Bathgate, a Hall of Fame winger and one of the most prolific scorers of his day, died the Hockey Hall of Fame and by the New York Rangers confirmed, Friday, Feb. 26, 2016.
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The Rangers confirmed on their website Bathgate died Friday.
Today we lost a legendary Blueshirt with the passing of Andy Bathgate. “The entire Rangers organization sends our most heartfelt condolences to Andy’s wife Merle and the Bathgate family”.
“It was deliberate on my part because of what he did to me”, Bathgate told author Todd Denault in the latter’s 2009 biography, “Jacques Plante: The Man Who Changed The Face of Hockey”.
Bathgate won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP in 1959. After equalling a National Hockey League record when he scored a goal in his ninth consecutive game. But he revolutionized the game. “But his head was sticking out and I decided if he wanted to play those little games …”
Known for his creative playmaking skills and a wicked slapshot, Bathgate was signed by the Rangers as a 17-year-old free agent in 1949. He spent three years with the Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters of the Ontario Hockey Association, winning a Memorial Cup in 1952. Bathgate saw the postseason with the Rangers just four times and scored 22 points in 16 games including scoring five goals in six games in 1958. He was also the first Rangers player to score 40 goals in a season.
His lone championship title came in 1964 when the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup by beating Detroit in seven games.
Plante had given an unsuspecting Bathgate, in full-speed pursuit of a puck deep in the Montreal end, a quick poke of his stick in the skates. Bathgate had nine points in 14 playoff games for Toronto that year and scored the game-winner that gave the Maple Leafs a third straight Stanley Cup. In fact, he fired that victor over the shoulder of another Winnipeg Hall-of-Famer, Terry Sawchuk, to send the Leafs on their way to victory.
Dogged by knee injuries for much of his career, Bathgate was left unprotected for the expansion draft in 1967 and was claimed by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Rangers retired Bathgate’s No. 9 in 2009, putting his number alongside Adam Graves’ No. 9 in the Madison Square Garden rafters.
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His NHL career totals include 349 goals and 624 assists for 973 points, not too shabby.
