Mike Gartner – Scoring Goals at The Garden

Throughout a century of Rangers hockey, several of the top goal scorers in NHL history have worn a Blueshirts uniform. Entering the 2025-26 season, six of the top nine goal scorers in league history played at least some part of their career with the Rangers.

Of that elite goal scoring group, perhaps none demonstrated their special ability to score goals during their time with the Rangers as much as Mike Gartner did during his tenure in New York.

Gartner was acquired by the Rangers in a trade with the Minnesota North Stars on March 6, 1990. He was already in the midst of his 11^th consecutive 30-goal season when the Blueshirts acquired him, and he instantly showed how he would add offense to a team that was sitting in first place in the Patrick Division. Gartner scored two goals in his Rangers debut, and starting with his third game as a Ranger, he began a seven-game goal streak that helped the team clinch first place in the division.

The right winger tallied 11 goals and added five assists in 12 regular season games as a Ranger in 1989-90, finishing the campaign with 45 goals and 86 points. He continued his goal-scoring prowess during the playoffs that year, as his hat trick in Game 5 of the Patrick Division Semifinals against the Islanders at MSG led the Rangers to a 6-5 win that ended the series.

Gartner’s three goals in that series-clinching game exemplified the different ways he was able to score goals, and how he adapted his game during his time with the Rangers. On his first goal, he used his speed to get behind the Islanders defensemen before accepting a pass and taking a quick wrist shot to score. On his third goal of the game, he skated into the zone near the boards on the right wing and fired a slap shot from the top of the circle that cleanly beat Islanders goaltender Glenn Healy high to the blocker side. On his second goal, he made his way to the front of the net and deflected a shot at waist-height past Islanders goaltender Mark Fitzpatrick.

The first and third goals that Gartner scored were emblematic of the attributes that made him one of the legendary goal scorers in league history. Over the course of his career, Gartner’s electrifying speed and exceptional shot terrified defenses and goaltenders throughout the NHL. As his career progressed, however, Gartner – who said that he never considered himself a natural goal scorer despite a skill set and statistics that said otherwise – made a conscious decision to develop his play around the front of the net and learn how to score more goals off rebounds and tip-ins.

With a complete arsenal, Gartner’s goal-scoring ability remained at a high level during his first full season with the Rangers in 1990-91. He scored 49 goals without recording a single hat trick during the season – a testament to his consistency, as he tallied at least one goal in 38 of the 79 games he played – and ultimately came just one goal shy of tying Vic Hadfield’s single-season franchise record at the time of 50 goals. Over the final 28 games of the regular season, Gartner registered 24 goals, tallying at least one goal in 20 of those 28 contests.

The 1991-92 season was full of milestones for Gartner, as well as the Rangers. On October 14, 1991, he scored his 500^th career NHL goal, becoming the first player to reach the milestone as a member of the Blueshirts. Before the season was over, Gartner also registered his 1,000^th career NHL point (becoming the second player to accomplish the feat as a Ranger), tallied his 500^th career NHL assist, and skated in his 1,000^th career NHL game; he became the first player in NHL history to reach all four of the milestones in the same season. He recorded 40 goals and added 41 assists for 81 points in 1991-92 while helping the Rangers win the Presidents’ Trophy for having the best regular season record in the NHL.

In Game 5 of the Patrick Division Semifinals against the Devils at MSG, Gartner tallied a hat trick in an 8-5 Rangers win and became the first player in franchise history to register two hat tricks in the playoffs (to this day, Gartner and Wayne Gretzky are the only players to have multiple playoff hat tricks as Blueshirts). Gartner helped the Rangers eliminate the Devils to advance to the Patrick Division Finals, and he led the team with eight goals and 16 points in 13 playoff contests that year.

The 1992-93 season was another memorable one for Gartner that was filled with several individual milestones. He scored 45 goals to lead the team for the third consecutive season, and in doing so, he became the first player in Rangers history to score 40 or more goals in three different seasons (let alone three consecutive seasons). In addition, he tallied at least 30 goals in a season for the 14^th consecutive season of his career, establishing a new NHL record.

When Rangers captain Mark Messier was unable to play in the 1993 NHL All-Star Game due to injury, Gartner stepped in and stole the show. First, he won the Fastest Skater contest during the Skills Competition. Then, he scored four goals in the game and was named the contest’s Most Valuable Player. Gartner added another milestone during his Rangers tenure on December 26, 1993, when he scored his 600^th career NHL goal.

The right winger scored 173 goals in his 322 career games with the Blueshirts. Of the 331 skaters who have played at least 100 career contests with the Rangers, Gartner’s 0.54 goals per game average ranks the highest of them all. In addition to his play on the ice, Gartner was a leader throughout his tenure in New York. Although he was never the Rangers’ captain, he wore the “C” for numerous games when Messier (or Kelly Kisio during the years he was captain) was out of the lineup with an injury. After the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994, Gartner – who was the president of the NHLPA at the time – helped ensure that Eddie Olczyk and Mike Hartman would have their names engraved on the Cup because of the vital role they played for the team, even if they didn’t reach the league’s minimum games played threshold.

Gartner was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001, having scored 708 career goals and posting 17 different 30-goal seasons, 15 of which were consecutive. For all of the great goal scorers who have come through the Rangers organization over 100 years of franchise history, Gartner ranks among the best who have put on a Blueshirts sweater.