1968-69 O-Pee-Chee 104 Andy Bathgate Hockey Card (Front)
1968-69 O-Pee-Chee 104 Andy Bathgate Hockey Card (Back)
1968-69 O-Pee-Chee NHL Checklist
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Card Notes
Long-standing knee trouble had Andy Bathgate talking retirement at the beginning of the current season. Andy is the all-time scoring leader of the New York Rangers and showed he hadn’t lost his touch, leading the West Division is scoring.
En Français
Au début de la saison courante, Andy parlait de prendre sa retraite à cause de troubles aux genoux. Bathgate est le meilleur compteur de tous les temps pour les Rangers de New-York. Il n’a rien perdu de sa dextérité, car il finit en tête des compteurs de la Division de l’Ouest.
Details
Andy Bathgate did not play for the Pittsburgh Penguins in both 1968-69 and 1969-70. Instead, he put in two decent seasons with the Vancouver Canucks of the WHL before returning to the Penguins for one last campaign in the NHL in 1970-71.
With the Canucks, he led the team in goal scoring in 1968-69 with 37, good for seventh in the WHL. He helped the team to a WHL playoff championship, taking out the first seed Portland Buckaroos in the final. The following year, he led the team with 68 assists and 104 points and placed second in the WHL scoring race. The first place Canucks won their rematch with the Buckaroos for the title in what would be their last year in the league.
In 1967-68, he scored the first goal in Penguins history, the lone marker in the team’s inaugural game, a 2-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. He also recorded the club’s first hat trick in just their fourth game. He is also on record for getting Pittsburgh’s first fighting major for a dustup at the start of November with Kent Douglas of the Oakland Seals.
Between 1952-53 and 1970-71, Andy Bathgate appeared in 1,069 regular season and 54 playoff games in the National Hockey League with the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins. His 729 points with the Rangers still rank him fourth all-time behind Rod Gilbert, Brian Leetch and Jean Ratelle. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978.