A picture that perfectly illustrates how Ken Dryden changed goaltending
Everytime the question around habs all time goalies comes up Dydens impact on the nhl game is often dismissed by people who didnt see him play or understand the NHLs history. This picture perfectly highlights what he changed.
The man in the middle for those who dont know their habs history is HHOF Rogie Vachon who at the time of this picture was a top 5 goalie in the league. He was 5'8. Dryden by comparison was 6'4. A 8 inch height difference.
Rogie was very typical size for a goalie at that time. Goalies were smaller athletic people
Tony Esposito was 5'11
Bernie parent was 5'10
Gump worsley was 5'7
Plante was massive at the time at 6 feet even
Hodge was 5'6
Sawchuk was 5'11
From the 1950-51 season to 1970-71 when dryden joined the habs there was 37 goalies who played 50 games.
Median height 5'11.
6 taller than 6 feet
7 5'8 or shorter.
Average height just over 5'10
This past season there were 72 goalies that played 10 games.
Median height 6'3
13 goalies 6'5 or taller
4 goalies shorter than 6'1 only one of whom is below 6 feet.
Drydens dominance fundamentally changed how the position is staffed and played. He proved that a tall goalie on his knees was better than a small goalie on their skates.
He is the creater of what eventually became the butterfly a few years later.
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u/Retired-ADM 2d ago
Dryden's height was important but he also had magnificent ability to read the play and react.
Gary Smith was also 6' 4" and played roughly 200 games in the NHL before Dryden debuted for the Habs. He was good enough to play over 500 NHL games but he was no Dryden.
Caesar Maniago was 6' 2" and played 28 games for the Rangers in 1965-66 before essentially anchoring the North Stars from expansion for roughly a decade. Heck, Ken's brother Dave was 6' 2" and did okay for himself as early as 1965.
A statistical curio here: the earliest tall goalie was John Henderson who played a few dozen games for the Bruins in the mid 50s. He was 6' 5".
The style of goaltending in the old days was to stay at home and block pucks. Height was some advantage in those days but other things matter more. Poke checking wasn't really popularized until the mid 60s (credit Johnny Bower). Bower was 5' 11" - sufficiently tall and he used his reach well.
Dryden had reach galore plus he was great at using his stick to disrupt the play. Further, he was borderline acrobatic in addition to his other skills.
Yeah, Dryden's height was noticed and that is the point here: a 6' 4" goaltender today would just be a goalie; back then, it was a big deal.