Unmasked: History of mask art helps celebrate Goalie Week

Welcome to Goalie Week. NHL Social is celebrating goaltending with NHL Goalie Week from Sept. 2-7, reveling in the uniqueness and artistry of puck-stoppers through the decades. Today, NHL.com has compiled a list of the most significant masks and mask art as part of Goalie Week.

Among the many things that make goalies unique are the masks they wear, not just as protection, but as art that can be customized to show off the personality of the person hidden beneath a still-evolving blend of metal, foams and fiberglass.

The history of the both the mask and the way it is decorated are a big part of the position, whether it's a look that inspires a future NHL goalie to start, or that first painted mask providing a right-of-passage moment to higher levels.

Even in the NHL, goalies often remember their first.

"I never had a painted helmet until I turned pro (but) I remember my first helmet was a white Itech and I wore it for three or four years," Detroit Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot once told NHL.com. "(It) was all rusty by the time I was done."

Whether you wore gear obsessed like retired NHL goalie Ryan Miller or pay little extra attention to your equipment like New Jersey Devils starter Jacob Markstrom, there are masks that hold a special place in most goalie's memories.

"When I was 11, I got a mask painted from DaveArt (Swedish artist David Gunnarsson) with Bart Simpson and Homer Simpson on it," Markstrom said in a previous Unmasked. "That was pretty cool."

Miller was also 11 when he got a Badger, which he once described as "overkill" in terms of size, weight and protection, and not helpful seeing the puck.

"But it was exciting because I felt like an NHL goalie wearing that mask," he said.

Jacques Plante, Montreal Canadiens

It only makes sense to start with the man -- and moment -- that finally led to the goalie mask being accepted, reluctantly at first, as part of the position.

Plante famously debuted a fiberglass mask fitted to a mold of his face and made by Bill Burchmore against the New York Rangers on Nov. 1, 1959, but only after being knocked out of the game by a high Andy Bathgate backhand that cut him along the nose and required seven stiches to close. Plante, who was only allowed by Canadiens coach Toe Blake to wear the mask in practice to that point, refused to come back into the game, which had been delayed by a reported 45 minutes because there were no backup goalies back then, unless he wore the mask.

It may not have been the first mask in the NHL. There are reports Clint Benedict wore a protective leather mask in his return from a broken nose and cheekbone during the 1929-30 season, but it didn't last long and looked nothing like the masks that became increasingly common after Plante's historic debut.

Gerry Cheevers, Boston Bruins

Cheevers' black stitches on a white mask is one of the most iconic looks in NHL history and it started when he was forced back onto the ice after taking a high shot off the face, this time during a Bruins practice in 1967. Before he did, Cheevers had trainer John Forristall draw stitches where the shot hit his mask, and they continued adding them each time he took another.

It may not have been the first paint job, but Cheevers' stitches were the first time we saw personality added to a mask, in many ways inspiring some of the more extravagant artwork that followed over the next 15 years, including Ken Dryden's equally iconic Canadiens-colored "target" mask from 1975 through 1979, Gilles Gratton's famous 1976 Tiger mask with the Rangers that's displayed in the Hockey Hall of Fame and Gary Bromley's lifelike skull mask with the Vancouver Canucks in 1980, which was a play on his nickname, "Bones."

Doug Favell, Philadelphia Flyers

Technically, Plante's 1959 debut was also the first painted mask because it had a layer of flesh-tone, but Favell was the first to add color in the NHL when he had his Flyers mask painted bright orange ahead of a Halloween game in 1970.

Favell, who once said shooters told him the bright mask caught their eye first and distracted them, wore an orange and white starburst design the next season and, like Cheever's stitches, was another pioneer for the concept of masks as art.

Dave Dryden, Edmonton Oilers

Tony Esposito, a Hockey Hall of Famer who played for the Chicago Blackhawks, added wire, or metal bars, over his full-face fiberglass mask in 1978, but it was Dryden who truly began the march toward the mask we see today when he worked with legendary mask maker Greg Harrison, who built and painted the Bromley and Gratton designs. That created the first "combo," a metal cage mounted to a snug-fitting fiberglass mask with a larger opening and a harness to a back plate to hold it in place.

While the materials continue to change with the addition of carbon fiber, Kevlar (a heat-resistant, synthetic, lightweight fiber), impact-absorbing foams and even 3D-printed liners customizable for fit, this collaboration between Dryden, who died Oct. 4, 2022, and Harrison can still be seen in masks today. Outside of Plante's in-game pioneering, it may be the most significant development for the modern goalie mask in NHL history.

Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood, Detroit Red Wings

Prior to the Harrison-Dryden combo, NHL goalies had switched briefly to using a combination of a metal cage and players helmet dubbed the "birdcage." First seen in North America when Vladislav Tretiak wore one for the Soviet Union during the 1972 Summit Series against Canada, the birdcage didn't debut in the League until 1976.

Though the Harrison-Dryden design became the NHL mask of the choice not long after, some goalies continued to use the helmet-and-cage combo throughout their careers. That included Hasek, who finished his Hall of Fame career in Detroit wearing a custom fiberglass helmet made by famed mask builder Gary Warwick with a custom paint job attached to his birdcage. Osgood, whose search for his preferred-but-discontinued Cooper helmets, led to some being purchased off eBay before realizing one of the Red Wings trainers had some from his time with the Soviet Red Army team in his garage. Osgood retired in 2011 as the last goalie to wear a true birdcage combo, and it was indeed a Soviet helmet.

Ed Belfour, Chicago Blackhawks

The eagle on Belfour's mask started with a Harrison paint job in Chicago and like Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, the British ski jumper who inspired the design at the 1988 Calgary Olympics, the name stuck. So did the design, even as Belfour moved on to work with artist Todd Miska and played for four other teams.

The look and name became synonymous with Belfour, a trend we've seen with other goalies like Curtis Joseph and his fierce looking "Cujo" dog designs, Felix "The Cat" Potvin designs by Harrison that continued from team to team, Martin Brodeur's team-themed New Jersey Devils mask and the way Andrei "The Big Cat" Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning has personal artist Sylvie Marsolais incorporate a lion, including some that change color as it cools out on the ice.

Johan Hedberg, Pittsburgh Penguins

Similarly, Hedberg's Moose-themed masks became a staple of his NHL career, with the character adorning different outfits and postures from team to team. It started when Hedberg was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 12, 2001, while playing for Manitoba Moose in the International Hockey League. He did not have time to switch, which led to the nickname "Moose."

Why does Hedberg's mask get his own mention here? Because it also represented an NHL breakthrough for Gunarrsson, who has gone on to become the League's most prolific painter.

Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens

Price had a variety of looks during his 15 seasons with the Canadiens, but the "Mechanical Skull" design he commissioned from Calgary-based artist Jordon Bourgeault of JBo Airbrush gets a special mention. Price didn't even really wear it full time, but the incredibly detailed design caught the eyes of his peers, inspiring some to follow suit with special orders, including Markstrom's knitted Heritage Classic mask with the Calgary Flames and Frederik Andersen's similarly intricate "angels and devils" design for when the Carolina Hurricanes played the Washington Capitals in the 2023 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series -- even if it meant going out of pocket themselves because the time required goes beyond the typical team budget for painted goalie masks.

At a time when many goalies are trending towards simpler, logo-based designs, it's nice to see others still seeking out designs that wouldn't look out of place in an art museum.