Adam Graves – Heart of a Ranger

In December of 1994, the Rangers – and the entire NHL – were in the middle of a work stoppage, and the 1994-95 season was on hold. During the holiday season in previous years, the Blueshirts had partnered with the U.S. Marine Corps to support their Toys for Tots initiative, and fans donated unwrapped toys in the Madison Square Garden lobby when arriving to games in December.

Without any games on the schedule, there was no immediate plan for how the Rangers would proceed with collecting toys. That is, until Adam Graves – in conjunction with the team’s public relations staff – partnered with the restaurant Cronies on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and for two hours on a December afternoon, the Rangers’ No. 9 sat at the restaurant and signed autographs for fans who brought unwrapped toys to donate.

The Blueshirts Faithful had a chance to meet one of their idols, countless children were able to receive toys during the holiday season, and a new Rangers tradition was born, one that continues three decades later.

And it was all because Adam Graves did the right thing. And since he first joined the Rangers in the fall of 1991, Graves has embodied what it means to do the right thing, both on the ice and off it.

“As much as you give, you get in return,” Graves once said. “How can a kid with a smile on his or her face not rub off on you in a positive way?”

While it has been almost a quarter of a century since Graves last played in a game for the Rangers, his tireless work as a team ambassador has kept him connected to the franchise and the fans. In some ways, the exceptional impact he has made off the ice in New York – which was recognized when he won the King Clancy Award, given annually "to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community,” in 1994 – has overshadowed his noteworthy on-ice achievements.

Graves was not just one of the best people to ever put on a Rangers sweater. He also had one of the best careers of anyone during their time with the Blueshirts.

A native of Toronto, Ontario, Graves signed with the Rangers as a restricted free agent on September 3, 1991. He was 23 years old at the time he came to the Blueshirts and had won the Stanley Cup with the Edmonton Oilers during the 1989-90 season.

Graves wore jersey No. 11 during the pre-season and in the Rangers’ first regular season game of the 1991-92 season. When his former teammate with the Oilers, Mark Messier, was acquired by the Rangers on October 4, 1991, Graves relinquished No. 11 and switched to No. 9, which he would wear for the remainder of his 10-year tenure with the Blueshirts.

Shortly after the trade, Graves became the left wing on the Rangers’ top line, playing alongside Messier. That opportunity allowed him to expand his role from what it had been with the Oilers and evolve into one of the top power forwards in the NHL.

“When I got to New York, I was getting lots of chances to score, and I was playing physical,” Graves said. “Playing physical came natural to me. As you move up in levels of hockey, you figure out your way of how you are going to be successful as a player. My strengths were in front of the net and in the corners, and really complementing great players like a Mark Messier or a Brian Leetch.”

While helping the Rangers win the Presidents’ Trophy in 1991-92, Graves recorded 26 goals, 59 points, and 139 penalty minutes. As evidence of how quickly he earned the respect of his teammates and Rangers fans, Graves was chosen as the recipient of the Players’ Player Award (the first of four times he earned the honor in his 10 years with the Rangers) and the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award (which he won a franchise-record five times). The following season, Graves scored 36 goals and tallied 65 points, and he won numerous team awards once again: Most Valuable Player, Players’ Player Award, Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award, and Good Guy Award (for cooperation with the media).

Graves’ career-best statistics earned him not only a roster spot with Team Canada for the 1993 IIHF World Championship, but also the team’s captaincy for the tournament. Graves’ head coach with Team Canada was Mike Keenan, who would become his head coach with the Rangers the following year.

The 1993-94 season proved to be special for Graves, both from an individual standpoint and a team standpoint. He scored goals at a torrid pace early in the season – five in the first seven games, 12 in the first 17 games, and 21 in the first 30 games – and put himself on a path to chase down Rangers history.

When he was asked about his prolific goal scoring in 1993-94, Graves – as always – was apt to heap praise on others and talk about the impact they had on his success.

“Our power play that year, with Brian Leetch and Sergei Zubov running it from the point, made the game so much easier,” said Graves, who scored 20 power play goals during the season. “A lot of my goals were mucking and grinding – getting into difficult areas by using my physicality and then tipping pucks once I got into those areas."

Graves was one of four players who represented the Rangers at the 1994 NHL All-Star Game at MSG, along with Messier, Leetch, and Mike Richter. On a team that was laden with Hall of Famers and All-Stars that season, it was Graves who was its Most Valuable Player. In games which Messier missed due to injury, it was Graves who wore the “C” on his sweater.

And on March 23, 1994, Graves set a new benchmark in Rangers history. He entered the Blueshirts’ game that night against the Oilers with 49 goals in the 1993-94 season, and late in the first period, he converted a pass from Messier on a 2-on-1 rush to get his 50^th of the year. With that goal, Graves became just the second Ranger to score 50 goals in a season and tied Vic Hadfield for the franchise’s single-season record. Less than three minutes later, he buried a rebound chance to get his 51^st of the season, giving him sole possession of the record.

“I’ll never forget talking to Vic after that game,” Graves remembered. “Vic is such an incredible man, and I didn’t know him then like I know him now; if I did, it would have been a much longer conversation. In hindsight, how lucky was I to have my name alongside his?”

Graves finished the regular season with 52 goals and 79 points, earning a spot on the NHL’s Second All-Star Team. In the playoffs, he added 10 more goals, none of which were more memorable than his power play goal in the first period of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to give the Rangers a two-goal lead over the Vancouver Canucks. He also added an assist on the game-winning goal that night, helping the Blueshirts win the Stanley Cup.

As documented in the “Oh Baby!” video that recapped the 1993-94 season, Graves adequately displayed all the emotions that Rangers players and fans felt in the aftermath of the victory. First, he yelled out “Nine-teen For-ty!” shortly after the game ended, marking the end of the chant that the franchise had heard for years. Out of his uniform hours after the game ended, Graves then eloquently spoke about Ceil Saidel – a founding member of the Rangers Fan Club and season ticket member who was murdered in May of 1994 while attempting to help her neighbor during an attempted robbery – saying, “maybe she was the one that grabbed the ghost up in the rafters and kicked it right out of MSG.”

Graves then proceeded to summarize the impact of the Rangers’ triumph in the following words: “the bottom line is Rangers fans and the people of New York will never, ever, ever have to hear 1940 ever again.”

The Rangers Fan Club created the Ceil Saidel Memorial Award for the 1994-95 season, which was awarded to the player in recognition of their dedication to the organization both on and off the ice. It was no surprise that Graves received the award for seven consecutive seasons.

As the Rangers continued to make playoff runs in the years following their 1994 Stanley Cup triumph, Graves was at the forefront of the team’s success. When the Blueshirts rallied from a two-games-to-none deficit and won four consecutive games to eliminate the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals in 1996, Graves scored five goals in the four victories, including two goals apiece in both Game 3 and Game 4 in Montreal. In the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the New Jersey Devils in 1997, Graves’ wraparound goal in overtime of Game 5 ended the series and sent the Rangers to the Eastern Conference Final.

When Graves’ playing tenure with the Rangers ended after the 2000-01 season, his 280 regular-season goals were the third-most in franchise history, and his 28 playoff goals were tied for the third-most in franchise history. Rightfully, his No. 9 jersey was retired by the organization and raised to The Garden rafters on February 3, 2009.

When Graves walked out to the ice for the start of his jersey retirement ceremony, there were former teammates and legendary players who were in attendance to help celebrate his career. But there were also numerous children from the Garden of Dreams Foundation whose lives he impacted throughout his time in the organization. As always, his legacy transcended the statistics he accumulated and memories he created on the ice.

Simply put, Adam Graves’ legacy is that he has the heart of a Ranger.