R.I.P. Ken Dryden

Ken Dryden, the goaltender on six Montreal Canadiens teams that won the Stanley Cup in the 1970s, died September 5th, 2025 after a battle with cancer. He was 78.

A native of Hamilton, Ontario, Dryden played college hockey at Cornell University from 1966-69, winning the NCAA Hockey Championship in 1967. He was 76-4-1 in his college hockey career.

It was on to the Montreal Canadiens after that. Dryden played in six regular season games in the 1970-71 season, winning all six with a goals against average of 1.65 and a .957 save percentage. With just those six games of NHL experience, Dryden was the goalie for the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup playoffs that season. He was 12-8 with a save percentage of .914 as the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup. Dryden won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player on the playoffs.

Dryden was 39-8-15 with a 2.44 goals against average the following season, winning the Calder Trophy, hockey’s version of the Rookie of the Year. Montreal won the Stanley Cup again in the 1972-73 season, with Dryden going 33-7-13 during that campaign. He won the first of five Vezina Trophies as the league’s top goaltender.

Dryden sat out the ’73-’74 season in a contract dispute, working at a law firm instead. He returned in the ’74-’75 season. Over the next four years (1975-76 through 1978-79), the Canadiens won all four Stanley Cups. Dryden was 42-10-8 in ’75-’76, 41-6-8 in ’76-’77, 37-7-7 in ’77-’78 and 30-10-7 in ’78-79.

And then he retired, at just 31. His career numbers were a record of 258-57-74 with a 2.24 goals against average, .922 save percentage, and 46 shutouts. He was on a Stanley Cup winning team six out of eight seasons. Dryden was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983.

Dryden’s post playing career occupations included lawyer, author, Olympic hockey analyst on television (he was in the booth during the U.S. team’s Miracle on Ice Olympics in 1980), president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and politician.