Our weekly series is in the home stretch, with three of the four major sports complete. We've looked at some legends of baseball, football and basketball that you may or may not remember making brief cameo appearances for one of the local teams. Now we turn our attention to the ice with the New York Rangers. One of the Original Six franchises, the organization boasts 60 Hall of Famers who have either played, coached or in some way been associated with the team. We'll narrow our focus to within the last 40 years or so. Do you remember these legends of the game playing at Madison Square Garden?
(To see the rest of the series, pick a team: Yankees | Red Sox | Mets | Giants | Jets | Celtics | Knicks | Nets... note the Patriots don't qualify for this type of list)
Glenn Anderson: An integral piece on the Oilers dynasty that won five Stanley Cups between 1984-90, the winger was with the Maple Leafs in the 1993-94 when he was dealt to Manhattan for another Hall of Famer, Mike Gartner. The Rangers became a de facto "Edmonton East", featuring six former Oilers, and the recipe worked. Though he only played in 12 regular season games for New York and going scoreless through the playoffs, Anderson scored three goals in the Stanley Cup Final - including two game-winners - as the Rangers hoisted their first (and to this point, only) Cup since 1940. The next season he signed with St. Louis as a free agent.
Herb Brooks: To the casual fan, Brooks is the man in charge of the "Miracle on Ice", the greatest upset of the 20th century as the young Americans stunned the mighty Soviet Union en route to a gold medal at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid. After that, he coached in Europe for about six months before moving to the NHL to coach the Rangers, where he spent four seasons. He made the playoffs in his first three seasons, but never advanced past the second round and just once finished higher than fourth in a loaded Patrick Division. After a 15-22-8 start to the 1984-85 season, Brooks was let go. He'd go on to coach three different franchises for one season apiece (Minnesota, New Jersey and Pittsburgh).
Marcel Dionne: The fifth-best goal scorer in NHL history with 731 goals, Dionne did the bulk of his damage with the Kings, with whom he had five straight 50-goal seasons and scored 550 goals. However, the franchise was on the downswing in 1987 and at age 35 he wanted to be traded to a contender instead of staying for a rebuild in Los Angeles. So Dionne was dealt to the Rangers along with Jeff Crossman and a draft pick in exchange for Bob Carpenter and Tom Laidlaw. In his first full season with the team he notched 31 goals and 64 points, but played just 37 games in '88-89 before retiring at season's end. In his time with the Rangers the team didn't advance past the first round.
Bobby Hull: You're probably thinking "Wait, Bobby Hull never played for the Rangers" and you'd be correct -- sort of. First, in 1959 the Rangers and Bruins went to Europe on an exhibition tour, and a 20-year-old Hull was added to the New York roster, where he scored 14 goals in 23 games.
Fast forward more than two decades, and Hull retired after splitting the 1979-80 season between Winnipeg and Hartford. In September 1981, Herb Brooks convinced the 42-year-old to attempt a comeback with the Rangers. He played in five exhibition games, recording a single goal and assist before retiring for good.
Jari Kurri: Another member of the Oilers' dynasty, Kurri was in midst of his fifth season with the Kings when he was sent across the country to the Rangers during the 1995-96 season. Though he scored just one goal with four assists in 14 regular season games, the man with over 1,000 career points stepped up in the playoffs, with eight points in 11 games as the Rangers lost in the second round to the Penguins. That summer he returned to the west coast to sign with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
Guy Lafleur: After 14 legendary seasons with the Canadiens that included 518 goals, 1,246 points, two Hart Trophies and five Stanley Cups, it all came to an uncomfortable end in Montreal. Lafleur wanted out, general manager Serge Savard didn't want to trade a franchise icon, and it ended with Lafleur retiring just 19 games into the 1984-85 season. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1988, but then something odd happened -- he came back. Signing with the Rangers in '88-89, Lafleur scored 18 goals for New York before spending his final two seasons in Quebec, becoming one of the few players in any sport to be a member of the Hall of Fame while active.
Pat Lafontaine: Spending his entire career in the state of New York, Lafontaine burst onto the scene as a star for the Islanders in the post-dynasty years, was sent to Buffalo as the Isles became fledgling and set a Buffalo team record with 148 points in 1993. However, early in 1996-97 he suffered a bad concussion on a high hit, and the Sabres urged him to retire, as doctors wouldn't clear him to return. Not wanting to and with a big salary, the organization traded him to the Rangers before the start of the '97-98 season. He did in fact return, and in his final NHL season scored 23 goals before suffering another concussion, this one career-ending.
Luc Robitaille: Unlike everyone else on this list, the Rangers acquired Robitaille in the prime of his career in 1995. In nine NHL seasons to that point, the winger had never recorded fewer than 44 goals or 84 points in a non-lockout-shortened season when he and Ulf Samuelsson were sent from Pittsburgh to New York for Petr Nedved and Sergei Zubov. However his two seasons in Manhattan were underwhelming, scoring just 23 and 24 goals, respectively and combining for just 117 points - for context, he had 125 points in the 1992-93 season alone in Los Angeles. He was sent back to the Kings in 1997 and eventually did regain some of his old form, with four straight 30-goal seasons and finishing as the highest-scoring left winger in NHL history.
Brendan Shanahan: After winning three Cups in nine years with the Red Wings, the 38-year-old Shanahan wanted somewhere new to go, so in 2006-07 he signed a one-year deal with the Rangers. Though his numbers dipped to the lowest levels since early in his career he was still plenty productive, recording 29 goals and 63 points that first year, including scoring his 600th goal. He re-upped for another year, but his production dropped again and the Rangers didn't extend him an offer beyond '07-08. He sat out the first half of '08-09 before returning to the team that drafted him in New Jersey, before retiring after the season.