Ken Dryden Popular Books

Ken Dryden Biography & Facts

Kenneth Wayne Dryden (born August 8, 1947) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, author, and former politician and National Hockey League (NHL) goaltender and executive. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was a Liberal Member of Parliament from 2004 to 2011 and Minister of Social Development from 2004 to 2006. In 2017, the league counted him in history's 100 Greatest NHL Players. He received the Order of Hockey in Canada in 2020. Early life and education Dryden was born in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1947. His parents were Murray Dryden (1911–2004) and Margaret Adelia Campbell (1912–1985). He has a sister, Judy, and a brother, Dave, who was also an NHL goaltender. Dryden was raised in Islington, Ontario, then a suburb of Toronto. He played with the Etobicoke Indians of the Metro Junior B Hockey League as well as Humber Valley Packers of the Metro Toronto Hockey League. Dryden was drafted fourteenth overall by the Boston Bruins in the 1964 NHL Amateur Draft. Days later, June 28, Boston traded Dryden, along with Alex Campbell, to the Montreal Canadiens for Paul Reid and Guy Allen. Dryden was told by his agent that he had been drafted by the Canadiens and did not find out until the mid-1970s that he had been drafted by the Bruins. Rather than play for the Canadiens in 1964, Dryden pursued a B.A. degree in History 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, and won 76 of his 81 varsity starts. At Cornell, he was a member of the Quill and Dagger society. He also was a member of the Canadian amateur national team at the 1969 World Ice Hockey Championships tournament in Stockholm. Dryden took a break from the NHL for the 1973–74 season to article for a Toronto law firm, and to earn an LL.B. degree he received from McGill University in 1973. During this time Dryden interned with Ralph Nader's Public Citizen organization. Inspired by Nader's call in Action for a Change for establishing Public Interest Research Group's, Dryden tried to establish the Ontario Public Interest Research Group in the Province of Ontario. Dryden's jersey number 1 was retired by the Cornell Big Red on February 25, 2010; along with Joe Nieuwendyk, he is one of only two players to have their numbers retired by Cornell's hockey program. Playing career Dryden made his NHL debut on Sunday March 14, 1971 against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh. The Canadiens won the game 5-1, and the only goal scored against Ken was by a player named John Stewart. Later, on March 20, 1971, he played in a home game against his brother Dave Dryden, a fellow backup goaltender for Buffalo Sabres, when Canadiens starter Rogie Vachon suffered an injury; this still stands, as of 2021, as the only time a pair of brothers faced against each other as goaltenders. He was called up from the minors late in the season and played only six regular-season games, but rang up 1.65 goals-against average. This earned him the starting goaltending job for the playoffs ahead of veteran Rogie Vachon, and he helped the Canadiens to win the Stanley Cup. He also won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs. He helped the Habs win five more Stanley Cups in 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979. The following year Dryden won the Calder Trophy as the rookie of the year; he was not eligible for it the previous year because he did not play enough regular-season games. He is the only player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy before winning the rookie of the year award, and the only goaltender to win both the Conn Smythe and the Stanley Cup before losing a regular-season game. 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, with a break during the entire 1973–74 season; he was unhappy with 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 announced on September 14, 1973, that he was joining the Toronto law firm of Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt as a legal clerk for the year, for $135 a week. He skipped training camp and held out that season. The Canadiens still had a good year, 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 for the last time on July 9, 1979. Compared to those of most other great hockey players, Dryden's NHL career was very short: just over seven full seasons. Thus he did not amass record totals in most statistical categories. As he played all his years with a dynasty and retired before he passed his prime, his statistical percentages are unparalleled. His regular-season totals include a 74.3 winning percentage, a 2.24 goals-against average, a 92.2 save percentage, 46 shutouts, and 258 wins, only 57 losses and 74 ties in just 397 NHL games. He won the Vezina Trophy five times as the goaltender on the team who allowed the fewest goals and in the same years was selected as a First Team All-Star. In 1998, he was ranked number 25 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players, a remarkable achievement for a player with a comparatively brief career. At 6 feet, 4 inches, Dryden was so tall that during stoppages in play he struck what became his trademark pose: leaning upon his stick. He was known as the "four-storey goalie," and was once referred to as "that thieving giraffe" by Boston Bruins superstar Phil Esposito, in reference to Dryden's skill and height. Unbeknownst to him, his pose was exactly the same as the one struck by fellow Canadiens goaltender, Georges Vézina, 60 years prior. Dryden was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, as soon as he was eligible. His jersey number 29 was retired by the Canadiens on January 29, 2007. He was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2011. Post playing Writing Dryden wrote one book during his hockey career: Face-Off at the Summit. It was a diary about Team Canada in the Canada vs. Soviet Union series of 1972. The book has been out of print for many years. After retiring from hockey Dryden wrote several more books. The Game was a commercial and critical success, and was nominated for a Governor General's Award in 1983. His next book, Home Game: Hockey and Life in Canada (1990), written with Roy MacGregor, was developed into an award-winning Canadian Broadcasting Corporation six-part documentary series for television. His fourth book was The Moved and the Shaken: The Story of One Man's Life (1993). His fifth book, In School: Our Kids, Our Teachers.... Discover the Ken Dryden popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Ken Dryden books.