10 greatest New York Rangers in franchise history

Brad Park has quite the fascinating legacy. On paper, he never won a Norris Trophy. However, one must consider the context of this fact. While Park never won a Norris Trophy, he finished in second place four times with the Rangers. Guess who won the Norris each time? Bobby Orr, who is widely considered the greatest defenseman in NHL history.

Park played for the Rangers from 1968 until 1976, when he was traded to the Boston Bruins. Ironically, a huge reason the Bruins wanted him so badly is because Orr’s career was cut short thanks to knee injuries.

While Park never won a Norris Trophy, he finished in second place four times with the Rangers. Guess who won the Norris each time? Bobby Orr, who is widely considered the greatest defenseman in NHL history.

Had Bobby never played in the NHL, it’s not hard to see how Park’s legacy would be changed. Suddenly, he has four Norris Trophies. At the time, Park would have been just the second Rangers defenseman to win the Norris Trophy. In 1976, he once again finished as the Norris Trophy runner-up. This time, the winner was New York Islanders defenseman Denis Potvin.

Park netted the Rangers Hall of Fame center Phil Esposito and defenseman Carol Vadnais. Esposito, even in his old age, still averaged right around a point per game for the Blueshirts over his six seasons (404 points in 422 games played) in New York.

Among Rangers defensemen with at least four seasons played with the franchise, his points per game rate of 0.81 ranks second, trailing only Brian Leetch’s (more on him later) franchise record of 0.87.