Ken Dryden

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**Hon. Kenneth Wayne Dryden**

Riding	York Centre
Political party:	Liberal
First elected:	2004 election
Profession(s):	Executive manager, lawyer, professional hockey player, writer

Kenneth Wayne "Ken" Dryden, PC, MP, BA, LL.B (born August 8, 1947, in Hamilton, Ontario) is a Canadian politician, lawyer, businessman, author and retired National Hockey League goaltender. Dryden is married and has two children.

Contents

1 Hockey career
2 Education
3 Writing career
4 Business career
5 Political career
6 Trivia
7 External links
8 Notes

Hockey career

Dryden was drafted fourteenth overall by the Boston Bruins in the 1964 NHL Amateur Draft. Rather than play in Boston, Dryden pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree at Cornell University, where he also played hockey until his graduation in 1969.

At Cornell, Dryden led his team to the 1967 National Collegiate Athletic Association championship and three consecutive ECAC tournament championships. He is generally regarded as the greatest college hockey goaltender of all time.

Having been traded by the Bruins to the Montreal Canadiens for Guy Allen and Paul Reid, two players who would never even make the NHL, Dryden made his NHL debut in mid-season 1971 for the Canadiens, and became the backbone of six Stanley Cup winning teams in the 1970s. During that first playoff season Dryden won the Conn Smythe Trophy, 1971, as the playoffs' most valuable player. The following year Dryden won the Calder Trophy, 1972, as the Rookie of the Year because the previous year he did not play enough regular season games to be eligible.

Considered to be one of the greatest hockey players of all time, Dryden played from 1971 to 1979 (excluding the 1973-74 NHL season, when he retired to pursue the requirements for his law degree at McGill University) and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983.

Compared to most other goaltending greats, Dryden's NHL career was extremely short: only seven full seasons. Therefore, statistically he did not amass record totals in most categories. However, although it has been noted that he played for a dynasty, his statistical percentages are unparalleled. His regular season totals include a .650 winning percentage, a 2.24 goals against average, and, most incredibly, losing only 57 games while recording 46 shutouts in 397 total games. No other modern goaltender has ever been even remotely close to earning nearly as many shutouts as recording losing games. He won the Vezina Trophy as NHL's top goaltender five times and in the same years was selected as a First Team All-Star.

Education

Dryden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history at Cornell University and a degree in Law at McGill University. He has received honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Ottawa, University of Windsor, York University, McMaster University, Saint Mary’s University, Niagara University and University of British Columbia.

Writing career

Book cover of The Game

Dryden wrote one little-known book during his hockey career: Summit on Ice. This was written in diary form and outlined the Canadian experience in the famous Canada-Russia series of 1972. The book is difficult to find and long out of print. It is a fairly standard account, unlike The Game which frequently digresses into non-hockey related information. After retiring from hockey Dryden became a dedicated author for a time. His book The Game (1983, ISBN 0470833556) was a commercial and critical success being nominated for a Governor General's Award. His next book, Home Game: Hockey and Life in Canada (1990, ISBN 0771028725), written with Roy MacGregor, was developed into an award-winning Canadian Broadcasting Corporation six-part documentary series for television. His third book was The moved and the shaken: The story of one man's life (1993, ISBN 0670821705 ). His fourth book was In School: Our Kids, Our Teachers, Our Classrooms (1995, ISBN 0771028695), written with Roy MacGregor, was about Canada’s education system.

Business career

He served as Ontario's first Youth Commissioner from 1984 to 1986. Dryden worked as a television hockey commentator at the 1980, 1984 and 1988 Winter Olympics. Dryden served as a colour commentator alongside play-by-play man Al Michaels for the American Broadcasting Company's coverage of the famous Miracle on Ice. He became president of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club in 1997, remaining at that post until 2004.

Political career

In the Canadian federal election of June 2004, Dryden, as a candidate of the Liberal Party of Canada, was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for the Toronto riding of York Centre. Dryden had been selected by Prime Minister Paul Martin as a "star candidate" in what is considered a safe Liberal riding. After the election, Dryden was named to the Cabinet. Dryden made headlines on February 16, 2005, as the target of a remark by Conservative Member of Parliament Rona Ambrose who said about Dryden, "working women want to make their own choices, we don't need old white guys telling us what to do."

While campaigning, an incident occurred when a letter sent to him by Ya’acov Brosh, Consul-General of Israel in Toronto was put in his campaign literature allegedly without permission. ^{[#endnote_Note1]} Brosh worried that the letter would be misconstrued as political interference. The Consul-General did give permission to "circulate" the letter but insisted that it was not intended to be any kind of endorsement. The letter was sent to Dryden thanking him for his participation in a ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the assassination of former Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

He was re-elected in the 2006 federal election.

On April 28, Dryden confirmed rumours [link] that he will run for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, which will be choosing a successor to Paul Martin at a convention in Montreal on December 3, 2006. Although a variety of media pundits claim Dryden's speaking style is ponderous and his French limited, several note that few people are strongly opposed to him and if he runs he may attract more support on later ballots as a consensus candidate.

Trivia

Unlike most professional athletes, Dryden does not usually sign autographs for his fans, having a "handshakes only" policy. However, during the 2004 and 2006 election campaigns he did sign autographs for local residents which was preceived by trade publications Sports Collectors Digest and Canadian Sports Collector as an attempt to buy votes.

External links

Notes

↑ [Jewish Tribune article about Dryden election brochure]

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2006 Liberal leadership candidates
Bennett \| Bevilacqua \| Brison \| Dion \| Dryden \| Fry \| Hall Findlay \| Ignatieff \| Kennedy \| Rae \| Volpe

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