Rod Gilbert, the Hall of Fame hockey player known as Mr. Ranger, has passed away at age 80, the New York Rangers announced in a statement on Sunday evening.
The team’s announcement did not specify Gilbert’s cause of death or where he died.
Gilbert played more than 1,000 NHL career games, all with the Rangers. His 406 goals and 1,021 points are both Rangers franchise records. He had four seasons with at least 80 points, including in 1971-1972 when he had 43 goals and 54 assists. But even before he reached the NHL, Gilbert had to overcome a serious injury.
He had been informed that he had been selected as an emergency call-up for the Rangers, but while playing a junior game in 1960, he skated over rubble and fell into planks, sustaining an injury that required spinal surgery. He played part of the 1965-1966 season before having to undergo a second spinal fusion procedure. But his career was far from over as he would be part of a top attacking unit, the Rangers’ Goal-a-Game line.
“I’ve found that if you don’t love the city, the city won’t love you either,” Gilbert wrote in a March 1977 piece for NewsMadura. He said he longed to do more advertising for Ranger. games, to connect players and their fans. Later that year, the Rangers announced that they would release him at age 36. The team’s general manager at the time said he thought Gilbert’s best years were behind him. “We feel like we have some younger players in New Haven who can do the job,” the general manager, John Ferguson, said at the time.
“He’s been a great player for years.” he said, ‘But he’s 36, and that was really the whole decision. We were concerned about his game.”
But Gilbert’s desire to cheer for the sport he loved didn’t wane. “Four decades since he played his last game,” The Times wrote in 2017, “Gilbert rejoices in crisscrossing the arena on game nights with the same enthusiasm he had in the 1960s as part of the GAG line with Jean Ratelle and Vic Hadfield skated… and 70s.”
In a statement on Sunday, Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, praised Gilbert for his contributions on and off the ice, adding that Gilbert was committed to several charities.
“As a player, he was revered by his teammates, respected by his opponents and absolutely loved by Rangers fans,” Bettman said. “The game has lost a true friend.”
The Rangers said Gilbert is survived by his wife, Judy; his siblings, Jean Marie and André; his children, Chantal, Justin, Holly and Brooke; and seven grandchildren.
Evan Easterling contributed to reporting.
