From Providence Red to Ranger Blue

If somehow Ed Giacomin's legacy as one of the most beloved players in Rangers history hadn't been cemented over his 10 full seasons with the Rangers, then his emotional return to Madison Square Garden with the Detroit Red Wings on November 2, 1975 - two days after he had been claimed off waivers by Detroit from the Rangers - established the indelible impact he had on the franchise and the fans.

On that night, Giacomin was greeted with cheers - and the famous "Edd-ie! Edd-ie!" chant - from the time he touched the ice until after he departed. Giacomin said years later that he felt the events of that evening helped put him into the Hockey Hall of Fame over a decade later.

It was a night that Giacomin probably wouldn't have envisioned - couldn't have envisioned - early in his Rangers tenure a decade prior. But by the time Giacomin played his final game in a Ranger uniform, there was no doubt that the trade that the Rangers made to acquire him 58 years ago today - May 17, 1965 - was one of the best in the franchise's history.

The story of how the Rangers acquired their franchise goaltender is memorable in its own right, even if it isn't as well-known as the story of how he departed.

Emile Francis became the Rangers' general manager in October of 1964 and knew the value that a strong goaltender could have on a franchise. Francis, who was a goaltender and played for the Rangers in the late 1940s and early 1950s, said that when he took over the Blueshirts, he made the decision that he wanted to build the team from the goaltender out.

With his philosophy established, Francis now had to identify who that goaltender was going to be. During the 1964-65 season, one goaltender he had his eyes on was the 25-year-old Giacomin, who was playing with the Providence Reds of the American Hockey League (AHL).

The Reds were an independently run organization and did not have a working agreement with an NHL team at that time. This meant that Giacomin did not belong to any of the six NHL franchises, and any team that wanted him as their goaltender would have to make a trade with Providence in order to get his rights.

Listening to the advice of Rangers scout Johnny Gagnon, Francis went to see Giacomin play in Providence and quickly knew that he wanted Giacomin to play for the Rangers. "I watched him play in Providence many times," Francis said, "and he was playing with a bad hockey club. But he was a tremendous competitor and regardless of what the score was, he hung in there."

The Rangers, however, were not alone in pursuing Giacomin. Throughout the 1964-65 season, at least four of the six teams in the NHL, including the Blueshirts, made trips to Providence to scout Giacomin (the other reported teams were Detroit, Montreal, and Toronto). As The Gazette in Montreal reported in March of 1965, "the Detroit Red Wings sent (assistant general manager and chief scout) Johnny Mitchell to Providence to purchase Ed Giacomin. … Mitchell was unsuccessful despite what Sid Abel (Detroit's general manager and head coach) described as a 'fantastic offer for Giacomin'. Said Mitchell: "The New York Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs found out about it and I wound up in a bidding match with them.'"

Late in the season, Francis had an encounter with Mitchell in Providence when both men were there to scout Giacomin (and hopefully consummate a deal with Reds owner Lou Pieri for the goaltender). Ironically, after the game, both Francis and Mitchell found themselves riding in the same elevator of the hotel where they were staying. When they got off the elevator, Mitchell asked Francis two questions - "are you here to look at Giacomin?" and "do you think that Giacomin could play in the NHL?"

When Francis recounted that story in the years that followed, he said that his response to Mitchell was either that he thought Giacomin wasn't good enough to be an NHL goalie, or that he didn't want to lie to Mitchell and said he was the wrong guy to be answering that question. What was clear to Francis after that encounter, however, was that he knew he wanted Giacomin, he knew other teams wanted him, and he knew he needed to act quickly in order to get him.

The following morning, Francis met with Pieri to work out the terms of the trade. He ultimately agreed to trade four players - Marcel Paille, Sandy McGregor, Aldo Guidolin, and Jim Mikol - to Providence for Giacomin. When the trade was officially announced on May 17, 1965, Giacomin recalled that, "I think I was the happiest guy on this Earth. It was a dream."

The trade to the Rangers marked the end of one journey and the beginning of a new one for Giacomin. It was the end of a journey that almost didn't happen. In 1959, the Washington Presidents of the Eastern Hockey League (EHL) were looking for a goaltender to help them finish out the 1958-59 season. Originally, they requested Rollie Giacomin, Ed's older brother, from Sudbury. Rollie couldn't get off work, so 19-year-old Ed went to play those games instead.

Ed made such a good impression in four appearances that Providence invited him to Training Camp the next year. "If Rollie could have gotten time off," Giacomin said years later, "I think I would have been history."

After his stint with Washington, Giacomin had a kitchen accident in which he was splattered with grease that burned his legs. He was forced to be in the hospital for two months, but was thankfully able to return to the ice and keep his career going.

Giacomin's perseverance helped him get to the NHL. He needed that perseverance to stay there. When the Rangers acquired Giacomin, Francis was quoted as saying that Giacomin was "the top goalkeeper outside the National Hockey League", and that quote was featured in Giacomin's bio in the Rangers' 1965-66 media guide. Alternating in goal with Cesare Maniago and Don Simmons during his first season, Giacomin was unable to secure the role as the team's starting goaltender. He had a tendency to roam from the net to play the puck - something that most goaltenders had not done before him - and after some costly mistakes that resulted from his roaming, Rangers fans were quick to voice their displeasure.

Giacomin finished his rookie season with an 8-20-6 record in 36 games, and he also spent part of the season in the AHL with Baltimore, as Francis wanted him to work on his game instead of sitting on the bench in New York. In 1966-67, Giacomin returned to the Rangers intent on securing the No. 1 job in goal. He struggled early in the season, however, and it was ironically at Giacomin's lowest point when he gained the confidence that would help springboard his career.

In a game against the Boston Bruins on November 9, 1966 at MSG, Giacomin replaced Maniago during the second period after Maniago was hit in the face with a shot and needed to get stitches. The Rangers held a 3-1 lead with less than two minutes remaining in the game, but Giacomin allowed two goals in a span of 55 seconds, and the game ended in a 3-3 tie. He was booed and fans threw items on the ice in Giacomin's direction.

The morning after the game, Francis had a conversation with Giacomin. "You're my goalie and nobody's going to stop you from becoming a good one," Francis told him. "The next time they throw garbage, throw it back."

"It just takes a couple of words sometimes, somebody to believe in you," Giacomin recalled years later. "Emile believed in me. He just said, 'you're going to be the goalie from now on, and I'll be right behind you.' Sure enough, I don't know what it was, it just seemed like everything turned for the best."

After the tie against the Bruins, the Rangers had a 2-5-3 record with 60 games remaining in the season. Giacomin would start 59 of the final 60 games, including 38 consecutive games from November 12, 1966 through February 11, 1967. Over a two-month, 27-game stretch that began with his first game after his conversation with Francis (November 12, 1966 through January 12, 1967), Giacomin posted a 17-6-4 record, along with a 1.89 GAA, a .938 SV%, and four shutouts.

Giacomin finished the season as the runner-up for the Hart Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player, was named to the NHL's First All-Star Team, and led all goaltenders in the league in appearances (68), wins (30), and shutouts (nine). Most importantly, he helped the Rangers make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which was the first of nine consecutive playoff berths for the team - all of which took place with Giacomin in goal.

Francis used words such as backbone, cornerstone, and building block to describe Giacomin's significance to the Rangers during his tenure with the team. Giacomin was all of that, and more.

It was Francis' No. 1 objective when he took over the Rangers to get a No. 1 goaltender for the franchise. It ended with jersey No. 1 in the MSG rafters.