If you only look at his amazing statistics while he played with the Montreal Canadiens, Ken Dryden had the kind of career numbers that defy description.
In just more than seven seasons in the NHL, Dryden won an astonishing six Stanley Cups, five Vezinas (for best goalie), one Conn Smyth (for most valuable player in the playoffs) and one Calder (for rookie of the year).
For sports fans too young to remember Dryden’s playing days, his amazing career got started in a script that might as well have been a Hollywood feel-good movie. He got called up from the Canadiens farm team just a few games before the start of the 1971 playoffs. He was beyond incredible in the net and led Montreal to the first of the six Stanley Cups with Dryden between the pipes.
James Loewen and Ken Dryden met in November of 2017.
As jaw-dropping as those stats are – and I think it’s fair to say that no former athlete in the history of Canada would go on to do the kinds of amazing things for our country once his playing days were over as Dryden did – his most impressive accomplishments and contributions to Canadian society took place off the ice and away from the rink.
Dryden wasn’t just a goalie. He was an author, a lawyer, a professor and a member of Parliament. When he was an MP, Dryden worked hard to develop a national day care program, decades before the Liberals instituted one during COVID. Dryden signed deals with all 10 provinces to start what was the precursor to a national daycare program, only to see Stephen Harper’s Conservatives end the program once he got into power.
When Harper terminated Dryden’s childcare agreements, Dryden said “A lot of people called this crushing. But I knew it would come back. It was one of those lose now, win forever situations.” Dryden was right. Nearly 20 years later Justin Trudeau’s Liberals instituted a national daycare program.
Dryden was an accomplished author, writing five books. Arguably the most important and most impactful one was “Game Change: The life and death of Steve Montador and the future of hockey.” Focusing on the degenerative brain disease found in an NHL enforcer, Dryden makes a case for hockey to do more to stop concussions. Montador was found dead in his home and when his brain was studied, he was found to have CTE – chronic traumatic encephalopathy – which has been the case with other NHL enforcers who took a lot of repeated blows to the head.
Dryden used science, medical experts, incontrovertible facts and common sense to make his case. His arguments weren’t built on “gut feelings,” emotions or junk science as is so often the case these days with people on the rightward side of the political spectrum; just cold, hard factual evidence to back his logical argument.
Dryden’s contributions to Canada extended beyond childcare and concussions in sport. In 2022 Dryden designed a multidisciplinary undergraduate course on climate action at his Alma mater, McGill University.
In everything he did, Dryden embodied compassion, intellect and humility; all stereotypical Canadian virtues. He was classy, smart, and soft-spoken while being a true leader who cared deeply and passionately about the country he loved.
Unlike other hockey legends I won’t mention by name (they rhyme with Shane Bretzky and Flobby Door), who suck up to the convicted criminal in the White House and never stand up for Canada – whether it’s threats to make our nation America’s 51st state or illegal tariffs that are hurting the Canadian economy and costing Canadian jobs – Dryden was always a fiercely proud and staunch defender of Canada and Canadian virtues.
Canada has lost a true legend. Ken Dryden loved Canada and ended his amazing hockey career to do what he could to help the country he loved be a better place. A titan, an icon, a luminary; Ken Dryden’s career as the Montreal Canadiens goalie and his impact on life in Canada made him a very special Canadian.