RIP Ken Dryden

[Jericoke]

Ken Dryden, famed goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League, prolific author, and successful national politician has passed away.

https://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/hockey/montreal-canadiens/article1150407.html

Few people have a single career as notable as Ken Dryden, much less three very influential careers where he was among the very best.

Perhaps most famous as an NHL goaltender, he's not as Famous as Wayne Gretzky, but in key statistics he towers over 'the great one'.  That is, Dryden won 6 Stanley Cups (hockey's championship) to Gretzky's four.  Even more impressively, Dryden only played 8 seasons, meaning he only played two seasons WITHOUT winning the championship.  Not many athletes in any category can boast a 75% winning percentage!

One could point out that he retired from hockey in his prime, instead of just tailing off.  While this is true, it is important to note that he took time away from his hockey career in his actual prime.  Why would he step sway from guarantee wins?  For money.  He knew that the NHL/Montreal Canadiens were making a lot of money off his work, and he decided he would rather to go school than not receive his fair share of the hockey revenues.  At this time in history, most professional athletes competed part time, had off season jobs and would toil a normal job in obscurity once their playing days ended.  Dryden knew this was unfair, and was part of the movement of athletes getting a fair(er) share of the money being generated through their play.

His time off was well spent, earning a legal degree he was positioned to do research for his writing career.  He started out with one of the definitive books about ice hockey 'The Game'.  From there he moved onto culture, writing about the history of television in Canada, politics, writing about the education system in Canada, as well as books on moving the conversation forward about what it means to be Canadian, and the place of Canada in the future.

His writing career lead to a political career, becoming a Member of Parliament for the Liberal party for 7 years, and serving as Minister of Social Development.

He's been a towering figure in Canadian culture for almost 60 years, and he leaves a legacy that will be hard to fill, but also serves as a role model for anyone who wishes to bring more to our world.