{"id":124268,"date":"2025-09-06T12:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T12:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/124268\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T12:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T12:53:09","slug":"ken-dryden-former-canadiens-star-goaltender-dies-of-cancer-at-age-78","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/124268\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Dryden, former Canadiens star goaltender, dies of cancer at age 78"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Former Montreal Canadien Ken Dryden skates during the Centennial Celebration ceremonies prior to a Canadiens game on Dec. 4, 2009.Richard Wolowicz\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ken Dryden, the Hall of Fame goaltender whose long resume in and out of hockey included six Stanley Cup victories and helping backstop Canada\u2019s generation-defining victory at the 1972 Summit Series, died Friday at the age of 78 after a battle with cancer.<\/p>\n

A key member of the Montreal Canadiens\u2019 1970s dynasty, Dryden\u2019s career in the spotlight was only just getting started when he retired from the game \u2013 and while at the top of his own game \u2013 in his early 30s.<\/p>\n

A lawyer, author, politician and NHL executive, he would go on to leave an indelible mark across large swaths of wider Canadian society.<\/p>\n

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Former Montreal Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden makes a save during a Stanley Cup hockey playoff game at Boston Garden, on May 18, 1978.The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Dryden\u2019s legacy went far beyond his Hall of Fame playing career, pointing to his balance of education, public service and sport as a model for Canadians.<\/p>\n

\u201cFew Canadians have given more, or stood taller, for our country,\u201d Carney wrote in a post on X.<\/p>\n

Deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the Hon. Ken Dryden, a Canadian hockey legend and hall of famer, public servant and inspiration. He was a 6-time Stanley Cup Champion, 5-time Vezina trophy winner, Minister of Social Development, and dedicated Parliamentarian.<\/p>\n

Ken\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) September 6, 2025<\/a> <\/p>\n

Born Aug. 8, 1947, in Hamilton, Ont., Dryden grew up in a Toronto suburb with his parents, brother and sister.<\/p>\n

Selected by the Boston Bruins with the 14th pick in the 1964 NHL draft before a trade to Montreal, Dryden played U.S. college hockey at Cornell University and eventually made his Canadiens debut in March 1971.<\/p>\n

He snatched the crease from veteran Rogie Vachon that spring and led the Original Six franchise to the Cup, along with securing the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. <\/p>\n

Dryden then won the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 1971-72, but Montreal lost in the first round that post-season.<\/p>\n

He split the crease with Tony Esposito five months later in the 1972 Summit Series \u2013 a slugfest between Canada and the Soviet Union that became a metaphor for the West\u2019s struggle against communism at the height of the Cold War.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Ken Dryden understands the history of hockey and foresees a fast future<\/a><\/p>\n

Dryden detailed his version of events in \u201cThe Series: What I Remember, What it Felt Like, What it Feels Like Now\u201d published in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t remember flying to Montreal. I don\u2019t remember the day of the game. I don\u2019t remember the dressing room,\u201d he wrote of Game 1. \u201cAll I remember is a feeling that kept building and building, growing and growing. It\u2019s what happens before a Stanley Cup series, before a Stanley Cup final, but not like this. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt built to where it couldn\u2019t build anymore, grew to where it had no place left to grow, then it built and grew some more.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ken Dryden and members of Team Canada from the 1972 Summit Series are honoured in the House of Commons, in Ottawa, on Sept. 22, 2022.PATRICK DOYLE\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

After losing the opener at the Montreal Forum and Game 4 in Vancouver, Dryden rebounded to pick up a 3-2 decision in a must-win Game 6 in Moscow. <\/p>\n

Canada went on to defeat the Soviets 4-3 in Game 7 with Esposito. Dryden was back in net for Game 8 when Paul Henderson scored in the final minute to clinch a memorable 6-5 victory \u2013 and set off wild celebrations an ocean away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel the history of that tournament, the legacy of that team just as strongly as all Canadian fans do,\u201d Dryden told The Canadian Press in a 2022 interview. \u201cIt never goes away. It\u2019s kind of like a good wine, I guess.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, the legacy of it grows.\u201d <\/p>\n

Dryden hoisted the Cup with the Canadiens in 1973 and four straight times between 1976 and 1979 as part of Montreal juggernauts that included fellow greats Guy Lafleur, Serge Savard and Larry Robinson.<\/p>\n

The five-time Vezina Trophy winner as the NHL\u2019s top goaltender described a single week at the end of the 1978-79 season in his book \u201cThe Game,\u201d published in 1983.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a game gets close to me, or threatens to get close, my conscious mind goes blank,\u201d Dryden wrote. \u201cI feel nothing, I hear nothing, my eyes watch the puck, my body moves \u2013 like a goalie moves, like I move; I don\u2019t tell it to move or how to move or where, I don\u2019t know it\u2019s moving, I don\u2019t feel it move \u2013 yet it moves. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when my eyes watch the puck, I see things I don\u2019t know I\u2019m seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Serge Savard laughs as Ken Dryden shows a picture of the duo, with Buffalo Sabre Rick Martin during their playing days, at a news conference to announce the impending retirement of their sweater numbers in Montreal on Sept. 20, 2006.Ian Barrett\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Known for resting his blocker and glove hands on top of his stick in a relaxed manner that became one of hockey\u2019s most recognizable poses, the six-foot-four goaltender retired at just 31 in 1979. <\/p>\n

Dryden went on to pursue a career in law \u2013 he articled at a Toronto firm while sitting out the 1973-74 NHL season \u2013 after previously earning a degree at Montreal\u2019s McGill University.<\/p>\n

Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, he amassed a record of 258-57-74 with a .922 save percentage, 2.24 goals-against average and 46 shutouts in just over seven NHL campaigns, and went an eye-popping 80-32 in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Dryden\u2019s first foray into writing after he hung up his skates and placed his stick down for a final time was \u201cThe Game.\u201d <\/p>\n

He would go on to pen several more books<\/a>, including a biography of his Canadiens coach, Scotty Bowman.<\/p>\n

Ken Dryden: It does matter, in the end, if you win or lose. The only question left: does it still matter how you play the game?<\/a><\/p>\n

Dryden served as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1997 through 2004 \u2013 a stretch accented by trips to the Eastern Conference final in both 1999 and 2002 \u2013 before resigning to enter politics.<\/p>\n

He ran for the federal Liberals in 2004 and was named minister of social development in Prime Minister Paul Martin\u2019s cabinet.<\/p>\n

Dryden, who also taught at various universities across Canada, held onto his seat in Toronto\u2019s York Centre riding in 2006 when the Liberals were ousted, and again in 2008, but lost in 2011.<\/p>\n

He would continue to write, with \u201cThe Series\u201d his final work \u2013 a book that aimed to bring Canadians inside the players\u2019 world in 1972 as they faced the Soviets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way to do it would be as if to put them there, to literally put them there in that moment,\u201d Dryden said some 50 years later. \u201cAnd the moment, of course, isn\u2019t just the moment, it\u2019s the lead-in moments up to that. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so what would have been inside us as players? What would have been inside us as 22 million Canadians at that particular moment that made us react the way we did? And to generate the kind of vehement and vivid memories that have come from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKen Dryden was an exceptional athlete, but he was also an exceptional man. Behind the mask, he was larger than life. We mourn today not only the loss of the cornerstone of one of hockey\u2019s greatest dynasties, but also a family man, a thoughtful citizen, and a gentleman who deeply impacted our lives and communities across generations. He was one of the true legends that helped shape this Club into what it is today,\u201d said Geoff Molson, owner and president of the Montreal Canadiens.<\/p>\n

\u201cKen embodied the best of everything the Montreal Canadiens are about, and his legacy within our society transcends our sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dryden is survived by his wife, Lynda, and their two children.<\/p>\n