His hockey cards often referred to the fact that Dave Dryden lived in the shadow of his younger brother, Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden. That shadow might have been so large and dark that Dave was overlooked as a candidate for the WHA Hall of Fame.
Dryden’s career might not be as legendary as his brother’s but Dave’s hockey life is worth a look. His National Hockey League career was sporadic, but he managed to put nearly 20 years between his first and last game in the league. A one time number one goalie with the Buffalo Sabres, Dryden led the Edmonton Oilers to the Avco World Trophy finals in the last year of the WHA’s existence. He was the final MVP winner in the World Hockey Association’s history.
Dave remains a chair for Sleeping Children Around The World, a charity founded by his parents, Murray and Margaret back in 1970. This is a great cause that provides bedkits for children in developing countries.
Junior and Minor Pro
NHL Career
Hockey Card Collection
WHA Career
Coaching Career
Rookie Card
Career Stats
Dave Dryden – Junior and Minor Pro
Dave Dryden played three years of major junior hockey in Ontario from 1959-60 to 1961-62. His first two years were with the St. Michael’s Majors in the OHA. With the Majors and Toronto Marlboros leaving the OHA for 1961-62 to form the Metro Toronto Junior A League, Dave switched to the Marlboros. It was his first taste of playing for a rebel league.
With those 1961-62 Marlboros, Dryden appeared in 32 of the team’s 33 regular season games. The team reached the finals before falling in seven games to the Majors. Dave also appeared in his first NHL game that year as an emergency call-up for the New York Rangers. He also played in his first American Hockey League game, appearing in a single match with the Rochester Americans.
From 1962-63 to 1964-65, he played for the Galt Terriers in the OHA Senior A league. In his final year with Galt, Dryden also got between the pipes for four games with the Buffalo Bisons of the AHL and his pro career was truly launched.
After spending 1965-66 as backup to Glenn Hall in Chicago, Dryden was back down in the minors for 1966-67. Playing exclusively for the St. Louis Braves in the CPHL, Dave appeared in 48 games, posting a 3.31 goals against average with two shutouts. He was named to the Second All-Star Team despite the team finishing fifth in the six team league and out of the playoffs. His teammates on that Braves team included Art Stratton, Wayne Maki and Fred Stanfield.
With NHL expansion and Glenn Hall leaving for the St. Louis Blues, Dryden’s days in the minors were pretty much over after the 1966-67 season. However, he would have a few short stints in the years to come. In 1969-70, he played two games in the CHL with the Dallas Blackhawks and in 1970-71, he played eight games with the Salt Lake Golden Eagles in the WHL.
Dave Dryden – NHL
Between 1961-62 and 1979-80, Dave Dryden played in 203 National Hockey League regular season games. Over that time, he recorded a 3.20 GAA and nine shutouts. He also added four assists and was handed just two minor penalties. His first game, as mentioned above, came in 1961-62 as a junior. He was called up to play a single game for the New York Rangers, the only game he would play with that club.
Dave Dryden Collection
With Glenn Hall gone to the expansion St. Louis Blues, Dave and Denis DeJordy took over the goaltending duties with the Chicago Blackhawks. In 1968-69, Dryden appeared in 30 games and recorded three shutouts.
For a short while, Dave was a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. A little known fact is that he was traded from the Blackhawks to Pittsburgh on June 10, 1970 for cash. Before playing for the Penguins in 1970-71, he was shipped to the expansion Buffalo Sabres on October 9, 1970, once again for cash.
In that 1970-71 season, history was made. On March 20, 1971 with the Sabres playing the Montreal Canadiens, it was the only time in NHL history that two brothers faced each other in a game as goalies.
In 1973-74, Dryden was Buffalo’s go to guy, appearing in 53 games. However, following that season, he made the choice to jump to the WHA, missing out on Buffalo’s run to the- Stanley Cup finals in 1974-75.
Dryden returned to the National Hockey League for a short stint in 1979-80 before retiring. He appeared in 14 games with the Edmonton Oilers, putting up a 4.27 goals against average. He was one of six goalies to see action with Edmonton that year with Eddie Mio playing the most at 34 games.
Dave Dryden – WHA
Originally, Dave Dryden was selected by the New England Whalers in the 1972 General Player Draft. His time in the league didn’t start until 1974-75 and it wasn’t with the Whalers. In fact, he seemed to take issue with that club.
Between 1974-75 ad 1978-79, Dave played in the WHA with the Chicago Cougars and Edmonton Oilers. He appeared in 242 regular season games, putting up a 3.51 GAA and eight shutouts, along with 14 assists and just six penalty minutes.
His first season was with the Cougars, the last year of the team’s existence. He appeared in 45 games for the team. Pat Stapleton took on the player / head coach role for Chicago while a young Jacques Demers was the assistant coach. Dryden and Demers would cross paths again a few years later behind the bench of the Detroit Red Wings.
The rest of his career was spent with the Oilers. He was the number one goalie with the club each year, except for 1976-77. That year was a bit of a mess. In January, 1977, after the demise of the Minnesota Fighting Saints franchise, the Oilers obtained Jack Carlson, Steve Carlson, Dave Keon and John McKenzie from the Saints. They immediately packaged those players, along with Dryden and sent them to the New England Whalers for Dan Arndt, future considerations and cash.
Dryden refused to report to the Whalers and was subsequently suspended by the team for the remainder of the 1976-77 WHA season. In September, 1977, he was traded back to the Oilers with Brett Callighen and future considerations for Jean-Louis Lavasseur.
In 1975-76, Dave appeared in 62 games for the Oilers and in his final season, 1978-79, he played in 63 regular season games. That year, he also played in all 13 playoff games as Edmonton reached the finals before losing to the Winnipeg Jets in six games. Dryden did all he could with the Oilers actually outscoring the Jets 26-21 on the series.
In that final 1978-79 World Hockey Association season, Dryden was awarded the Ben Hatskin Trophy as the league’s best goaltender. More importantly, he was the final recipient of the Gordie Howe Trophy as the WHA’s most valuable player.
Dave Dryden – Coaching
After retiring from the NHL as a player, Dave jumped into a head coaching role with the Peterborough Petes in the OHL for the 1980-81 season. However, midseason he was replaced by the legendary Dick Todd.
In 1983-84, a relationship was formed with the Detroit Red Wings organization with Dryden becoming their goaltending coach. Interestingly, one of the goalies was Eddie Mio, a guy he shared time with in Edmonton. Greg Stefan, Corrado Micalef and Ken Holland also saw time between the pipes with the Red Wings that season. It was an exciting time to be in Detroit with the Dead Wings era coming to an end and Steve Yzerman playing his first of many seasons with the club.
Dryden returned to Detroit for 1985-86 and 1986-87 as assistant coach. Those two years saw one of the greatest turnarounds in NHL history. In 1985-86, Harry Neale was head coach and the team finished with just 40 points in 80 games, dead last in the NHL.
In 1986-87, Neale was gone and Jacques Demers was in. If you remember, Dryden and Demers crossed paths with the Chicago Cougars back in 1974-75. Under Jacques, the team improved immensely with 78 points in 80 games, just a single point behind the Norris Division leading St. Louis Blues. They then reached the semi-finals before losing to the Edmonton Oilers.
It should be noted that Demers was awarded the Jack Adams Award that season as NHL coach of the year. He would win again in 1987-88 to become the only coach to win the award in consecutive seasons.
Dave Dryden – Rookie Card
The ‘official’ Dave Dryden rookie card appears as number 57 in the 1967-68 Topps NHL hockey card set. He is shown as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks. However, Dave was also included in the 1965-66 Coca Cola set as a member of the Blackhawks.
His final card is included in the 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee NHL set as number 71. That card mentions the 1977 trade from the Whalers back to the Oilers. This is sort of interesting when you consider his 1977-78 OPC WHA card shows him happily back with Edmonton with no mention of what happened the season before.
Dave’s 1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA card with the Chicago Cougars seems to have an uncorrected error. The back of the card claims that he was a Second Team All-Star in 1973-74 in the NHL. However, he was never selected to an All-Star team and, that year, the honour went to Tony Esposito.
Dave Dryden Career Stats
| Season | Team | Lge | GP | A | PIM | SO | GAA |
| 1959-60 | Toronto St. Michael’s | OHA | 12 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3.25 |
| 1960-61 | Toronto St. Michael’s | OHA | 18 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3.67 |
| 1961-62 | Rochester Americans | AHL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.00 |
| 1961-62 | New York Rangers | NHL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.50 |
| 1961-62 | Toronto Marlboros | MTJHL | 31 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3.16 |
| 1962-63 | Galt Terriers | OHASr | 40 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4.35 |
| 1963-64 | Galt Terriers | OHASr | 39 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.62 |
| 1964-65 | Galt Terriers | OHASr | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.10 |
| 1964-65 | Buffalo Bisons | AHL | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1.50 |
| 1965-66 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3.05 |
| 1966-67 | St. Louis Braves | CPHL | 48 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3.31 |
| 1967-68 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 27 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3.26 |
| 1968-69 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 30 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3.20 |
| 1969-70 | Dallas Black Hawks | CHL | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.00 |
| 1970-71 | Buffalo Sabres | NHL | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3.37 |
| 1970-71 | Salt Lake Golden Eagles | WHL | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.60 |
| 1971-72 | Buffalo Sabres | NHL | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.97 |
| 1972-73 | Buffalo Sabres | NHL | 37 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2.65 |
| 1973-74 | Buffalo Sabres | NHL | 53 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2.97 |
| 1974-75 | Chicago Cougars | WHA | 45 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3.87 |
| 1975-76 | Edmonton Oilers | WHA | 62 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3.95 |
| 1976-77 | Edmonton Oilers | WHA | 24 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3.26 |
| 1977-78 | Edmonton Oilers | WHA | 48 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3.49 |
| 1978-79 | Edmonton Oilers | WHA | 63 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 2.89 |
| 1979-80 | Edmonton Oilers | NHL | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.29 |
| NHL Totals | 203 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 3.20 | ||
| WHA Totals | 242 | 14 | 6 | 8 | 3.51 |