Brad Park
Hockey Hall of Fame, 1988
Park in the 1970s
Born	(1948-07-06)July 6, 1948 (age 76) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Height	6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight	190 lb (86 kg; 13 st 8 lb)
Position	Defence
Shot	Left
Played for	New York Rangers Boston Bruins Detroit Red Wings
National team	Canada
NHL draft	2nd overall,1966 New York Rangers
Playing career	1968–1985

Douglas Bradford Park (born July 6, 1948) is a Canadian former professionalice hockey player. Adefenceman, Park played in theNational Hockey League (NHL) for theNew York Rangers,Boston Bruins andDetroit Red Wings. Considered to be one of the best defencemen of his era, he was named toan All-Star team seven times. The most productive years of his career were overshadowed by superstarBobby Orr, with whom he played with for a brief time. Unlike Orr's, however, his teams never hoisted theStanley Cup. Park was elected to theHockey Hall of Fame in 1988. In 2017, he was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.^[1]

As a youth, Park played in the 1960Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with the Scarboro Lions,^[2] was a member of theJunior B Toronto Westclairs (1964–1965) and then the Junior AToronto Marlboros (1965–1968). He was drafted by theNew York Rangers in the first round (second overall) in the1966 NHL amateur draft and, after a brief stint with the minor-leagueBuffalo Bisons of theAHL, began playing for the Rangers in1968.

Park developed into the best Rangersdefenceman, whose offensive skill, stickhandling and pugnacity made him popular with local fans and media. He even drew occasional comparisons with theBoston Bruins superstarBobby Orr, universally acclaimed to be the greatest at his position in hockey history. Years afterward, Park remarked, "I saw no reason to be upset because I was rated second to Bobby Orr. After all, Orr not only was the top defenceman in the game but he was considered the best player ever to put on a pair of skates. There was nothing insulting about being rated No. 2 to such a super superstar."^[3]

Park was made the alternatecaptain of the Rangers and briefly served as their captain. In1972, after the team's top scorer,Jean Ratelle, was lost due to a broken ankle, he led the Rangers past the defending Stanley Cup-championMontreal Canadiens in the first round and theWest Division championChicago Black Hawks in the semifinals of the playoffs. The Rangers advanced to theStanley Cup finals where they fell to theBoston Bruins in six games. After the Rangers staved off elimination in Game 5 at Boston, Bruins assistant captainPhil Esposito said famously, "If the Rangers think they're going to beat us in the next two games, they're full of 'Park' spelled backwards", Sure enough, the Bruins put them away in Game 6 at Madison Square Garden. Park finished a distant second to Orr in theNorris Trophy vote.

When the upstartWorld Hockey Association tried to lure Park away, the Rangers re-signed him to a $200,000-a-year contract that made him, briefly, the highest-paid player in the NHL.^[4]

In the1972 Summit Series, with Orr unable to play due to injury, Park emerged as a key contributor to Team Canada's series over the Soviets, being named Best Defenceman of the series.

After opening the1975–76 season with their worst start in ten years, the Rangers began to unload their high-priced veterans. Park,Jean Ratelle, andJoe Zanussi were traded to the Boston Bruins in a November 7 blockbuster deal that also sentPhil Esposito andCarol Vadnais to the Rangers, one that shocked everyone.^[5][6] The New York press and public had felt that Park, 27 at the time, was overweight, overpaid, and over the hill, as he was facing unfavorable comparisons toDenis Potvin.^[4][7]

While Esposito and Vadnais were effective players for the Rangers, the team remained mired at the bottom of the division after "the trade", and Rangers general managerEmile Francis was eventually fired. Contrary to expectations that the Rangers had gotten the better end of the trade, the struggling Bruins were instantly rejuvenated and soon again became one of the NHL's best teams, despite the departures of Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr.^[4]

Taking over the mantle of leadership from Orr, whose career was threatened by injury and who would soon leave the team, Park continued his success under coachDon Cherry. Park had previously been an end-to-end puck carrier, but with the Bruins, he was told by Cherry to concentrate on defense.^[4] Getting over his unpopularity in Boston from when he was a member of the arch-rival Rangers, Park made a relatively smooth transition to his new team,^[8] even hitch-hiking a ride from two teenagers at 1 am after his car ran out of gas, and Park later rewarded them with free tickets to the next Boston home game.^[4]

From 1977 to 1979, Cherry's "Lunch Pail A.C." captured three division titles for the Bruins. Park earned two first All-Star team selections, while coming in second in the Norris Trophy race twice in a Bruins' uniform, with 1977–78 being considered one of his finest seasons.^[3] In 1977 and 1978, Park was a key contributor to Boston's back-to-back appearances in theStanley Cup Finals where they lost to theMontreal Canadiens both times.^[9] His last highlight with Boston came in Game 7 of the Adams Division finals against theBuffalo Sabres in the 1983 playoffs, when Park scored the game-winning goal in overtime and help Boston advance in to the conference finals^[10] — Park's career overlapped with the first four years of the emerging superstar defenseman of the Bruins,Ray Bourque, from 1979 to 1983.

The following season (1983–84), Park signed with theDetroit Red Wings as a free agent.^[11] He won theBill Masterton Trophy for perseverance that same year, having set a record for assists by a Red Wings' defenseman (53). After the 1985 season, still an effective player but hobbled by repeated knee injuries, he announced his retirement.^[12][13] The next year, he served as Detroit's head coach before he was fired on June 3, 1986.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Soon after his retirement and before he coached the Red Wings, he served as a color commentator and studio analyst forCTV andESPNNHL broadcasts in between.^[18][19]

In 1988, Park was elected in his first year of eligibility to theHockey Hall of Fame in his hometown ofToronto.^[20][21]

Park was one of fiveplaintiffs along withDave Forbes,Rick Middleton,Ulf Nilsson andDoug Smail inForbes v. Eagleson, aclass actionlawsuit filed in 1995 on behalf of about 1,000 NHL players who were employed by NHL teams between 1972 and 1991 againstAlan Eagleson, the league and its member clubs. The players alleged that the NHL and its teams violated theRacketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act by colluding with Eagleson to enable him toembezzle from theNational Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) and that the four-yearstatute of limitations in civilracketeering cases began when Eagleson wasindicted in 1994. The lawsuit was dismissed on August 27, 1998, inUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania byThomas Newman O'Neill Jr. who ruled that the statute of limitations expired because it had begun in 1991 when the players were made aware of the allegations against Eagleson. O'Neill's decision was upheld in theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on October 17, 2000.^[22][23]

Park has resided on theNorth Shore ofMassachusetts and on Sebago Lake in Maine for almost 40 years, with his wife Gerry.^[24] He has five children and eight grandchildren. His autobiography,Straight Shooter: The Brad Park Story, was published in August, 2012.

• Named to thefirst All-Star team in1970,1972,1974,1976 and1978.
• Named to the second All-Star team in1971 and1973.
• Runner up inNorris Trophy voting in 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1976 and 1978
• Received both the most First Team All-Star nominations (other thanEarl Seibert, who retired before the trophy was awarded) and was runner-up for the Norris more times without winning the Norris than any other defenceman in NHL history.
• Played in theNHL All-Star Game in1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977 and1978.
• Won theBill Masterton Memorial Trophy in1984.
• The book 'Play the Man' (Dodd, Mead, & Co.) written by Brad Park and Stan Fischler was published in 1971.
• Retired as the leading defence scorer in Rangers' history and the second leading defence scorer in Bruins' history toBobby Orr.
• At the time of his retirement, had played the most seasons in league history for a player never missing the playoffs.
• Currently 13th all-time in NHL history in defence scoring.
• Elected to theHockey Hall of Fame in 1988, in his first year of eligibility.
• Along withButch Goring, one of the last two active players who had played in the 1960s.
• In 1998, he was ranked number 49 onThe Hockey News'list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.
• In the 2009 book100 Ranger Greats, was ranked No. 11 all-time of the901 New York Rangers who had played during the team's first82 seasons^[25]

• List of members of the Hockey Hall of Fame
• List of NHL players with 1000 games played

• Biographical information and career statistics fromNHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or Legends of Hockey, or The Internet Hockey Database

• 1948 births
• Living people
• Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy winners
• Boston Bruins players
• Buffalo Bisons (AHL) players
• Canadian ice hockey coaches
• Canadian ice hockey defencemen
• Detroit Red Wings coaches
• Detroit Red Wings players
• Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States
• Hockey Hall of Fame inductees
• National Hockey League All-Stars
• NHL first-round draft picks
• New York Rangers draft picks
• New York Rangers players
• Ice hockey people from Toronto
• Toronto Marlboros players
• 20th-century Canadian sportsmen

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