Brad Park

Douglas Bradford Park ( born July 6, 1948 in Toronto, Ontario ) is a retired Canadian ice hockey player (defender) and coaches who played from 1968 to 1985 for the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings in the National Hockey League.

Career

Rather inconspicuous park was as a junior, but after the Detroit Red Wings had invited him to a Junior Camp, it was in his hometown, at the Toronto Maple Leafs become aware of him and let him play with the Toronto Marlboros in the OHA. Here he developed physically, but also his game and you counted him among the aspirants to a professional contract. In the NHL Amateur Draft 1966 then it came for the New York Rangers as the second player in the first round. After a further two years with the Marlboros he came to the 1967/68 season training camp of the Rangers. The shy and closed the park but was deported to the Buffalo Bisons of the American Hockey League.

After 17 games there he returned to the Rangers back to prevail in the NHL. After a decent rookie season, he developed into an outstanding defender, the first at Rangers, but soon afterwards made ​​in the whole league sensation. The strong performance in the NHL earned him a nomination for the Canadian team at the 1972 Summit Series, where he could shine in eight games with five points. In the 1973/74 season was the best scorer of the Rangers defender. On defense, one of his opponent strengthen Stars was to neutralize by abdrängte them to the edge of the board.

After it was not running at the start of the 1975/76 season as well with the Rangers, they wanted to rebuild the team. So it was one of the largest barter this time. Together with Jean Ratelle, he moved to the Boston Bruins, in return, Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais came to New York. The Bruins had this certainly made the better deal and Park gave the defense in Boston a strong backing and replaced Bobby Orr, the injury could barely play. As mentioned above for the Rangers, he reached the finals for the Stanley Cup, but was inferior to there with his team.

For the 1983/84 season he moved to the Detroit Red Wings. Here he tried to make a little slower, but still shone with an excellent eye for the killer pass. After two seasons with the Red Wings in 1985, he finished his active career.

In the NHL Park was one of the most dominant defenders of his time. To achieve the very great popularity, however, it were only the outstanding Bobby Orr and Denis Potvin later in the way. Six times he was nominated 1970-1978 for James Norris Trophy, but in each case it was one of the two superstars that prevented a win this trophy.

He stayed after his active career with the Wings and took over the team for half a season as a coach. However, after the success failed to materialize, he was deposed after the end of the season.

In 1988 he was honored with induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

NHL stats

Awards and achievements

• First All -Star Team: 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976 and 1978
• Second All-Star Team: 1971 and 1973
• Charlie Conacher Humanitarian Award: 1983
• Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy: 1984