After the Rangers selected Rod Duguay in the first round of the 1977 draft he headed to New York and was greeted by team royalty: “The first time I walked into Madison Square Garden to sign my contract, (Rod Gilbert) was the first man to meet me,” Duguay recalled. “And he took me out that night, too, kind of a celebration, and that was the beginning of a long relationship.” Soon after, Duguay’s first career goal came with a Gilbert assist attached. The two only spent 11 games together as teammates before Gilbert called it a career in late November of 1977.
The 20 year-old rookie had a nice debut season. In what became a yearly tradition in Duguay’s time on the Rangers, the team overall was mediocre but just good enough to make the playoffs. Duguay ended up skating in 69 postseason games with the Rangers in which he put up 23 adjusted goals and 16 adjusted assists, which I rate as the 16th best playoff offensive production in team history.
Duguay enjoyed playing for Fred Shero in his second and third seasons: “Some of us were—like me—very much free spirits. But when it came down to working and competing hard we knew how to shut it down and just play hard…(Shero) gave us free rein to be ourselves, as long as we showed up and competed, as long as we respected him as a coach, he allowed that. He was the perfect coach for me at that time because I was having a whole lot of fun…”1
The team got on a roll in the 1979 playoffs that saw them prevail in a rough series with the Flyers and then stun the Islanders in the semi-finals. Remembering the atmosphere at that time, Duguay said, “Just the energy that was in the New York area, Madison Square Garden, I don’t know if it’s really been duplicated. And it would start in warm-up. You’d be out in warm-up and you’d have chills. It was like, ‘Ah, this is fun.'”2 The finals got off to a great start with a win in Montreal. In game two, a Duguay goal gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead…but at that point, the magic ran out. The Canadiens stormed back to win game two and then the next three straight.
Herb Brooks took over as Rangers coach in 1981-82, which Duguay did not enjoy nearly as much as he had enjoyed Shero. The clash was not immediately apparent—Duguay ended up having his best Rangers regular season that year. But Brooks quite understandably took issue with Duguay constantly arriving late for practices,3 and, less understandably, did not care for Duguay’s social life being a common topic for tabloid fodder.4 1982-83 was a down year for Duguay and he was traded to Detroit in the summer of ’83. Though he was not pleased to be leaving New York, his beloved adopted city, he was a productive player for the Red Wings.
Duguay’s former Ranger teammate Phil Esposito became Rangers GM in the summer of 1987 and wasted no time bringing his friend back to New York. Duguay was only 29 at the time, but there was not much left in the tank and his second go-around with the team was short and disappointing. After his playing days, Duguay did some coaching in the minor leagues and covered the Rangers for MSG Network from 2007—2018.
Jump to 11:30 in this video to watch the rookie Duguay pick up an assist and then go to 23:30 to see him win a draw and score a goal:
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