Eight players have won the Calder Trophy – which is awarded annually to the NHL’s rookie of the year – as a member of the Rangers throughout the franchise’s history. One of those eight players wore jersey No. 8 for more games than any Ranger in franchise history and began his Rangers tenure with a rookie season to remember.
In the fall of 1972, Steve Vickers arrived at the Rangers’ Training Camp in Kitchener, Ontario unsure if he would be going back with the team to New York for the start of the 1972-73 season. “In 1971-72, I had to go play a year in the minors,” Vickers recalled. “Even though I was a first-round pick (in 1971), Emile Francis wanted all the players to spend a whole year in the minors.
“I played in Omaha, Nebraska,” said Vickers, who scored 36 goals for the Omaha Knights of the Central Hockey League (CHL) in 1971-72. “I wasn’t happy at the time, but looking back, it was probably the best thing for me, because I became a man, grew up a little bit, and was able to work on my game.
“When I came to the Rangers’ Training Camp the following year, I wasn’t thinking that I was going to make the team by any stretch of the imagination. I knew I had to work hard, and I had a good pre-season.”
Vickers scored a goal in his NHL debut on October 7, 1972, but it wasn’t until a month into the season that he established a place in the lineup and with linemates who would help him realize his full potential. The famed “Bulldog Line” – which originally featured left wing Dave Balon, center Walt Tkaczuk, and right wing Bill Fairbairn – provided the Rangers teams of the early 1970s with essential secondary scoring, exceptional penalty killing, and tenacious forechecking ability to retrieve pucks in the corners. After Balon was traded to the Vancouver Canucks early in 1971-72, Francis had difficulty finding a replacement for him on the line.
That is, until Francis decided to put Vickers on the line with Tkaczuk and Fairbairn.
In the first full game that the trio was intact, each player scored a goal and had a multi-point game in the Rangers’ 7-2 win over the California Golden Seals on November 11, 1972. That game ultimately turned out to be a precursor for what was to come for Vickers and his linemates.
The following night, Vickers recorded his first NHL hat trick while playing in his 15th career NHL game as the Rangers defeated the Los Angeles Kings, 5-1. He scored his first goal of the game on a slap shot in the second period, added his second goal of the contest by burying a great pass from Tkaczuk near the net, and then finished off the hat trick with 24 seconds remaining in the game during a 3-on-1 rush, as he was set up by Rod Gilbert.
In the Rangers’ next game on November 15, 1972, against the Philadelphia Flyers at MSG, Vickers followed up his three-goal game with another hat trick, as the Rangers defeated the Flyers, 7-3.
Vickers had become the first Ranger, as well as the first NHL rookie, in the modern era (since 1943-44) to register a hat trick in two consecutive games.
“I didn’t know at the time that it had never been done before,” Vickers said. “Walt and Billy were very unselfish players and they got me the puck.”
Less than a week after his record-setting performances, Vickers suffered a knee injury that would sideline him for a month. However, he still finished the season with 30 goals, becoming the first Rangers rookie in the modern era to score 30 goals in a season. In addition, he won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year.
When he was asked about the significance of winning the award, Vickers joked, “it meant $1,500”, which was the bonus he received at the time. He then elaborated by saying, “it meant that I didn’t mess up, I had a place on the team, and that I would be there for a while.”
To say that he would be in New York for a while was an understatement. “Sarge” played 10 seasons with the Rangers and still ranks among the top 10 players in franchise history in goals and points. He set the Rangers’ single-game record for points with seven, which he established on February 18, 1976, against Washington and still holds today.
And it all began with back-to-back hat tricks in November of 1972, creating a memorable legacy that is remembered fondly by Rangers fans to this day.
