Ron Duguay

Ronald Duguay (born July 6, 1957) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and coach who played 12 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1977 through 1989, and served four seasons as a minor league coach.

Duguay played for his hometown Sudbury Wolves of the OMJHL throughout his entire junior career spanning from 1973 to 1977.

He was a very valuable player for the Wolves and one of the team's top scorers.

He scored a high of 134 points in the 1975–76 OMJHL season which helped the team win the Hamilton Spectator Trophy as the best team in the regular season and make the league finals where they lost to the Hamilton Fincups in six games.

Duguay was selected onto the national junior team for the 1977 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.

There, he recorded 1 goal and 4 assist to total 5 points in 5 games as Canada finished in second place.

Duguay was drafted 13th overall by the New York Rangers in the 1977 NHL amateur draft.

He played 864 career NHL games, scoring 274 goals and 346 assists for 620 points.

After being drafted in 1977, Duguay made the jump directly from junior hockey to the NHL, with 20 goals in his rookie year.

Duguay played his first six seasons in New York, where he was known as much for his long hair and flashy behaviour as he was for his play on the ice.

As a player, he featured in the 1979 Stanley Cup Finals with the Rangers.

With the Rangers, Duguay set a team record, for the fastest goal at the start of a game, at 9 seconds, on April 6, 1980, against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Suffering injuries, his production did not progress as hoped, but after playing for Team Canada in the 1981 Canada Cup, his play improved, and in 1981–82 led the Rangers in scoring with 40 goals.

That same season, he played in the NHL All-Star Game, representing the Rangers on the Wales Conference squad.

In 1982–83 Duguay's numbers dipped, and he only scored 19 goals.

Rangers coach Herb Brooks clashed with Duguay over his play and popularity in New York's night life, and on June 13, 1983, Duguay, Eddie Mio and Eddie Johnstone were traded to the Detroit Red Wings, for Willie Huber, Mark Osborne and Mike Blaisdell.

During Duguay's time with the Rangers, he took part in some of team president Sonny Werblin's schemes to make the Rangers more hip and visible in disco-era New York City.

This includes singing on "Hockey Sock Rock", written by Alan Thicke.

The song featured vocals by Duguay, Phil Esposito, Pat Hickey, Dave Maloney and John Davidson.

It was released as a 45, as Platinum Records 1217–75 in 1979.

Playing in Detroit, Duguay's career was revitalized, and in 1983–84 he was third on the Red Wings with 33 goals, and second on the team with 47 assists, which placed him third overall on the team for points, with 80.

In 1984–85 he was second on the Red Wings in all three categories, with 38 goals, 51 assists and 89 total points, the best offensive season of his career.

At the trade deadline in 1985–86 Duguay was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Doug Shedden.

Duguay played parts of only two seasons in Pittsburgh, and his production was never as good again as it had been in New York or Detroit.

On January 21, 1987, Pittsburgh traded Duguay to his original team, the Rangers, in exchange for Chris Kontos, reuniting Duguay with former teammate, and then-Rangers general manager, Phil Esposito.

Duguay re-signed with the Rangers in the summer of 1987.

It was towards the end of his second stint with the Rangers that Duguay was sent to the minors for the first time, playing two games with the Colorado Rangers of the IHL.

After briefly returning to the Rangers, Duguay finished his NHL career with the Los Angeles Kings in 1988–89.

He played 22 games in Europe with Mannheim ERC (German Bundesliga) during the 1989–90 season, then returned to the United States where he played two seasons in the IHL with the San Diego Gulls.

An attempted comeback with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1990, as well as one with the Tampa Bay Lightning, where Phil Esposito was the general manager in 1992 was not successful.

Duguay's career continued in the minor leagues for a few years after his final NHL season.

Following the 1991–92 season he retired, but three years later resumed playing, again, for the San Diego Gulls, who were now members of the WCHL.

Duguay explained that he was inspired to return to hockey to help the then injury-riddled team; he also said that he wanted his children, who had been too young to see him play in the NHL, to see him in action.

Duguay finished the 1995–96 season with the Gulls, scoring eight goals and nine assists in only 12 games.

Over the next two seasons, Duguay played in just five games for the Gulls.

In 1998–99 he jumped to the Jacksonville Lizard Kings of the (ECHL), but skated in just one game before commencing his second retirement.

In 2003, he joined the Jacksonville Barracudas, then playing in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League.

He appeared as an in-studio analyst during MSG Network's coverage of the New York Rangers from 2007 to 2018.

He was born in the Sudbury region of northern Ontario, and as a child resided in Val Caron, Ontario.

Duguay played junior hockey for the hometown Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League.