On November 7th 1975, the Rangers swapped Jean Ratelle, Brad Park and minor league defenseman Joe Zanussi to the Boston Bruins for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais in a blockbuster deal that shocked the hockey world.
The deal capped off a wild 10-day period of player movement that saw Rangers’ GM Emile Francis trade Gilles Villemure and Derek Sanderson and lose Eddie Giacomin via waivers.
Francis and Boston’s GM Harry Sinden had been talking about a trade for more than a month. The deal originally included Espo and defenseman Dallas Smith, but Francis didn’t want Smith, insisting on Vadnais instead.
Emile Francis: “We were both playing like horseshit. And I had brought in Ron Stewart to coach, because I was at the point that I couldn’t do both jobs and remember we were in a war with the WHA back then too. So we both got off to a bad start. And we would have never made a deal with Boston or Montreal or Philadelphia. But Harry Sinden and I were at a meeting and I said, ‘Harry we’re both going bad. Have you ever thought of making a trade?’ He said really? But I said there’s no sense talking about the deuces and the treys, meaning the 17th or 18th players. If we’re going to make a trade let’s talk about some key players. So he said let’s talk in a couple of days and we talked for about a month. We were probably both really hoping that the teams would straighten themselves out and start playing better. But it didn’t happen. So I remember saying to him ‘Harry, we’d be willing to talk about trading a couple of key guys, Ratelle and Park if you put in Esposito and Orr.’
‘Oh no way’ he said, ‘I’d never trade Bobby Orr.’
So I said, ‘Let’s keep talking’ and eventually neither team got straightened out and we had to do something. So we kept talking and eventually made the trade. I sure as hell didn’t want to trade Park and Ratelle and he didn’t want to trade Esposito and he sure as hell wouldn’t trade Orr, but the thing was neither team was getting any better so we had to try to do something to turn things around.”
The Rangers were in Oakland that morning and Park knew something was up when he got a call from Stewart at 7am asking him to come to his room. He knew they weren’t going to be talking about strategy. He knocked on the coach’s door and when Stewart opened it, Park asked “Where am I going?” “Boston,” replied Stewart.
Park’s main concern was his family and his then 22-month-old son Robbie who had Cerebral Palsy and was getting special care in New York. Now he would have to find a hospital In Boston that could also care for his son.
Brad Park: “We were on a West Coast swing. I was the captain and somewhat of a big name on the team and probably the highest paid guy at that time. So I felt somewhat secure that I was a major part of the organization so that when it happened it was a major shock. My first reaction was that I didn’t want to go but then I sat down and I contemplated and I said this is my job and that’s part of the job. So if it’s a bad situation I’ll go and make the best of it. If it’s a good situation I’ll move forward. Did I have a bad taste for the Rangers for doing it – yeah. I was very upset with them.”
The trade also meant that Park would be playing in Boston where he was once Public Enemy No. 1 because of the comments he made in his first book, ‘Play the Man.’
Brad Park: “Most of the guys I had conflicts with were gone. Bobby Orr and I got along terrific. Another guy I might’ve had a conflict with was Wayne Cashman and he turned out to be a terrific guy and Terry O’Reilly was wonderful. When we got there the team was in last place and they started to do much better. Unfortunately after 10 games Bobby’s knee went out on him again and he never played for the Bruins again.”
At the time of the trade many fans and members of the media thought Park was overweight and out of shape. But in reality, Brad was suffering from ‘The Gunk’ which was a nasty rash that many players had at the time. The puffiness that made him look overweight was actually a reaction to the steroids he was taking to ease the itching that was caused by the rash.
Brad Park: “I had ‘The Gunk’ and I went to a dermatologist out in Cedarhurst, Long Island and she looked at it and took samples of it. She said ‘I don’t know what this is, I don’t think I can cure it, but I can give you steroids that will stop you from scratching. I said okay because that’s a big part of it. What happened was with the steroids my weight stayed the same but my jowls swelled up and my hair turned curly so I didn’t look like I was in shape but my weight was exactly the same. Once I got traded to Boston the trainers started washing my hockey underwear every day, which they hadn’t done in New York. So basically once I got there they started washing my underwear every day and cleaning it and the gunk went away and I wasn’t taking any more steroids.
The trainers in New York, a lot of times it was easier just to hang the underwear up and let it dry, They might have washed it once a week but in Boston John ‘Frosty’ Forristall was the trainer and he washed it every day.”
As could be expected, Jean Ratelle handled the trade with his usual quiet dignity.
Jean Ratelle: “Being traded is not fun, it’s probably worst when you have been with the same organization forever. We had heard some talk about changes. It was hard to deal with, but being 35 at the time, you know it could happen.
The first month was the hardest. You have to think about your family and kids and your wife having to do all the moving by herself. It’s a difficult change of life. Luckily being traded to Boston with Brad, I knew things would not be too bad. Brad is one of the best defensemen in the history of the game. We came close to winning the Stanley Cup a couple times, but not winning it is what I miss most about my career.”
Up the coast in Vancouver, Bruins coach Don Cherry was breaking the news of the trade to Esposito. Phil had heard rumors about being dealt and knew that it was a part of a players’ life. So when Cherry and Bobby Orr knocked on his hotel room door that morning he knew they weren’t there to shoot the breeze. When Cherry began to tell him about the trade Espo stopped him in his tracks. “Grapes, if you tell me it’s New York I’ll jump out that window.” Cherry responded, “Bobby get away from the window.”
Espo’s linemate Wayne Cashman wasn’t too happy about the trade either. Upon hearing the news he trashed his hotel room, and threw the television through the window into the parking lot below.
Carol Vadnais wasn’t too happy with the deal either. He didn’t report to the Rangers until nearly a week later due to a complication in his contract – a ‘no-trade’ clause that nobody seemed to notice. “I was shocked by the trade,” Vadnais told reporters. “How could I be traded when my contract said I couldn’t be? I had asked for the clause because it’s aggravating to be uprooted in the middle of the season, moving a family out of one house into another. I told them trade me in the summer but not during the season. But they did anyhow and so what else can you do? You ask them to make it up in dollars.”
Rangers PR Director John Halligan and his assistant, who happened to be his wife Janet, had 48 hours notice of the deal and were told that there were to be no leaks to anybody. So that morning, they had to call every Ranger beat reporter at 8:30 am telling them that there would be an 11 am press conference. When one of the scribes asked Janet if it was ‘big’, she replied, “Would I be calling you if it wasn’t?”
Park and Ratelle stopped by the Rangers locker room to pick up their equipment and say good bye to their suddenly former teammates. They then flew to Vancouver where they each had an assist in Boston’s 4-2 loss to the Canucks.
Emile Francis: “Believe me trading Jean Ratelle was just as hard as putting Ed Giacomin on waivers. You have to remember that Ratty and I had been together for 15 years. We started out in juniors. But before he left for Boston, he and his wife came over and he said I can’t thank you enough for all the years I’ve been with you, starting in juniors. He was such a classy guy. Usually you trade a guy and he says ‘screw you’. But not him. That was just the way he was and just a real good player. In fact three – four months after we made the trade I ran into Harry Sinden and he said, you know something, we never realized how good a hockey player Jean Ratelle was until we got him.
The thing I feel sorry for Jean as well as Rod Gilbert and Brad Park, they never won a Stanley Cup. I never coached a team to the Stanley Cup. We always seemed to have the bad luck of getting the wrong players hurt at the wrong time. We did everything but win. We had some good teams but to win the Stanley Cup you gotta be good and you gotta be lucky. And you gotta stay away from injuries.”
The deal benefitted the Bruins much more than the Rangers. Boston finished in first place in the Adams Division but lost to Philadelphia in the second round of the playoffs. Jean Ratelle led the Bruins with 31 goals and 59 assists, Brad Park bolstered the defense in the absence of Bobby Orr and chipped in with 16 goals and 37 assists.
Unfortunately the Rangers were not as lucky. Francis was fired as GM in January, 1976 and replaced by John Ferguson. They finished fourth in the Patrick Division, missed the playoffs and did not reach the post season again until 1977-78.
Phil Esposito spent the last six seasons of his NHL career in New York. Upon retirement he moved into the broadcasting booth, and then had a short, chaotic, unsuccessful run as Rangers GM.
Brad Park actually played more games for the Bruins (501), than for the Rangers (463). He also played for the Detroit Red Wings and served as their coach for a short time.
Jean Ratelle led the Bruins in scoring again in 1976-77 and recorded a total of 155 goals with 295 assists in his six seasons with the Bruins.
All three were eventually inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Vadnais finished his career in 1983 with the New Jersey Devils and passed away in 2014 at the age of 68.
The forgotten man in the deal, Joe Zanussi, played in 58 games for the Bruins over two seasons recording a goal and eight assists.
Emile Francis: “I knew we had our shot at winning the Cup and didn’t make it so now we had to do something. That’s why you’re the General Manager, you’ve got to make those decisions.”
My sincere thanks to Brad Park and author Thom Sears (Straight Shooter) for helping me get in touch with Jean Ratelle for this column.
George Grimm is a New York Ranger historian and host of the Retro Rangers podcast on Spotify. He is also the author of We Did Everything but Win, Guardians of the Goal, and Undermanned but Undaunted.
