John Garrett (NHL & WHA 1973-1985, Canucks 1982-1985) | 31 | G

[Kevin Biestra]

I think I just want to take a minute to talk about how, for a guy known to most of the young fans as a broadcaster, John Garrett was a VERY GOOD goalie and much better than he is given credit for.  He was one of the best goalies in WHA history, and also was a very good Canuck.  Not just in the broadcast booth but on the ice.  He is of course now retired from both...

 

Born on June 17, 1951, he made his WHA debut in 1973 and played for the most "Slap Shot" type teams the league had to offer.  The Minnesota Fighting Saints, the Birmingham Bulls, etc.  In the 1976-77 season, he was named to the WHA's 1st All Star Team (i.e. the best goalie in the league).  That was by the way the season where the guy he would back up in Vancouver, Richard Brodeur, backstopped the Quebec Nordiques to the WHA's Stanley Cup.  When the WHA was absorbed by the NHL, Garrett was one of the league's all time leaders in games and wins by a goalie.

 

The only NHL team that he played for which still exists is the Canucks.  The Whalers and the Nordiques are both gone.  But he was a playoff hero for the Nordiques in 1982, coming off the bench when starter Dan Bouchard got injured and playing a large role in getting the Nordiques to the Cup semifinal against the dynasty New York Islanders.  Of course the Islanders beat the Nordiques like they beat us in the next round.  But other than for the Islanders dynasty, it might well have been Richard Brodeur vs. John Garrett in net for the 1982 Stanley Cup.

 

I think if there is a story people do know reasonably well it is how Garrett was tapped for the 1983 NHL All Star Game to replace Richard Brodeur who had been selected but was injured.  As the story goes, Garrett had wrapped up the 1st Star / Game MVP honors until Wayne Gretzky decided to go nuts and four goals in the last ten minutes of the third period against the other goalie (Pelle Lindbergh who died within a year or two at the start of what might have been a Hall of Fame career) and relegated Garrett to 2nd Star (and cost him a car).

 

For the first 20 something years of the Canucks' existence, they had only TWO goalies with winning records in their Canucks career.  Charlie Hodge and John Garrett.  And both accomplished this during seasons and eras where the team as a whole didn't win a ton of games (and there were no OTLs and so on to pad goalie stats and avoid losses).

 

John Garrett...the man.

 

I don't know who the Canuck is that just died on the ice in front of him on this hockey card...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 02:37 AM by Kevin Biestra

[Sell.the.team]

miss cheech.... while I generally hate when color commentators are "homers", he was at least honest about it in a jokey way.  He provided a lot of comic relief with Shorty over the years and I will look back on their years together with much fondness.  Miss the days when Sportsnet Pacific was more of a silo'd operation with more dedicated Canucks coverage pre / post game... was brutal watching Luke Gazdic provide analysis today.

[Kevin Biestra]

His mask is one of the NHL greats too (as was that of fellow Canuck goalie Gary Bromley).

 

 

The creative design work was kind of done for him and the artist by the Canuck colors and logo etc. but it was still implemented very effectively.  Looked awesome when he was playing.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:16 PM by Kevin Biestra

[AlwaysACanuckFan]

[Wilbur]

On 11/26/2024 at 6:18 PM, Kevin Biestra said:

I think I just want to take a minute to talk about how, for a guy known to most of the young fans as a broadcaster, John Garrett was a VERY GOOD goalie and much better than he is given credit for.  He was one of the best goalies in WHA history, and also was a very good Canuck.  Not just in the broadcast booth but on the ice.  He is of course now retired from both...

 

Born on June 17, 1951, he made his WHA debut in 1973 and played for the most "Slap Shot" type teams the league had to offer.  The Minnesota Fighting Saints, the Birmingham Bulls, etc.  In the 1976-77 season, he was named to the WHA's 1st All Star Team (i.e. the best goalie in the league).  That was by the way the season where the guy he would back up in Vancouver, Richard Brodeur, backstopped the Quebec Nordiques to the WHA's Stanley Cup.  When the WHA was absorbed by the NHL, Garrett was one of the league's all time leaders in games and wins by a goalie.

 

The only NHL team that he played for which still exists is the Canucks.  The Whalers and the Nordiques are both gone.  But he was a playoff hero for the Nordiques in 1982, coming off the bench when starter Dan Bouchard got injured and playing a large role in getting the Nordiques to the Cup semifinal against the dynasty New York Islanders.  Of course the Islanders beat the Nordiques like they beat us in the next round.  But other than for the Islanders dynasty, it might well have been Richard Brodeur vs. John Garrett in net for the 1982 Stanley Cup.

 

I think if there is a story people do know reasonably well it is how Garrett was tapped for the 1983 NHL All Star Game to replace Richard Brodeur who had been selected but was injured.  As the story goes, Garrett had wrapped up the 1st Star / Game MVP honors until Wayne Gretzky decided to go nuts and four goals in the last ten minutes of the third period against the other goalie (Pelle Lindbergh who died within a year or two at the start of what might have been a Hall of Fame career) and relegated Garrett to 2nd Star (and cost him a car).

 

For the first 20 something years of the Canucks' existence, they had only TWO goalies with winning records in their Canucks career.  Charlie Hodge and John Garrett.  And both accomplished this during seasons and eras where the team as a whole didn't win a ton of games (and there were no OTLs and so on to pad goalie stats and avoid losses).

 

John Garrett...the man.

 

I don't know who the Canuck is that just died on the ice in front of him on this hockey card...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting card to pay to get graded.

[Wilbur]

Crazy to think Garrett only played 59 games in a Canuck uniform.  He is easily the most impactful player on this page (56 to 59 games).  Although Lafayette and King have their place in Canucks lore too.

Spoiler

 

Garrett's 22 wins have him in a tie for ....22nd all-time.

 

21    Gary Bromley    73    25    27    14
22    Troy Gamble    72    22    29    9
22    John Garrett    56    22    21    5
24    Steve Weeks    66    19    34    11
 

[Kevin Biestra]

15 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Crazy to think Garrett only played 59 games in a Canuck uniform.  He is easily the most impactful player on this page (56 to 59 games).  Although Lafayette and King have their place in Canucks lore too.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Garrett's 22 wins have him in a tie for ....22nd all-time.

 

21    Gary Bromley    73    25    27    14
22    Troy Gamble    72    22    29    9
22    John Garrett    56    22    21    5
24    Steve Weeks    66    19    34    11
 

 

 

Those four goalies are actually all significant names.  Steve Weeks especially...he is who we got for Richard Brodeur at the end of his career from the Whalers and Steve Weeks 1988-89 became one of the only Canuck goalies in their 20 year history at the time with a season with a GAA below 3.00 (was actually quite hard to do in the 70s and 80s).  He received votes for the post-season All Star Team that year.  And then he also won one of the games in the 1989 7th game OT series versus Calgary.

 

Troy Gamble was really big around 1990-91.  He had some Calder Trophy talk and briefly unseated Kirk McLean as the starting goalie for a year (in between McLean's Vezina finalist seasons).  Gamble was looking good and might have had a really nice career but he got a concussion in his second season and he never recovered from it.