If ever there was a guy with an under-valued rookie card, Andy Bathgate is your man. Bathgate had an amazing hockey career playing for some not great hockey teams.
The Andy Bathgate rookie card appears as number 56 in the 1953-54 Parkhurst set and is valued at $150. The set consists of 100 hockey cards and the full collection is valued at $4,500. The top rookie cards in the set belong to Jean Beliveau ($600) and Gump Worsley ($400).
Bathgate played his junior hockey with the New York Rangers sponsered Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters. He played for the Biltmores from 1949-50 to 1951-52. Guelph won the Robertson Cup as OHA champs in 1949-50 and 1951-52. In his final season with the club, the team continued on to the Memorial Cup and defeated the Regina Pats in four games.
Andy played in the National Hockey League from 1952-53 to 1967-68 and returned for one more full season in 1970-71. Along with the Rangers, he also played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins. In 1974-75, he briefly returned to major league hockey, appearing in eleven games with the Vancouver Blazers of the World Hockey Association.
Andy Bathgate Collection:
Individually, 1958-59 was a major pinnacle of his career. The Rangers missed the playoffs by a single point but Bathgate was still deemed the NHL’s most valuable player and was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy. His 88 points were a career high and placed him third in the league behind Dickie Moore and Jean Beliveau of the Montreal Canadiens. With his 88 points, Bathgate had a point on 44% of all New York’s goals that season.
He led the Rangers in points for eight straight seasons, from 1955-56 to 1962-63. However, in 1961-62 he led the league. Andy tied Bobby Hull of the Chicago Black Hawks with 84 points. Unfortunately, the tie-breaker was based on total goals and Hull had 50 to Bathgate’s 28 and was awarded the Art Ross Trophy. To date, it is just the third time that two players have tied in the race for the Art Ross.
The Rangers moved Andy to the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 1963-64 season and he was an integral part of Toronto’s third consecutive Stanley Cup championship. Toronto ousted Detroit in the finals. All three series in that year’s playoffs went the full seven games. It would prove to be the only time Bathgate’s name would be inscribed on the Cup. During the regular season, between the two teams, Bathgate managed to lead the NHL in assists and finish fourth in points.
Toronto didn’t keep him long. Bathgate was part of an eight player deal that sent him to the Detroit Red Wings for the start of the 1965-66 season. Andy totaled just 47 points while playing the full 70 games. Detroit reached the Stanley Cup finals but were shot down by the Montreal Canadiens in six games.
He was picked up in the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Bathgate played with Pittsburgh for the 1967-68 and 1970-71 season, spending time with the WHL’s Vancouver Canucks in between.
Andy Bathgate was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978, along with Jacques Plante and Marcel Pronovost. His jersey number 9 was retired by the New York Rangers in 2009, an honour shared with Adam Graves. To date, he still ranks fourth on New York’s all-time list for goals, assists and points.
| Season | Team | Lge | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
| 1949-50 | Guelph Biltmores | OHA | 41 | 21 | 25 | 46 | 28 |
| 1950-51 | Guelph Biltmores | OHA | 52 | 33 | 57 | 90 | 66 |
| 1951-52 | Guelph Biltmores | OHA | 34 | 27 | 50 | 77 | 0 |
| 1952-53 | Guelph Biltmores | OHA | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 1952-53 | New York Rangers | NHL | 18 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 1952-53 | Vancouver Canucks | WHL | 37 | 13 | 13 | 26 | 29 |
| 1953-54 | New York Rangers | NHL | 20 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 18 |
| 1953-54 | Cleveland Barons | AHL | 36 | 13 | 19 | 32 | 44 |
| 1953-54 | Vancouver Canucks | WHL | 17 | 12 | 10 | 22 | 6 |
| 1954-55 | New York Rangers | NHL | 70 | 20 | 20 | 40 | 37 |
| 1955-56 | New York Rangers | NHL | 70 | 19 | 47 | 66 | 59 |
| 1956-57 | New York Rangers | NHL | 70 | 27 | 50 | 77 | 60 |
| 1957-58 | New York Rangers | NHL | 65 | 30 | 48 | 78 | 42 |
| 1958-59 | New York Rangers | NHL | 70 | 40 | 48 | 88 | 48 |
| 1959-60 | New York Rangers | NHL | 70 | 26 | 48 | 74 | 28 |
| 1960-61 | New York Rangers | NHL | 70 | 29 | 48 | 77 | 22 |
| 1961-62 | New York Rangers | NHL | 70 | 28 | 56 | 84 | 44 |
| 1962-63 | New York Rangers | NHL | 70 | 35 | 46 | 81 | 54 |
| 1963-64 | New York Rangers | NHL | 56 | 16 | 43 | 59 | 26 |
| 1963-64 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 15 | 3 | 15 | 18 | 8 |
| 1964-65 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 55 | 16 | 29 | 45 | 34 |
| 1965-66 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 70 | 15 | 32 | 47 | 25 |
| 1966-67 | Pittsburgh Hornets | AHL | 6 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 7 |
| 1966-67 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 60 | 8 | 23 | 31 | 24 |
| 1967-68 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | 74 | 20 | 39 | 59 | 55 |
| 1968-69 | Vancouver Canucks | WHL | 71 | 37 | 36 | 73 | 44 |
| 1969-70 | Vancouver Canucks | WHL | 72 | 40 | 68 | 108 | 66 |
| 1970-71 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | 76 | 15 | 29 | 44 | 34 |
| 1974-75 | Vancouver Blazers | WHA | 11 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 2 |
| NHL Totals | 1069 | 349 | 624 | 973 | 624 | ||
| WHA Totals | 11 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 2 |