In The Hockey News' Money & Power 2022 issue, publisher and owner W. Graeme Roustan wrote about how Ken Dryden's advice changed how he viewed the 75th season of the publication.
Dryden, who passed away on Sept. 5 at 78, spoke with Roustan on a one-hour call ahead of The Hockey News' 75th anniversary. Here is that story.
Ken Dryden was a hero of mine growing up in Montreal in the 1970s, not only because he was a towering figure on the ice but because he was the example my father had set that education was as important as playing hockey.
I started out as a goalie but soon moved up to center because I learned quickly that scoring goals was way more fun than being scored on. I was always the tallest kid on my teams growing up, and I was always told that I would make it to the NHL just as 100,000 other kids are told the same thing each year. It was not too long after watching Dryden play in the 1972 Summit Series that I knew that I didn’t want to travel on buses for the next five years knowing the odds were not in my favor to play in the NHL. What I did know was that I had the fire in my belly for hockey, which only grew with time.
In the January 2021 Money & Power issue, my Last Word column was titled “An Amazing Life in Hockey,” and I went through some of the hundreds of great hockey experiences that have made the quality of my life so much better.
As soon as that issue was published, I started thinking about the 75th season of The Hockey News, which commenced on Oct. 1, 2021. Knowing that Dryden was born on Aug. 8, 1947, and that he had been interviewed dozens of times over the years by The Hockey News, I thought I would reach out to him through a mutual friend to see if I could get his thoughts on the upcoming 75th season and anniversary of The Hockey News. I thought that since he was also born in 1947, as was The Hockey News, that would be a cool angle for a story. Not surprisingly, he agreed.
What started out with me asking him some questions on his past 70-plus years and the game of hockey, he turned the tables on me and asked me the question: what is it you are trying to do? Stumbling along, I said, “Celebrate the past 75 years of The Hockey News.” After a long pause he said he would like to tell me a story.
He said that during his lifetime he has been a father, husband, politician, lawyer, author, director, speaker, teacher, business executive, sports media commentator and NHL goalie for nine years, which is a relatively small amount of time since he’s now in his early 70s. He has given hundreds of speeches over the years, and in the early years of giving speeches, he would take the stage where he wanted to talk about what he was doing then, like talking about his latest book or on the politics of the day, but at the end of his speeches, the crowd only politely clapped, which was noticeably different after having received an ovation when he first entered the room.
He soon realized that no matter what group he was speaking to, they really wanted to hear something about the nine-year period when he was a goalie in the NHL, and that all the way to the event, they were getting excited to see the goalie Ken Dryden first. That is how they primarily identified with him, and although that was the past that they wanted to hear about, he realized that he must address it before he could talk about the future, which is where he wanted to focus on. Once he opened with, “Hi, I am Ken Dryden, and I used to be a goalie in the NHL,” which always drew a roar, he could move on to the present and the future, which was what he was truly interested in.
He then offered to me the greatest advice I have received from anyone since I acquired The Hockey News four years ago.
He said, “Graeme, it’s fine to talk to your readers about the past 75 years of The Hockey News and some of the memorable moments because that’s what they expect, but spend more time talking about the future of The Hockey News and what the next 75 years will be like. There are only these few opportunities like a 25th-, 50th-, 75th- and 100th-year anniversary that provide the perfect platform to talk about the future. Don’t miss this once-in-your-lifetime opportunity.”
Dryden challenged me to focus less on the past and more on the future of The Hockey News, which was completely the opposite of the way I was heading into the conversation with him. I was actually going to ask him to chronicle his past experiences being interviewed in The Hockey News, and during a one-hour call he had completely turned me around and set me off in a better direction. Needless to say that this only reaffirmed my already overall attitude of looking forward in life and only learning with an occasional reminiscing of the past.
After that call in February 2021, I immediately began upgrading The Hockey News print magazine, starting with Vol. 75, Issue 1, which was the Ultimate Fantasy Pool Guide in August followed by Issue 2, the Yearbook, to this, Issue 9 and beyond. I added more and diverse contributors that cover a wider variety of hockey topics on more platforms. I find myself even more now constantly talking with subscribers, readers, employees, contributors, sponsors, NHL executives, owners and players about the current state and future of The Hockey News.
Ken Dryden was a hero of mine as a kid in 1972 as I cheered for him and my hometown team as they won all those Stanley Cups. I could have never imagined as a kid back then that in 2021 the bigger-than-life Dryden would spend some of his time impressing upon me the valuable life lesson we all should embrace that while it is important to acknowledge the past, it is far more important to look to the future.
Thank you, Ken, for the fond memories that I still have from 50 years ago and for your guidance for The Hockey News as it begins its next 75 years.