Brad Park
Brad Park was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on July 6th, 1948 and is the Hockey Player. At the age of 75, Brad Park biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 75 years old, Brad Park has this physical status:
Douglas Bradford "Brad" Park (born July 6, 1948) is a retired ice hockey player who plays for Canada.
Park, a defenceman, competed in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, and Detroit Red Wings.
Considered one of the best defensemen of his generation and then selected to the all-star team several times, superstar Bobby Orr, who was briefly his teammate, overshadowed his career's golden years.
In 1988, he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Park was voted one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in 2017 by a magazine.
Playing career
Park participated in the 1960 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with the Scarboro Lions and 1965--1966 with the Toronto Westclairs and Toronto Marlboros (until 1968). He was drafted by the New York Rangers in the first round (second overall) in the 1966 NHL Amateur Draft, and the Rangers, after a brief time with the Buffalo Bisons of the AHL, started playing for the Rangers in 1968.
Park developed into the best Rangers defenceman, whose offensive talent, stickhandling, and pugnacity made him a favorite among local fans and journalists. He also compared Boston Bruins superstar Bobby Orr, who has been widely regarded as the best at his position in hockey history, to him. Park remarked, "I saw no reason to be concerned because I was rated second to Bobby Orr" years ago. Orr was not only the best defenceman in the game, but he was also the best player to wear two pair of skates. Being rated No. 1 was nothing derogatory. 2 is the youngest to be named as a "superstar" in the magazine.
Park was appointed as the Rangers' alternate captain and briefly served as their captain. Park led the Rangers past the defending champions of the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs in 1972 despite the loss of team scoring leader Jean Ratelle to a fractured ankle. The Rangers advanced to the Stanley Cup finals, losing in six games to the Boston Bruins. "If the Rangers think they're going to beat us in the next two games, they're full of 'Park' spelled backwards," Bruins assistant captain Phil Esposito said in Game 6 at Madison Square Garden. In the Norris Trophy vote, Park came in a distant second second to Orr.
The Rangers re-signed Park, making him briefly the highest-paid player in the NHL, when the upstart World Hockey Association tried to lure him away.
Park emerged as a key contributor to Team Canada's series over the Soviets in 1972, with Orr unable to play due to illness.
The Rangers began to unload its high-priced veterans after opening the 1975–76 season with their worst start in ten years. Park, along with Jean Ratelle and Joe Zanussi, was traded to the Boston Bruins in a blockbuster contract that brought Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais to the Rangers on November 7 by the Rangers. Park, 27, was overweight, overworked, and over the hill, according to the New York Times and public, who was facing unfavourable comparisons to Denis Potvin.[1]
Although Esposito and Valiantnais were both valuable players for the Rangers, the team remained mired in the division after "the trade," and Rangers general manager Emile Francis was eventually dismissed. Despite Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr's departures, the Rangers' hopes of receiving the best out of the trade were immediately revived and soon became one of the NHL's finest teams.
Park continued his success under new coach Don Cherry, who suffered from injury and who would soon leave the team. Park had been a one-to-end puck carrier before, but with the Bruins, he was told by Cherry to focus on defense. Park made a smooth transfer to his new team, even hitch-hiking a ride from two teenagers at 1 a.m. after their vehicle ran out of gas, and Park later gave them free tickets to the next Boston home game, getting over his unpopularity in Boston as a member of the arch-rival Rangers.
Cherry's "Lunch Pail A.C." won three division titles for the Bruins from 1977 to 1979. Park made two first All-Star team picks, while finishing second in a Bruins' uniform in 1977-1978, one of his best seasons. Park played a vital role in Boston's back-to-back appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals, where they lost to the Montreal Canadiens both times. [2] His last game with Boston was against the Buffalo Sabres in 1983, when Park scored the game-winning goal in overtime and aided Boston in the conference finals.
Park began as a free agent with the Detroit Red Wings in 1984. In the same year, he earned the Bill Masterton Trophy for perseverance, setting a record for assists by a Red Wings defenseman (53). He was still an efficient player during the 1985 season but he was forced to return to work due to repeated knee injuries. He briefly served as Detroit's coach for a short time in the next year.
Park was elected in 1988 in his first year of eligibility to the Hockey Hall of Fame in his hometown of Toronto.
Park has lived on the North Shore of Massachusetts and Sebago Lake in Maine for almost 40 years, with his partner Gerry. He has five children and eight grandchildren. Straight Shooter: The Brad Park Story was published in August, 2012.