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Vic Hadfield |
Open 7 days a week.
8am - Sundown
340 Burnhamthorpe
(Trafalgar & Burnhamthorpe)
Oakville, Ontario
L6J 4Z2
Phone: (905)257-2334
Fax: (905)257-9743
Email: vhadfield@golden.net
In The Beginning ...
Vic Hadfield was the first member of the New York Rangers to score 50 goals in a single season, a feat he accomplished in 1971/1972. With 262 goals as a Ranger, he is the highest-scoring left-wing in team history and the only left-winger in team history to score 100 points in one season.
Born in Oakville, Ontario, Hadfield played all of his minor hockey in Oakville before joining the Dixie Bee Hives for one season. Then it was on to Junior A hockey with the Chicago Blackhawks - sponsored St. Catherines Tee Pees.
The Tee Pees won the Memorial Cup in 1960. In addition to Hadfield, there were many future NHL players on the Tee Pees, including Roger Crozier, Pat Stapleton, Ray Cullen, John Brenneman, Murray Hall, Doug Robinson and Chico Maki. That same year, Hadfield made his professional hockey debut - playing one game for the Buffalo Bisons of the American Hockey League.
Hadfield also spent his first full pro season with the Bisons in 1960-1961. The Bisons, managed by Fred Hunt and coached by Frank Eddolls, finished in second place at the AHL's Western Division and advanced to the Calder Cup finals before bowing to the champion Springfield Indians.
The New York Rangers
In June of 1961, the New York Rangers drafted Hadfield from the Chicago Blackhawks and Hadfield embarked on a career that eventually made him one of the most popular players in Ranger's history.
The Rangers of the early 1960s were one of the smallest teams in the NHL, and they clearly needed some players of Hadfield's size and combative style. Hadfield quickly delivered, and even led the NHL in penalty minutes with 151 in the 1963/1964 season, his first full NHL campaign.
As Emile Francis, the Ranger's General Manager and three times the team's coach continued to add bigger players and build a powerhouse team by the early 1970s, Hadfield's role began to change.
The G-A-G Lineup
In 1968, Francis placed Hadfield on a line with Jean Ratelle at centre and Rod Gilbert on right-wing. The threesome produced an instant chemistry and went on to become to most famous line in Rangers history ... the G-A-G (Goal-A-Game) Line. For a time in the 1970s, they were known as the T-A-G Line since they were scoring at a Two-Goals-A-Game clip.
In 1971/1972, Hadfield had the best season of his career. Francis named Hadfield team captain at the beginning of the season, succeeding Bob Nevin who had been traded to Minnesota for Bobby Rousseau. Rattelle, Hadfield and Gilbert finished one-two-three in team scoring, with Vic notching 50 goals and 56 assists for 106 points.
The 50-goal campaign was the first ever by a Ranger player, and only the 6th player in NHL history at the time to accomplish that fete. Playing despite several injured thumbs, Hadfield reached the magic 50 number by scoring twice in the season's final game against the Montreal Canadians at Madison Square Gardens.
The G-A-G Line was the talk of the NHL that season and the Rangers advanced to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in more than 20 years before bowing to Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and the Boston Bruins in 6 games. Gilbert made the first All-Star Team that season, with Hadfield and Ratelle making the second team behind Bobby Hull and Phil Esposito, respectively.
Throughout his Ranger career, Hadfield was known not only for his scoring ability, but for his dressing room leadership, an acute sense of humor at all times and for his overwhelming tendency of sticking up for his teammates. "He was the glue that kept the Rangers together, a great captain and a great team man," said Francis. "He never complained, always stressed the positive and always played through injuries."
Traded to Pittsburgh following the 1973/1974 season, Hadfield played 2-plus seasons for the Penguins and retired in 1976 with 1,002 games played, 322 goals scored, 389 assists and 1,154 points.
Vic proudly supports the Danielle Maria Arturi Foundation
to fund research for Diamond Blackfan Anemia.
Visit DMAF.org for more information!
The Daniella Maria
Arturi Foundation
Vic Hadfield is best known to New York sports fans as a former member of New York Rangers' famous Goal-A-Game line of the early 1970s along with Rod Gilbert and Jean Ratelle. Hadfield, who owns a Toronto golf course, these days quietly donates time and sweat to the Daniella Maria Arturi Foundation to increase awareness and support research in Diamond Blackfan Anemia, a rare childhood disorder resulting from the failure of the bone marrow to produce red blood cells. Hadfield became involved when Manny Arturi, a business associate, lost a seven-month-old daughter to the disease in 1996. The former left wing vowed to start a charity golf tournament, which has become a decade-long tradition for Hadfield and his hockey pals. "The best part of all this is watching Vic watch slides and presentations about molecular biology,'' said Marie Arturi, who smiles when she talks about daughter Daniella. "Here's a former star athlete who gives and gives and gives." During their ordeal Marie and Manny Arturi were shocked to discover how little was known about DBA; how little research was conducted and how few physicians were aware of it and thus how little was known about clinical care related to it. Now the medical community has taken notice as the American Society of Hematology has become involved. Clinical care center have been created and $28 million overall has been raised for DBA research. "It's really an honor to be involved,'" said the understated Hadfield, best known the first Rangers to score 50 goals in a season which he accomplished in 1971-72. For more information, visit www.dmaf.org. |