very good for the rest of his shorter-- but surprisingly, not that much shorter-- career.

 

[Hoser]

By the way, how in the world did Ranford get selected in the 1996 World Cup as the third string goalie? It was stupid then and looks even worse now. I know 1996 was an off year for goalies but how terrible were the choices when Belfour, Roy and even Fuhr were sitting at home while Ranford wasn't.

Belfour had an off year and Fuhr played a lot of games but was playing .500 hockey for the most part. Neither was, statistically speaking, doing any better than Ranford that year.

On the other hand Roy wasn't even invited, and even then it was a suspicious (or maybe inauspicious) choice (or dare I say a snub). Roy had a history of turning down invites for international tournaments; I guess by '96 they (that is, Glen Sather, who picked the team) didn't even bother inviting him.

Personally, and this is just my opinion, I think it was Sather's bias. I think it's more than a coincidence that two of the three goalies played for the Oilers that year...

 

[begbeee]

Ranford had one Cup run and a Smythe Trophy. Vernon had four Cup runs (and two Cups) and a Smythe Trophy. It's that simple.

Actually didnt Ranford technically win two SC? And I hope anyone wouldnt riot if Vernon didnt win Conn Smythe with Wings (not sayin' it's undeserved, but there were few strong candidates). From this POV it's closer than one would say.

By the way, how in the world did Ranford get selected in the 1996 World Cup as the third string goalie? It was stupid then and looks even worse now. I know 1996 was an off year for goalies but how terrible were the choices when Belfour, Roy and even Fuhr were sitting at home while Ranford wasn't.

I think it has something with his 1994 WC performance, which maybe recalled his fame from 1990 playoff run and 1991 Canada Cup. Then again, he was main piece of quite big trade during january of 1996 (for Czerkawski, 1st and ...) and he should solve Bruins goalie problems and Ranford really took them to playoffs.

I would say his nomination for World Cup 1996 (summer) has to do something with it.

 

[K1984]

but still, i remember ranford and tikkanen carrying the oilers in '91. can anyone corroborate or contradict?

Tikkanen yes, Ranford no in '91. Fuhr was the man that post season, but I'm pretty sure Ranford still found himself in a handful of games.

 

[Hoser]

Actually didnt Ranford technically win two SC? And I hope anyone wouldnt riot if Vernon didnt win Conn Smythe with Wings (not sayin' it's undeserved, but there were few strong candidates). From this POV it's closer than one would say.

Ranford won two Stanley Cups with the Oilers, yes, but he wasn't a factor in the '88 Cup win. Fuhr played the whole way. On the other hand Vernon was the go-to-guy in '86, '89, '95 and '97.

Vernon was capable of leading his team to success over a long period of time, and even when he played in Florida near the end he wasn't half-bad.

Ranford had the '90 Cup run and a good playoff run a couple years later. He was still half-decent until '96 but afterward the wheels fell off. His peak was very short, as pointed out earlier by others in this thread. That's why there's talk of Vernon being in the HHOF and little talk of the same of Ranford.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Tikkanen yes, Ranford no in '91. Fuhr was the man that post season, but I'm pretty sure Ranford still found himself in a handful of games.

you're right. i must have the '91 run mixed up with '92. i guess i do remember the '92 run then.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

Ranford may not have reached the heights of 1990 again, but he was very decent goalie until the wheels fell of after he left Edmonton. Those mid-90's Oiler teams were bloody awful. The odd time they won a game, Ranford was the main reason. From 1990-96, I don't think there's a coach in the league that would have complained if his GM gave him Ranford in net.