Mike Gartner came to the Rangers in a 1990 trade deadline deal that sent Ulf Dahlén to the North Stars. (Dahlén was just 23 at the time and had shown promise as a goal scorer. The New York Times said of the trade, “Dahlén’s potential for haunting the Rangers is scary.”1) Gartner was a 30 year-old veteran with 438 career goals already to his name, and was still probably the fastest skater in the league. (He won three fastest skater contests in his career, including one at age 36.) He could beat any defender with his speed and could beat goalies in a number of ways. He might blast a slapper from distance, whip a wrister from mid-range, or sniff out a pocket of open ice for the split-second he needed to bang one in right in front.
Gartner started his Rangers tenure with a flurry of scoring to conclude the 1989-90 regular season. But he carried a reputation of not producing enough in the playoffs. Gartner himself allowed, “There is some merit to it…I’ve had pretty good playoffs…I’ve never had a great playoff.”2 The Islanders held him pointless in the first four games of the 1990 first round but Gartner broke through with a hat trick in game five to help the Blueshirts finish off the series. He then put up five points in a five-game second-round loss.
Gartner proceeded to lead the team in goals in all three of his full seasons in New York. 46 adjusted goals in 1990-91 was the highest total of his long career. Unfortunately his scoring dried up in the team’s brief appearance in the 1991 playoffs.
Early in the 1991-92 season, Gartner hit the 500 goal milestone “in style, slamming the puck beneath Mike Liut at close range on the power play. The goaltender could do little more than cower once Gartner wound up, unchecked, at the right post with a pass from Mark Messier that found its way into the net 3 minutes 27 seconds into the first period.”3 Later in the same season, Gartner recorded his 500th assist, 1,000th point, and 1,000th game played. The 1991-92 squad was a President’s Trophy-winning powerhouse with high postseason expectations. The Devils pushed their first-round series to seven games, and Gartner led all players with six goals in the series to help put the Rangers into the second round. (You can watch his game five hat trick in the video below.) Gartner kept up his scoring in the second round with seven points but the Rangers were upset by the Penguins in six games.
Expectations were high heading into 1992-93, and Gartner was still going strong despite turning 33 early in the season. He was still leaving players 10+ years his junior in the dust during speed drills at practice. “There are times I look at Mike Gartner and I just feel old,” said 22 year-old Doug Weight.4 Mark Messier, known as a bit of a motivator himself, gave Gartner this high praise: “I find it’s inspiring to play with him.”5 Gartner kept popping in goals in 1992-93, but the season fell apart for the team and they missed the playoffs entirely. Coach Roger Neilson, who Gartner called “the best coach I ever had,”6 was fired mid-season.
Mike Keenan was installed behind the bench and the team got back on the winning track in 1993-94. Gartner celebrated a huge milestone in December when he became just the sixth player to score 600 NHL goals. Like everyone else in the organization, Gartner was locked in on winning the Cup in ’94. “It’s definitely the one thing that is missing,” he said. “It’s something that, apart from individual things, is my only goal from here on in.”7 But Keenan viewed Gartner as soft and unreliable in the postseason. “It was a daily mental challenge with Keenan,” Gartner recalled.8 Keenan, demanding more team toughness, pushed Gartner out the door at the deadline. Glenn Anderson joined the Rangers in the swap with Toronto. GM Neil Smith claimed, “Trading Mike Gartner was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do as the general manager of the New York Rangers. He was one of the people I was the proudest to put in a Rangers’ uniform…This trade was not about getting rid of Mike, it was about getting Glenn. What it comes down to is that Glenn brings more of a physical dimension to our team.”9
Maybe it was hard on Smith, but Gartner must have been gutted by the trade. “Normally a loquacious person…Gartner had nothing to say to reporters (the day of the trade) and appeared upset as he strode through the lobby of the team’s hotel.”10 Years later, he was able to find the words: “We had a great feeling that whole year. We were in first place overall, and we had a feeling that this could be the year. To be with the team for a number of years before that and see it build to that point, and then get traded and watch that same team that I’d been playing with go on to win the Stanley Cup was obviously a tough thing to watch.”11
Skip to 19:00, 31:00, and 46:40 in this video to watch Gartner collect a hat trick in the ’92 playoffs:
- The New York Times. March 7, 1990. ↩︎
- The New York Times. April 4, 1990. ↩︎
- The New York Times. October 15, 1991. ↩︎
- The New York Times. December 19, 1993. ↩︎
- The New York Times. October 29, 1992. ↩︎
- Halligan, J. & Kreiser, J. Game of My Life: New York Rangers. Sports Publishing. 2006, 2012. ↩︎
- The New York Times. December 19, 1993. ↩︎
- Cohen, R., Halligan, J., & Raider, A. 100 Ranger Greats. John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd. 2009 ↩︎
- The Hockey News. April 8, 1994. ↩︎
- The New York Times. March 22, 1994. ↩︎
- Halligan, J. & Kreiser, J. Game of My Life: New York Rangers. Sports Publishing. 2006, 2012. ↩︎
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