Ranking Ken Dryden

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I just read Dryden's latest book, Scotty, which is an awesome book by a guy who is apparently good at everything he does.

Anyway, it made me go back and look again at just how good Dryden was and how unique a career he had. He only played seven full seasons, but in that time won a Calder, a Conn Smythe, five Vezinas and six Cups. He was obviously on a team loaded with talent, but was also a major contributor.

So when you're discussing the greatest goalies of all time, where do you place a guy who played 600 games fewer than Patrick Roy and well over 800 fewer than Martin Brodeur? How much does quantity matter compared to quality? Just curious how others see it.
 
I’m not intimately familiar with his play, but he’s definitely a guy who should be on any list of greats. Top five? Dunno. Top ten? Maybe. Top 20? Definitely.
 
I think top 10 for sure. He had so much success in a short period. He had only 6 regular season games played when he entered the playoffs in 71 winning his first Cup on the road in game 7. I wish he continued to play in the 80's to see if the Habs would have been able to throw a wrench into the Islanders dynasty, especially in 1980. Success is measured largely in part by championships, not necessarily longevity. Bobby Orr and Mario Lemieux also come to mind.
 
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Watch the 76 Habs vs Red Army game to see Dryden at his best vs Tretiak. Add his incredible rookie campaign that saw him become the only player to win the Conn Smythe before the Calder trophy. Then look at his overall record as a Hab with 5 Vezinas and 6 Cups. Top 10 for sure. Top 5 probably.
 
Dryden definitely has to be on any top 10 list. I seen his entire career and he was outstanding throughout. The numbers don't lie, sure the Habs teams of the 70s were a juggernaut but he was a major contributor to their success. You can basically pick apart any players stats and say they won because of the team they were on. I say that team chemistry consists of all players pulling in the right direction.
For what he accomplished in such a short career you could easily place him in the top 5 of all time.
Cheers.
Dan.
 
Totally over rated based on the strength of the team around him in my opinion. Simply look at the numbers the backups put up behind the same teams. Maybe top 20? But he didn’t care enough about the game to bother to play a full career. I really don’t understand the adulation the guy gets.

Cory
 
will-411 said:
Totally over rated based on the strength of the team around him in my opinion. Simply look at the numbers the backups put up behind the same teams. Maybe top 20? But he didn’t care enough about the game to bother to play a full career. I really don’t understand the adulation the guy gets.

Cory
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He always struck me as very Billy Smith/Chris Osgood’ish. You could put any goalie on those teams and they would win.
 
MMarch said:
He always struck me as very Billy Smith/Chris Osgood’ish. You could put any goalie on those teams and they would win.
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Love these types of threads with some heathy debate.If you think about what he has accomplished ,no goalie has done what he done in such a short time.He's done it all while taking a break during his playing career. He's an odd character but so were many who played

Hate to say it but Montreal was not the same team with Bunny,Herron or Sevigny, whoever they had during or right after Dryden. The year after he retired they fell off. I'd even go as far and say, if Dryden never retired when he did, the Habs win 2 maybe 3 more cups........ He was that good


Being a Leaf fan and If I was building my all time dream team,Dryden would indeed be in my top 3.
 
Dunno if Dryden gets them another cup, but the guy was lights out when he was active.
Playing Hockey just never seemed to be a priority for him. I'll go top 10 all time, with an asterik that his numbers might have been even better had he played longer.... or worse as the Habs aged out
 
Probably in the Top 10, but I share MMarch's thought that we never saw Dryden play under major adversity. Those Habs teams were crazy good and they might have won 4 Cups in a row with or without him. Or maybe it was because he was so good that they were able to play the game that made them so dominant. The Oilers could play all offense all the time because Grant Fuhr and Andy Moog could be relied on to make the big saves.
 
I would say top 10, certainly not top 3 and I don't think top 5 either.

I base it on a few factors.

He only played for 7 seasons ( albeit + first season with only 6 games).

That leaves out the amazing consistency of the Hasek's & Brodeur's that played twice as long with the same stats and on teams that were definitely not loaded every year.

Or the incredible records of the early era of Plante, Sawchuck playing without anywhere near the protection of even Dryden's years!

When I think of the greatest players - I have to include longevity, doing over a span of time and not just a short career... whether it is injury or other priorities.
 
suitman19 said:
I would say top 10, certainly not top 3 and I don't think top 5 either.

I base it on a few factors.

He only played for 7 seasons ( albeit + first season with only 6 games).

That leaves out the amazing consistency of the Hasek's & Brodeur's that played twice as long with the same stats and on teams that were definitely not loaded every year.

Or the incredible records of the early era of Plante, Sawchuck playing without anywhere near the protection of even Dryden's years!

When I think of the greatest players - I have to include longevity, doing over a span of time and not just a short career... whether it is injury or other priorities.
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I have to put Patrick Roy close to the top of the list too.
 
His career is incredibly unique. I think like others have already suggested: It seems that hockey was never really his priority, it was just something he was exceptionally good at.

He had 7 great seasons. Probably the best 7 year stretch of any goalie, ever..... but I have a hard time calling him a top 5 goalie, when he only played 7 seasons.

I'll never have much of a strong option on anyone that played before the 80s. All I'm going with, at that point, would be stats & other people's options.

Plante, Sawchuk, Hall are the three that are almost always high on the "top X" lists.
Ditto for modern guys like Roy, Brodeur, and Hasek.

Including those 6, and Dryden, there are only 39 goalies in the HOF. I think it's very safe to say he's in the top 40 somewhere....

Many of those guys are the "old timey" types, that I'll be hoenst: I don't know much about. I know nothing about the career of Percy LeSueur or Alex Connell. I'm certainly not going to claim to be an authority on all things hockey - but if they were top-10 alltime good, I suspect I'd know a little more about them.

I would say the 6 I listed before are the top 6, and the next 6 are some combination of Dryden, Belfour, Tretiak, Cheevers, Esposito, and Parent. My gut tells me to bump off Belfour and Cheevers when making the all-time top 10 list.

I guess I'm putting Dryden somewhere in the 7-10 range, along with Tretiak, Esposito, and Parent.
 
suitman19 said:
While Patrick Roy is certainly one of the top 5-8 goalies that ever played - I am leaving him off my post mostly because of the career Save% and career GAA.
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Roy was shining under pressure. For a game without tomorrow, I would take Roy at its prime before anyone else. But, yes, over a complete season, he was not always a top performer, a guy like Brodeur had less bad nights. At least, that's my opinion and perception. :)
 
Regular season stats outside Roy played during some big time high scoring years where almost nobody had a GAA below 3 and put up really good numbers. And willing 2 Habs teams to 3 Finals and 2 Stanley Cups during those years.
 

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