Bill Ranford

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CanadaCanada  Bill Ranford Ice hockey player
Bill Ranford
Date of birth December 14, 1966
place of birth Brandon , Manitoba , Canada
size 180 cm
Weight 84 kg
position goalkeeper
Catch hand Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft 1985 , 3rd round, 52nd position
Boston Bruins
Career stations
1983-1986 New Westminster Bruins
1986-1987 Boston Bruins
1987-1988 Maine Mariners
1987-1995 Edmonton Oilers
1995-1997 Boston Bruins
1997-1998 Washington Capitals
1998-1999 Tampa Bay Lightning
1999 Detroit Red Wings
1999-2000 Edmonton Oilers

William Edward "Bill" Ranford (born December 14, 1966 in Brandon , Manitoba ) is a former Canadian ice hockey goalkeeper who from 1986 to 2000 for the Edmonton Oilers , the Boston Bruins , the Washington Capitals , the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Detroit Red Wings played in the National Hockey League . He is currently the goalkeeping coach of the Los Angeles Kings .

Career

Start of career

Bill Ranford began his career in 1983 in the Canadian Junior League WHL , where he played for the New Westminster Bruins . In the 1985 NHL Entry Draft he was then selected by the Boston Bruins in the third round at position 52, but remained in the WHL. Towards the end of the 1985/86 season he was allowed to complete four games for the Bruins in the NHL , of which he won three. There were also two appearances in the playoffs .

At the beginning of the 1986/87 season he was sent by the Bruins to the Moncton Golden Flames , the farm team from Boston, in the AHL . But after three games he was called back to the NHL squad and shared the post as regular goalkeeper with Doug Keans . After the season he was transferred to the Edmonton Oilers , where he came in the 1987/88 season behind goalkeeper Grant Fuhr only six times and played mainly for the Maine Mariners in the AHL. Even in the playoffs he did not get a train when the Oilers won the Stanley Cup .

Stanley Cup winner

In the following season, Ranford was still only number two, but he was now allowed to play more games. In the 1989/90 season everything stayed the same until Grant Fuhr was injured so badly that he couldn't play for the rest of the season. Ranford took over his post and reached the playoffs with the Oilers. The Oilers made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they met the Boston Bruins, Ranford's former team. And they were also able to win against Boston and celebrate the Stanley Cup victory. Ranford was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy due to his strong performances as MVP of the playoffs .

In September 1990 Grant Fuhr was banned for six months for drug use, which made it clear that Ranford would continue to be number one. Due to other good performances, Ranford was invited to the NHL Allstar Game for the first time . In the playoffs, the Oilers reached the conference finals, where they failed to the Minnesota North Stars . However, Grant Fuhr had meanwhile returned to the team and had taken over the regular seat in the gate again, so that Ranford was only used three times.

But the plans of the management, which wanted to restructure the team, came forward to Ranford, because after the season Fuhr was given up. Ranford was now the undisputed number one in Edmonton.

Sporty ups and downs

But before the next season Ranford was part of the squad of the Canadian team that competed in the 1991 Canada Cup . The Canadian team won the tournament and although Team Canada was peppered with superstars such as Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier , it was Bill Ranford who was voted MVP of the Canada Cup.

In the 1991/92 season , the Oilers made it to the Conference finals again, but Ranford could not get the form from 1990 and the team failed. After that, the Oilers and Ranford's performance went downhill. In 1992/93 he was only able to win 17 of his 67 games, in 1993/94 he only got 22 wins in 71 appearances. In both years, the Oilers missed the playoffs. In the spring of 1994 Ranford played for Team Canada at the Ice Hockey World Championship . With an outstanding performance with six wins in six games and an average against goals of 1.17, he had a large share in winning the world title.

But the following season 1994/95 brought no improvement for the Oilers. At the beginning of the 1995/96 season , the Oilers brought in Curtis Joseph, a new goalkeeper, but Ranford was number one in the first few months. But after neither Ranford nor Joaquin Gage brought the hoped-for performance, Curtis Joseph, who was "parked" with the farm team in the IHL , was brought into the team and Bill Ranford was transferred to the Boston Bruins.

Interplay

For Boston he completed the rest of the season as a regular goalkeeper and he also improved again and was able to move into the playoffs with the Bruins, where they did not get far. In the 1996/97 season he weakened again and was transferred to the Washington Capitals on March 1, 1997 after only one year in Boston . There, the German Olaf Kölzig had just taken over the position as the first goalkeeper from Jim Carey , who had moved in the transfer business for Ranford to Boston and Ranford had to place himself behind Kölzig for the rest of the season. In the 1997/98 season, too, he had to be content with the job of the back-up goalkeeper for Kölzig, who was four years his junior and had a great season. At Kolzig there were 33 wins against 18 defeats, while Ranford recorded a ratio of seven wins to twelve defeats. With the German goalkeeper, the Capitals made it to the Stanley Cup final, while Ranford had to watch from the bench. But in the final against the Detroit Red Wings , the team had no chance.

After the season Ranford was transferred to the Tampa Bay Lightning , where he received more ice age with 32 missions, but with only three wins did not cut a good figure. But his stay in Tampa was short-lived and in March 1999 he was transferred to the Detroit Red Wings. In the regular season he played four more times and after a long time he was able to leave a few positive impressions. There were also four appearances in the playoffs, where he managed a shutout , but was substituted in two other games early after conceding too many goals. The Red Wings did not extend his contract after the season.

In August Ranford returned to the Edmonton Oilers, where he played the 1999/2000 season as a back-up goalie for Tommy Salo . Here, too, he could not set any accents and so he ended his career in April 2000.

After retirement

On November 22, 2003, Bill Ranford and Grant Fuhr stood in the gate of the Edmonton Oilers' team of former players against a team of former Montréal Canadiens players at the 2003 NHL Heritage Classic . The game took place in the framework of the first open-air game in NHL history and was held at the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton in front of an audience of over 55,000.

For the 2004 feature film Miracle - The Miracle of Lake Placid , which is about the Olympic victory of the US ice hockey team in 1980 , Ranford stood for the game scenes in the role of US goalkeeper Jim Craig on the ice. In the rest of the film, Eddie Cahill is played.

Since the summer of 2006, Bill Ranford has been the goalkeeping coach of the Los Angeles Kings .

Achievements and Awards

International

NHL statistics

Seasons Games Victory cut Conceded goal Shutouts
Regular season 15th 647 0.371 3.41 15th
Playoffs 7th 53 0.528 3.07 4th

( Legend for the goalkeeper statistics: GP or Sp = total games; W or S = wins; L or N = defeats; T or U or OT = draws or overtime or shootout defeats; min. = Minutes; SOG or SaT = shots on goal; GA or GT = goals conceded; SO = shutouts ; GAA or GTS = goals conceded ; Sv% or SVS% = catch quota ; EN = empty net goal ; 1  play-downs / relegation ; italics : statistics not complete)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ranford, Bill
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ranford, William Edward (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian ice hockey goalkeeper and coach
DATE OF BIRTH December 14, 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Brandon , Manitoba