Washington Capitals of the 1980s: Mike Ridley, Canadian university's best

Mike Ridley, the best player to come out
of the Canadian university system.
Source: https://novacapsfans.com/2018/04/06/
capitals-alumni-profile-mike-ridley/
(May be subject to copyright)

Most Canadian NHL players come through the draft either from the Canadian Junior leagues or the American college hockey teams.

Few make the NHL from the Canadian university system.

Mike Ridley did just that, defying the odds, and going on to a productive 12-season career recording 758 points that makes him the best Canadian university hockey player in NHL history.

Rookie sensation
Undrafted and unheralded, Mike Ridley played his hockey in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, then the University of Manitoba Bisons of the Great Plains Athletic Conference in the Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union. Not the biggest factories for future NHL talent.

The New York Rangers saw something in Ridley, signing him as an undrafted free agent in September of 1985. He would play 80 games in 1985-1986, his rookie season. In that time he scored 22 goals and added 43 assists for 65 points.

He was part of an interesting rookie class. Wendel Clark had been taken first overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1985 entry draft, but had a slow start. Meanwhile in Montreal, Swedish rookie Kjell Dahlin stormed out of the gate, filling the net for the Habs, and looked like a lock for rookie of the year. However, as Dahlin tailed off, Clark came on strong in the latter part of the season.

Over in Calgary, the Flames had a rookie sensation of their own, defenceman Gary Suter, who was turning in a solid campaign beginning to end.

Then, as rookie of the year speculation increased, a fourth name was thrown into the ring – Ranger rookie centre Mike Ridley. That was when I first heard of him, when he was being touted as a possible rookie of the year.

By season’s end, Clark had 34 goals and 11 assists for 45 points, in just 66 games. Dahlin had 32 goals and 39 assists in 77 games. Suter had 18 goals and 50 assists for 68 points on the point, and demonstrated an ability to play both ways.

By virtue of putting together a complete season, and excelling both defensively and offensively, Suter was named rookie of the year.

Yet, Ridley had shown he belonged in the NHL, being named to the NHL All-Rookie Team along with Clark, Dahlin, Suter, Patrick Roy and Dana Murzyn.

It was a sign of things to come for Ridley.

From Broadway to the Capitol
Ridley began his second season with the Rangers by scoring 16 goals and adding 20 assists for 36 points in 38 games, then everything changed.

He was traded on January 1, 1987 to the Washington Capitals along with Kelly Miller and Bob Crawford in exchange for Bobby Carpenter and a 1989 second round draft pick that turned out to be Jason Prosofsky. Bluelinstation.com named it third worst trade in Rangers history.

Ridley played 40 games for the Capitals that season, recording another 15 goals and 19 assists for 34 points. His season totals were 31 goals and 39 assists for 70 points in 78 games, an increase of five over his rookie season.

But now he was in Washington, where he would have his best seasons of the decade, and his career for that matter.

Capital scorer
In 1987-1988, his first full season with the Capitals, Mike Ridley had 28 goals and 31 assists for 59 points in 70 games.

He closed out the decade, in 1988-1989, with a career year notching 41 goals and 48 assists for 89 points. He was also named to the 1989 all-star game.

Ridley would only pass the 40-point mark one more time in his career as he began to develop back problems. He played with the Capitals until the end of the 1993-1994 season, then one year in Toronto and two seasons in Vancouver, where he scored the first ever goal in General Motors Place, the home of the Canucks. Initially, he was pencilled in to centre a line with Pavel Bure and the newly-acquired Alexander Mogilny, but his back problems just would not allow it.

After a season with the Manitoba Moose of the International Hockey League where his back problems did not got any better, Mike Ridley retired in 1998.

Parting thoughts
It was hard to find a lot of statistics on the number of players who started in Canadian university hockey before playing in the NHL. Oddly, the online trivia game Sporcle had a quiz asking, “Can you name the Canadian university hockey players who went on to play the most games in the NHL?”

Sitting at the top of that list was Mike Ridley with 866 games, followed by Steve Rucchin with 735 games, Stu Grimson with 729 games, Cory Cross with 659 games, Randy Gregg with 474 games, Joel Ward with 435 games, Brent Severyn with 328 games, and P.J. Stock with 235 games.

Looking deeper, Ridley is the top scorer in that group, by far, with 758 points. Rucchin is next with 489 points; then Ward with 304 points; Gregg with 193 points; Cross with 131 points; Severyn with 40 points; Grimson with 39 points; and Stock had 26 points.

Yet no one seems to know that. In fact, that stat is nowhere online that I could find.

Ridley’s background makes his career all the more remarkable. He truly hit his stride in the 1980s, having his best season during that decade.

Although he never played on a Stanley Cup winning team, he did prove that Canadian universities could produce quality NHL players.

And there was none better than Mike Ridley.