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It's official! In October GreatestHockeyLegends.com, now entering it's 4th season, had the third busiest month in site history!
When you combine sister site HockeyBookReviews.com I blew away my previous best for readership.
A big thank you goes out to my loyal readers.
Larry Patey was a 12 year veteran of NHL wars. He played in 717 games and was a noted defensive specialist. In 1981 he was runner up to Bob Gainey and Craig Ramsay for the Selke Trophy as best defensive forward in the league. That year he scored a league leading 8 shorthanded goals.
Not bad for a late bloomer. Patey was never a top player on his youth teams, and never even played major junior hockey. Instead he accepted the opportunity to play for Boston University back when it was still rare for serious NHL prospects to play there.
He never did get a chance to suit up with the BU Terriers. Freshmen weren't allowed to play at the time. Patey found a little known team in Braintree to keep active while studying. It was during an exhibition game with the United States national team that NHL scouts first really noticed him.
Patey would be drafted 130th overall by the California Golden Seals in 1973. Patey would drop his studies and turn professional. He would played 98 games in the Bay Area, but was best known as a St. Louis Blue. Despite scoring 25 goals and 45 points in his first full NHL season, late in 1975 Patey was traded to St. Louis in exchange for Wayne Merrick, a similar type of player.
Patey emerged as a top defensive forward in St. Louis. He formed a suffocating defensive tandem with winger Mike Crombeen over the next 7 seasons.
A devastating back injury all but ended Patey's career in 1983. He would play in only 33 NHL games over the next three seasons, the last two of which were with the New York Rangers.
Patey retired 1985 having played 717 games. He scored 153 goals, 163 assists and 316 points.
Patey held a lot of interesting off ice interests, too. He held a pilot's license since the age of 15. He pursued his real estate license during his spare time, and became a successful St. Louis area realtor after retiring from hockey. He remained in the game by opening his own hockey school, giving back to youth in the community. He also was active in the Blues' alumni organization and played in charity games.
You look back now at the career of Ralph Klassen and you wonder what went wrong. He was an extremely high draft pick, 3rd overall in a weak class of 1975, selected ahead of names like Pierre Mondou, Tim Young, Bob Sauve and Doug Jarvis. Yet despite his lofty draft position, the center iceman from Saskatchewan only scored 52 goals in his 9 year career. Only once in those 9 seasons did he reach double digits in goals!
Despite his lack of offensive contributions, Klassen actually was a valuable member of some weak teams in California/Cleveland, Colorado and St. Louis. He was a jack of all trades utility player who would do the unnoticed deeds that help a team win. Klassen is the perfect example of a player who's contributions simply never could be quantified by any statistics.
An explosive skater, Klassen was a top shadow and premier penalty killer. He learned how to use his speed expertly, thus making him even more potent. Instead of going full throttle all the time, Ralph knew how to turn on the jets at just the right time.
Despite his less than daunting offensive statistics, Ralph wasn't lacking in offensive talent. He actually was a pretty good playmaker, though rarely played with elite scorers to put up big numbers himself.
Had Ralph Klassen played with some of the stronger teams in the NHL during the 1970s and 1980s, he could have been a higher profile player. He was a desired player, appearing in 497 career contests. He is also believed to be the only player who was property of 4 different NHL teams on the same day, thanks to a series of complicated trades
Connie "Mad Dog" Madigan is the answer to a common trivia question. Who is the oldest NHL rookie ever ? Yep, Connie Madigan is your answer. When Connie was called up by St.Louis in February 1973 he was 38 years, 4 months old. Never before or since have anyone older than that debuted in the NHL. When Connie was called up by St.Louis he had a long professional career behind him in the minors.
Connie's youth in Port Arthur was a tough one, and he literally fought his way into hockey from the time he first laced on skates at the age of five. One of his neighbours from that time remembered Connie very well and once said about Connie.
" I remember Connie and his buddies as youngsters. When they needed a ride home, they didn't mind "borrowing" a police car to get it."
Connie's tough childhood rubbed off on his play. He was a very tough customer who set numerous league records in penalty minutes. He picked up a staggering total of 3537 PIMs during his career, 2181of them in the tough WHL.
He was once asked by a reporter if was ever going to soften up on the ice, Connie responded. " I can't, I know only one way to play this game, and I'm not too cute. If you don't have heart and you don't want to win, you should get out. Besides, there's always someone ready to take your spot."
After a junior career with the Port Arthur Bruins and Humboldt Indians he went to the NY Rangers training camp in 1955 but was cut. After that Connie became a hockey drifter and played for 12 different clubs.
Connie was a pretty controversial figure from time to time, which probably kept him buried in the minor leagues. Even some of his teammates didn't like him because he was so outspoken. Don Head, a goalie who was Connie's teammate in Portland (WHL) summed it up best when he said, "Listen, the guy isn't always smart. But he hates to lose, and he'll never quit trying. He's strong, he has a good shot and he's hard to check."
Another teammate in Portland was Tom McVie who later went on to become an NHL coach. His view on Connie was about the same as Don Head's. " His drive and desire are the strongest parts of his game. He wants to win so bad that he can taste it."
A typical Connie Madigan trademark was that he always played his best hockey against teams that had dumped him, or as Connie put it "You always play your hardest against a team that gets rid of you."
But Connie wasn't just a brawler. He was a seven time All-Star in the WHL as well as an All-Star in the IHL. In 1968 he won the Hal Laycoe Cup given to WHL's outstanding defenseman.
Connie spent most of his professional career with the Portland Buckaroos in the WHL, 11 seasons in total. He was probably the most hated rival in the old Buckaroos' Glass Palace. He never gave the opponents any breathing room. Fittingly enough, he retired with Portland in 1975 at the age of 40.
His drive and desire deservedly gave him a shot in the NHL at an age when most players were retired. All his penalty records are eclipsed by now but his late rookie debut will probably stand the test for many years to come, if not forever.
When looking back at Scott Young's statistics, the one thing that surprised me is how often he moved around the NHL. I thought he was a fantastic support player, which is probably what made him so desirable by other teams. They were willing to pay a nice price in hoping Young would breakout with his new team.
I best remember Young with the Hartford Whalers, who drafted him 11th overall in 1986, and with St. Louis, where he played in 5 seasons, the most of his many tenures. He also played with Pittsburgh, Quebec/Colorado, Anaheim and Dallas.
I also remember Young as a very important member of Team USA in the late 1980s and through the 1990s as well as the 2002 Olympics. Born in Clinton, Massachusetts, he always answered the bell when his country needed him, playing in three world juniors, three Olympics, three world championships, the 1996 World Cup of Hockey and two stints with the US national team regular season.
I remember being intrigued by Young at the 1986 draft. He was an all star defenseman at Boston University, but also utilized as a swing man who would play forward, most notably at the World Juniors. He played right wing for most of his NHL career, probably because of his average size, but I always have considered the rare players who could excel both at forward and on defense to be the most intelligent and valuable players in hockey.
I remember someone on Hockey Night In Canada once referred to Scott Young as a "hockey machine." It was a pretty good quote. He excelled in so many facets of the game.
Young had a very heavy slap shot, which caught more than a few goalies by surprise. He liked to tee up one timers near the top of the right face off circle, and was often used on the right point on the power play.
He definitely had a shooter's mentality, firing away whenever possible, and darted in front of the net for rebounds and loose pucks. But what he wasn't was a finisher. He had a career year in St. Louis in 2000-01 with 40 goals, otherwise he was a 20 goal, 50 point threat.
Raised as a defenseman, it comes as no surprise that Young was a diligent defensive forward. He read plays well, had good anticipation and an active stick, as well as the speed and quickness to get to pucks first. He was a regular on the PK unit as well as the PP unit. He was not a physical player by any stretch, which limited him a bit in the true checker's role.
He was a reliable performer game in and game out, and in the playoffs. With his speed, shot and ability to read plays he played a long time, 1181 games in total plus 141 more in the playoffs. He scored 342 goals and 756 points in the regular season, plus 44 goals and 87 points in the Stanley Cup post-season.
Blake Dunlop was a classic late bloomer.
A high draft pick, 18th overall in 1973 by the Minnesota North Stars, Dunlop had a wonderful final year of junior hockey with his hometown Ottawa 67s. He led all Ontario junior hockey players in scoring with an amazing 60 goals, 99 assists and 159 points in 62 games, all while studying psychology and sociology at Carleton University on the side.
Still, Dunlop was just 5'10" tall and he was not considered to be a great skater. He was still a long ways away from the NHL.
Despite tearing up the minor leagues in scoring, Dunlop had trouble accomplishing much of anything at the NHL level from 1973-1978. In 1977 the Stars actually gave up on Blake and moved him to Philadelphia for a draft pick. A year later Dunlop finally showed he could score at the NHL level, chipping in 20 goals and 48 points in 66 games.
The Flyers were looking for some goaltending help, and moved Dunlop and veteran defenseman Rick Lapointe to St. Louis in exchange for Phil Myre. The move was a great one for Dunlop. He had played in 72 games in 1979-80, scoring 45 points, but exploded for 20 goals, 67 assists and 87 points in 1980-81. The NHL rewarded Blake with the Bill Masterton trophy for all his years of persevering before finally getting a chance to prove how good he could be.
Blake backed that up with two more solid seasons. 78 points in 1981-82 and 66 points 1983-84. So what was the major difference that allowed Blake to become a top scorer in St. Louis?
Quality ice time of course, but also a quality linemate. Blake was teamed with Swedish import Jorgen Petterson. Jorgen was a great player who patrolled the LW on Dunlop's line. Petterson was a big winger who could handle the physical play and was a good stick handler. Petterson and Dunlop were a perfect pairing. Petterson scored 37, 38 and 35 goals in his first three NHL seasons, all with Dunlop as his center.
The duo were also great off ice friends, sharing a love of tennis. In fact, in his teens Dunlop was one of the top junior tennis players in all of Canada.
The Blues, and particularly Dunlop, got off to a slow start in 1983-84. He scored just once plus 10 assists in the first 17 games before he was released. He was signed as a free agent in early December by the Detroit Red Wings, but he never got on track in the Motor City - finishing the year with just 6 goals and 14 assists in 57 games in red and white.
That disappointing year proved to be the final year for Blake Dunlop as a professional hockey player. He would return to St. Louis to make his post-hockey home, raising two sons and two daughters, all of whom played hockey of some variety, too. Cole played at the University of Arizona, Connor at Notre Dame and Sascha played field hockey at the University of Michigan. Younger daughter Torrie was also into field hockey.
Blake Dunlop tallied 130 goals and 404 points during his NHL career. He became the St. Louis branch manager and financial consultant for AG Edwards brokerage firm.
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