Ken Dryden - Early Life and Hockey Career

Early Life and Hockey Career

Dryden was born in Hamilton, Ontario, the son of Murray and Margaret Dryden and brother of Dave Dryden, also an NHL goaltender. Dryden was raised in Islington (then just outside Toronto) and drafted fourteenth overall by the Boston Bruins in the 1964 NHL Amateur Draft. Later the same day, Boston traded Dryden to the Montreal Canadiens, along with Alex Campbell, for Paul Reid and Guy Allen, whom the Bruins highly valued. Dryden was informed by his agent that he had been drafted by the Canadiens, and did not find out until the mid-1970s that he had originally been a Bruin.

Rather than play in Montreal, Dryden pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree at Cornell University, where he also played hockey until his graduation in 1969. He backstopped the Cornell Big Red to the 1967 National Collegiate Athletic Association championship and to three consecutive ECAC tournament championships under coach Ned Harkness, winning 76 of his 81 varsity starts. He also was a member of the Canadian amateur national team at the 1969 Ice Hockey World Championship tournament in Stockholm.

Dryden made his NHL debut in 1971 for the Canadiens, playing only six regular-season games after a late-season call-up but sporting a minuscule 1.65 goals-against average. This earned him the number 1 goalie job for the playoffs ahead of veteran All-Star Rogie Vachon, and the Canadiens rode their hot young goalie to win the Stanley Cup. He then became the backbone of 5 more Stanley Cup-winning teams in 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979. During that first playoff season, Dryden won the Conn Smythe Trophy (1971), as the playoffs' most valuable player. The following year Dryden won the Calder Trophy, 1972, as the Rookie of the year because the previous year he did not play enough regular season games to become eligible. He remains the only NHL player to ever win the Conn Smythe Trophy before winning the rookie of the year award. In the autumn of 1972 Dryden played for Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet national ice hockey team.

Dryden played from 1971 to 1979, except for the 1973–74 season, when he was unhappy about the contract that the Canadiens offered him, which he considered less than his market worth, given that he had won the Stanley Cup and Vezina Trophy. He skipped training camp and held out that season, incurring the wrath of Canadiens General Manager Sam Pollock whose previous stars had usually signed for the amount that he had offered. The Canadiens still had a good season, going 45-24-9, but lost in the first round of the playoffs to the New York Rangers in six games. The Canadiens allowed 56 more goals in the 1973–74 season than they had the year before with Dryden. Dryden used that year to fulfill the requirements for his law degree at McGill and article for a law firm. He retired following the 1978-79 season at age 31.

Compared to most other goaltending greats (and Hockey Hall of Fame players), Dryden's NHL career was extremely short: just over seven full seasons. Therefore, statistically he did not amass record totals in most categories. As he played all his years with a dynasty and retired before he could pass his prime, his statistical percentages are unparalleled. His regular season totals include a .790 winning percentage, a 2.24 goals against average, and, most incredibly, winning 258 games and losing only 57 games while recording 46 shutouts in just 397 NHL games. No other modern goaltender has ever been even remotely close to earning nearly as many shutouts as recording losing games. He won the Vezina Trophy five times for allowing the fewest goals and in the same years was selected as a First Team All-Star. Despite the comparative brevity of his career, in 1998, he was ranked number 25 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.

Dryden was so tall, at 6 foot 4 inches (193 cm), that he was often seen during stoppages in play in what became his trademark pose: resting with his blocker propped up by his goalie stick which was angled to its maximum possible height. One of his nicknames was the "four-story goalie".

Dryden was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983. His #29 was retired by the Canadiens on January 29, 2007, and his #1 which he wore while playing for the Cornell Big Red was retired on February 25, 2010, making him one of only two players to have his number retired by Cornell's hockey program (the other player, Joe Nieuwendyk, had his number retired with Dryden).