Did You Know? Bobby Hull Was A New York Ranger! I have been following NHL hockey since the 1975 season, and in all of that time, this is one fact that I didn’t know until now.
Did You realize? Bobby Hull Was A New York Ranger!: twice, in 1959 and 1981.
The Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers scheduled a European Tour after the 1958-1959 NHL season. The Tour consisted of 23 games in 26 days in 10 cities in six countries. It was also the first time since 1938 that NHL teams played in Europe; at that time, the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Canadians played a nine-game slate in Paris and London that the Montreal Canadians won 5-3-1.
The 1959 NHL tour was organized by Swiss player Othmar Delnon and was sponsored by a Swiss winemaker. Fan support was sporadic. One night poor attendance the next night, it would be a full house.
Hull, who at that time was only 20 years old and only moderately successful as an NHL’er, would later exclaim that “That’s where I learned how to play.”
Initially, Rangers star player Andy Bathgate was supposed to go to Europe, but he declined due to fatigue from the NHL season, thus opening the door for Bobby Hull, who was only two years into his NHL career.
After the European Tour ended, Hull returned home and told his father, “I’m going to lead the NHL in scoring” after scoring 15 goals in 21 games in Europe, Hull’s father’s response was ‘Yeah, you and how many other guys?’
True to his word, the next season, 1959-1960, Hull won the scoring title, finishing with 39 goals, 42 assists, and 81 points in 70 games, one point ahead of Bronco Horvath of Boston and 7 points up on Jean Beliveau of Montreal.
Did You Know? Bobby Hull Was A New York Ranger!
Bobby Hull | Chicago Black Hawks | 70 | 39 | 42 | 81 |
| Bronco Horvath | Boston Bruins | 68 | 39 | 41 | 80 |
| Jean Beliveau | Montreal Canadiens | 60 | 34 | 40 | 74 |
| Andy Bathgate | New York Rangers | 70 | 26 | 48 | 74 |
| Henri Richard | Montreal Canadiens | 70 | 30 | 43 | 73 |
| Gordie Howe | Detroit Red Wings | 70 | 28 | 45 | 73 |
| Bernie Geoffrion | Montreal Canadiens | 59 | 30 | 41 | 71 |
| Don McKenney | Boston Bruins | 70 | 20 | 49 | 69 |
| Vic Stasiuk | Boston Bruins | 69 | 29 | 39 | 68 |
| Dean Prentice | New York Rangers | 70 | 32 | 34 | 66 |
Hull would later comment that “had I not made that trip to Europe and played as well as I did, gaining all that confidence, who knows where my career would have gone. I couldn’t speculate.”
At the end of the European tour, the Rangers had won the series by an 11-9-3 count. The tour would include countries like England, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Germany, and Austria.
Hull’s second stint as a Ranger would come much later when in 1981 at the age of 42 and had not played hockey since the spring of 1980 after leaving the Hartford Whalers; Hull attempted a comeback. After only five exhibition games with the Rangers and scoring one goal and one assist, both Hull and the Rangers agreed to end the comeback.
Had Hull made a successful comeback, he would have been placed on a line with Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg, reuniting him with his old WHA line-mates. That line played for the WHA’s Winnipeg Jets and is arguably the best line professional hockey has ever seen; they were known as “The Hot Line.”
For four years, the Hot Line played together, leading the Jets to the Avco World Trophy championship four times and winning three times.
Bobby Hull led the league in scoring with 77 goals (24 more than the previous season) and 142 points, 47 more than 1973-1974. Ulf Nilsson would score 26 goals and 96 assists, while Anders Hedberg scored 53 goals and 100 points, winning the Lou Kaplan Trophy as the WHA’s rookie of the year.
Bobby Hull commented, “It was a new lease on life,” “I finally found a couple of kids who could play the game the way I wanted to play it.”
And now you know the rest of the story.
Keep You’re Stick On The Ice.
Did You Know? Bobby Hull Was A New York Ranger!
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