70 Fun Facts About New York Rangers

Which Madison Square Garden president was awarded the NHL franchise that became the Rangers?

He had promised the New York Americans they would be the Garden's only hockey team, then went after a second one when the Americans drew well.

Which sports editor is credited with the nickname "Tex's Rangers" that gave the team its name?

He wrote for the New York Herald Tribune; the first crest even showed a cowboy on a rearing horse waving a hockey stick.

What word filled the blank when the Rangers were incorporated as the 'New York ___ Professional Hockey Club' in 1926?

The switch happened during the same meeting with NHL president Frank Calder.

Which future Maple Leafs owner assembled the first Rangers roster but was fired before the opening season?

The team he built won the American Division in its first year anyway.

Which 44-year-old Rangers coach played two periods in goal in the Stanley Cup Final in place of Lorne Chabot?

The opposing coach had vetoed the use of Ottawa's Alex Connell, who was sitting in the stands, so the coach strapped on the pads himself and allowed one goal.

Whom did the Rangers beat in five games to win their first Stanley Cup?

Nels Stewart scored the only goal against the coach-turned-goalie in game two, and the Rangers' centre won it in overtime.

Which Rangers centre won the Lady Byng seven times in eight years and was given the trophy to keep?

Lady Byng had to donate a second trophy to the league; he later coached the Rangers to the 1940 Cup.

The Cook brothers, Bill and Bun, and their centre made up which famous early Rangers trio?

The line helped win two Cups in the club's first seven seasons and reached the 1932 Final as well.

In which year did the Rangers become the first US-based NHL franchise to win the Stanley Cup?

They remain the fastest true expansion team ever to win it, doing so in their second season.

What did the Rangers become the first NHL team to do in December 1929?

They hired the Curtiss-Wright Corporation for the trip and lost the game 7–6.

Why did the Rangers play every game of the 1950 Stanley Cup Final, including "home" games, in Toronto?

They lost the seventh game in overtime to Detroit anyway.

What was Rangers goalie Ken McAuley's record-worst 1943-44 goals-against average?

He lost 39 games and allowed 310 goals in 50 appearances that season, including a 15–0 defeat.

How long was the Rangers' championship drought between their third and fourth Stanley Cups?

The gap became known as the Curse of 1940.

Fans of which rival began chanting "1940! 1940!" at the Rangers in the early 1980s?

Fans in other cities soon picked up the taunt, which lasted until 1994.

In one version of the Curse of 1940, what did Rangers management burn in the Stanley Cup?

The other version blames Red Dutton, whose New York Americans folded and were never revived.

What nickname did the Rangers pick up during their early years playing blocks from Times Square?

The players became minor celebrities in the city's Roaring Twenties nightlife.

What did the "GAG" in the Rangers' famous 1970s GAG line stand for?

The line carried the team to the 1972 Final even after its centre was injured late in the season.

Which member of the GAG line was the last of the three to have his number retired, in December 2018?

He held the club's single-season goal record, 50, until it was broken in 1993–94.

Whose 52 goals in 1993–94 set a Rangers single-season record that stood until 2006?

He was one of seven former Edmonton Oilers Cup winners on that Rangers roster.

Which winger broke the Rangers' single-season goal record with his 53rd of 2005–06 against Boston?

The same spring he set the club points record with 110 and won his third Pearson Award.

The 110-point season of 2005–06 broke whose long-standing Rangers single-season points record?

The old mark had stood since the 1971–72 GAG line season.

Which right wing, known as "Mr. Ranger", was the first player to have his number retired by the team?

His No. 7 went to the rafters in October 1979; he played his whole career in New York.

Whose No. 1 became the second number retired by the Rangers, in March 1989?

The goaltender's arrival in the mid-1960s helped end a five-year playoff absence.

How many numbers have the Rangers retired?

Two of them honour two players each, so eleven men are represented, plus the league-wide No. 99.

Which number did the Rangers retire for Henrik Lundqvist in January 2022?

It went up in his first season after retirement; No. 35 belongs to Mike Richter.

What nickname did Rangers fans and media give goaltender Lundqvist during his rookie season?

He broke the club rookie goaltending record with 30 wins that first year.

In which year did Henrik Lundqvist finally win the Vezina Trophy?

That season the Rangers finished as the top seed in the East with 109 points.

Henrik Lundqvist led Sweden to Olympic gold at which Winter Games?

It was Sweden's second Olympic hockey gold; he arrived in New York for the season before it.

In December 2006 Lundqvist first faced his twin brother, who was playing for which team?

The Rangers won; the brothers are only the third set of twins to play against each other in an NHL game.

Mike Richter set a franchise record with how many saves in a single game in January 1991?

Twenty-six of them came in the third period alone as the Rangers held on for a 3–3 tie.

Mike Richter played college hockey at which university before joining the Rangers?

The Rangers had drafted him 28th overall in 1985.

After retiring in 2003, Mike Richter earned an ethics, politics and economics degree from where?

He entered through a programme for non-traditional students.

Brian Leetch was born in which city?

His family moved to Connecticut when he was three months old, and he threw a 90 mph fastball in high school.

Which award did Brian Leetch win in 1994, becoming the first American-born player to do so?

He was also the first non-Canadian to win it.

How many goals did Brian Leetch score in 1988–89, a record for a rookie defenseman?

He won the Calder Trophy that season after making his debut straight from the 1988 Olympics.

How many third-period goals did Mark Messier score after guaranteeing a Game 6 win over the Devils in 1994?

The natural hat trick has been compared to Babe Ruth's called shot and Joe Namath's Super Bowl guarantee.

Whose double-overtime Game 7 goal against the Devils sent the Rangers to the 1994 Final?

It was the Rangers' first trip to the Final since 1979.

Which team did the Rangers beat in seven games in the 1994 Stanley Cup Final?

The Rangers led 3–1 and had to survive two straight losses before winning game 7 at the Garden, 3–2.

Which opposing captain scored both goals against the Rangers in game 7 of the 1994 Final?

One was short-handed and one on the power play; the Rangers hung on 3–2.

Which coach led the Rangers to the 1994 Cup, then left after a dispute with GM Neil Smith?

He had also coached the Flyers in a game 7 of the Final in 1987, making him the first coach to reach that game with two teams.

Which of these Rangers was among the first Russians engraved on the Stanley Cup in 1994?

He was joined by Alexander Karpovtsev, Alexei Kovalev and Sergei Nemchinov.

Wayne Gretzky finished his career with the Rangers, retiring at the end of which season?

His best moment in New York was the 1997 run to the conference finals.

How many consecutive seasons did the Rangers miss the playoffs from 1998 to 2005, a franchise record?

Expensive veterans such as Theoren Fleury, Eric Lindros and Pavel Bure could not end the slump.

How many Presidents' Trophies had the Rangers won through the 2023–24 season?

They then became just the fourth team to miss the playoffs the season after winning one.

Which team beat the Rangers in five games in the 2014 Stanley Cup Final?

The Rangers had come back from 3–1 down against Pittsburgh on the way there.

In 2015 the Rangers became the first NHL team to overcome a 3–1 series deficit in back-to-back seasons; whom did they beat in seven that year?

They then lost game 7 of the conference finals at home for the first time in franchise history.

Which Ranger's arm-waving at Martin Brodeur in 2008 made the NHL penalise screening a goalie with arms and stick?

The league changed the interpretation the day after the game.

The Rangers picked first overall in 2020 and second overall in 2019. Who was the 2019 pick?

The Finnish winger was traded away during the 2024–25 season.

Artemi Panarin signed a seven-year deal with the Rangers in 2019 after leaving which team?

He earned a Hart Trophy nomination in his first season in New York.

Which award did Rangers defenseman Adam Fox win in 2021?

He led all NHL defensemen with 42 assists that season.

Which Rangers goaltender won the Vezina Trophy after the 2021–22 season?

The Rangers reached the conference finals that spring before losing to Tampa Bay.

Which Ranger scored five goals in a game against Washington on March 5, 2020?

He finished that shortened season with 41 goals in 57 games.

Which general manager pushed the unpopular 1976–78 shield-logo uniforms, later reused in Winnipeg?

Fans hated the rounded numbers and darker blue, and the classic diagonal wordmark returned in 1978.

The Rangers' navy alternate jersey worn from 1996 to 2007 featured the head of which landmark?

The "Lady Liberty" design returned as a Reverse Retro uniform in 2020–21.

Which former Canadiens star nicknamed "Boom Boom" left retirement at 37 to join the Rangers in 1966?

He helped end a five-year playoff absence under coach and GM Emile Francis.

Which 1967 expansion team beat the Rangers in 1974, the first to oust an Original Six club?

The seven-game series is remembered for Dave Schultz pummelling Dale Rolfe while no Ranger intervened.

How much was the territorial fee the Rangers received when a crosstown rival entered the NHL for 1972–73?

Three seasons later that rival knocked the Rangers out 11 seconds into overtime of a deciding game.

Which superstar centre did the Rangers get from Boston in 1975 for Brad Park and the GAG line's centre?

Carol Vadnais came to New York in the same blockbuster.

Who was hired as coach and general manager in 1978 and took the Rangers to the 1979 Stanley Cup Final?

New Garden owner Sonny Werblin brought him in; the Rangers beat their Long Island rivals in the semifinals before losing to Montreal.

The Rangers opened 2008–09 in Bern, Switzerland, by winning the Victoria Cup against which club?

They then won two regular-season games against Tampa Bay in Prague.

Which conglomerate owned the Rangers in the 1980s before becoming Paramount Communications?

The team later passed through Viacom, ITT and Cablevision on the way to the Dolan family.

Which former Canucks coach replaced John Tortorella behind the Rangers bench in 2013?

He reached the Final in his first season and was fired after the 2017–18 rebuild announcement.

Whom did the Rangers acquire from Tampa Bay in the March 2014 trade for Ryan Callahan?

The veteran had asked out of Tampa; he retired a little over a year later.

Who was named Rangers head coach on May 2, 2025?

He took over after a season in which the team missed the playoffs a year after winning the Presidents' Trophy.

The Rangers share Madison Square Garden with which NBA team?

The Rangers moved into the current, fourth version of the Garden in 1968.

After 13 seasons with the Rangers, Chris Kreider was traded in 2025 to which team?

The trade came as the club began what it called a retool around its core and prospects.

The Rangers lost the 1972 Stanley Cup Final to which team?

They had beaten the defending champion Canadiens and the Black Hawks to get there.

What did the rejected first Rangers crest of 1926 depict?

Tex Rickard turned it down, and management settled on a shield design similar to that of the rival New York Americans.

Which rival owner became the largest stockholder in Madison Square Garden in the Original Six era?

He stopped short of a controlling stake, which would have broken the NHL's rule against owning two teams, but wielded de facto control as the Rangers floundered.

Which forward was named the 26th captain in Rangers history on September 12, 2011?

He was named weeks after the team bought out previous captain Chris Drury and signed Brad Richards to a nine-year deal.