New York – was 30 and already a five-time Stanley Cup champion when it was time to leave the hometown Edmonton Oilers.
That was the summer of 1991, three years after Wayne Gretzky’s stunning trade to the Los Angeles Kings and a year removed from the Oilers’ fifth title in seven years. The dynasty was over and Messier was the latest big star about to be shipped out.
Glen Sather, the man who built the team and ran it from the bench during the glory years, asked Messier where he wanted to go.
The answer was the New York Rangers, a team that hadn’t won a Stanley Cup since 1940.
On Monday, the stone-jawed captain said goodbye, announcing his retirement after a 25-year career and six championships – including the one in 1994 that ended the Rangers’ drought. He is second only to Gretzky on the NHL’s career scoring list.
It took only three seasons for Messier to deliver with the Rangers and cement himself as one of the greatest leaders in team sports.
“I knew all the past history of the teams in New York … but I don’t think anything can really prepare you for going to play in New York until you get there,” Messier said. “I felt that I was fairly confident in what it took to win a Stanley Cup.”
Messier embraced the challenge, and when it appeared another chance was going to slip away he pulled a page out of the Joe Namath handbook and guaranteed a victory.
With the Rangers trailing the New Jersey Devils 3-2 in the 1994 Eastern Conference finals, Messier promised New York would force a seventh game. He made good on his word by posting his fourth and final playoff hat trick in a 4-2 victory. New York won Game 7 in double overtime to advance to the finals, which ended with a seventh-game victory over the Vancouver Canucks.
Messier became a star in Edmonton in the 1980s and a headliner on Broadway in the 1990s. But his final seven seasons all finished without a postseason appearance – three in Vancouver after his first departure from New York and four more in his second stint with the Rangers.
“That is something that is always going to be a disappointment for me but I think there are so many good things that happened in the playoffs previous to that that it will diminish those feelings,” Messier said.
Messier, the only player to captain two franchises to the Stanley Cup, leaves with 1,887 NHL regular-season points, 970 fewer than Gretzky and 37 more than third-place Gordie Howe.
On Jan. 12, exactly 37 years after Namath fulfilled his promise and lifted the New York Jets in the Super Bowl over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, the Rangers will retire Messier’s No. 11 before a game against the Oilers. It will join Rod Gilbert’s No. 7, Ed Giacomin’s No. 1 and teammate Mike Richter’s No. 35.
“He was an exceptional leader who was unselfish, hard-working and dedicated. He truly loved the game,” Gretzky said. “He was the best player I ever played with.”
