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Boston Bruins trade Ken Dryden: Exploring team’s worst decision ever

By Michael DeVito

1974; Goalie Ken Dryden #29 of the Montreal Canadiens skates on the ice before an NHL game circa 1974. (Photo by Melchior DiGiacomo/Getty Images)
1974; Goalie Ken Dryden #29 of the Montreal Canadiens skates on the ice before an NHL game circa 1974. (Photo by Melchior DiGiacomo/Getty Images) /
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Further exploring the Boston Bruins trade of Ken Dryden in 1964, which turned out to be a huge mistake.

In taking a look back at team history, the Boston Bruins trade of Ken Dryden, an All-time great goaltender for the Montreal Canadians, was explored in some detail.

As a preface, the article chronicled some major Boston trades in the past both good and bad. It was not meant to be exhaustive and there are certainly others that should have made the list.

One of those with the potential to be an all-time bad is the recent trade of Mookie Betts, a former American League MVP in Boston to the LA Dodgers. It certainly has the potential to be a monstrous blunder.

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One more terrible trade happened in the early years of the Red Sox when they were the kings of the hill in the American league. In 2016 they traded their tremendous center fielder, Tris Speaker to the Cleveland Indians. This preceded the Babe Ruth trade by about four years. The Red Sox got “Sad Sam Jones, Fred Thomas and $55000 (April 9, 1916)”.

Speaker played 9 years in Boston and 11 years in Cleveland. In his first year in Cleveland, he hit .386 and had a lifetime batting average in the big leagues of .345. Three times in Cleveland he hit over .380. Definitely a really bad trade for Boston after the 1915 season.

Ken Dryden drafted, traded and the trade return to Boston

Occasionally a trade works out well for both teams involved. For the Bruins, this one didn’t. The towering Dryden was drafted in 1964 by Boston Bruins in round three of the draft and he was overall the 14th pick that year. Nice pick. He was 16 years old. Icehockeyfandom.com writes that Dryden, “refused to report to the Bruins in 1964” resulting in them trading him to Montreal. Not a good idea.

Dryden and Alex Campbell went to arch-enemy Montreal for two players, Paul Reid and Guy Allen. If you never heard of them, you’re not alone. As hockeywriters.com points out, neither played in a single NHL game. That’s a bad trade. It got worse.

Dryden only played for 7+ years in Montreal. And they had to wait for him. Rather than go professional, Dryden went to Cornell University. Dryden won 3 ECAC Championships and also the national Championship with Cornell. He proved worth the wait to Montreal.

He turned pro and was called up for the playoffs in 1971, just in time to play the Boston Bruins. Adding insult to injury, the hockleywriters.com notes, he beat Boston in the playoffs that year and every time he played the Bruins in the playoffs during his short career. All four times. Dryden was simply put, magnificent and unbeatable.

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Dryden won six Stanley Cups with Montreal in those 7+ years and 5 Vezina Trophies for best goaltender. He’s a classic example of the time-worn adage that “a good big man is better than a good small man”.

Ken Dryden was certainly that. Very big and amazingly good. That’s the “rest of the story” of one of the Bruins worst trades ever and one of the worst in NHL and sports history.

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