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Pat Hickey
Former Red Wings captain played in NHL and WHA A former Hamilton Red Wings player who went on to play several years in both the NHL and WHA, Pat Hickey started his career with the team he hated. “We grew to hate Hamilton and Kitchener. They were our most bitter rivals,” said the Brantford-born Hickey in a 1972 interview. But when he was picked in the 1969 Midget draft, he was ready
to head east to Hamilton. The six-foot, 178-pound right winger took over as captain of the Red Wings after the start of the third season in 1972. Always a solid playmaker and scorer, Hickey amassed 32 goals in his 61-game 1972-73 season. He has also graduated from Cathedral High School earlier in the 1972 season, and was in his first year at McMaster University.
The call came in May of 1973 when Hickey was one of six Red Wings chosen in the NHL Junior draft. He was a second round choice by the NY Rangers. “I was really surprised,” Hickey said at the time in an interview. “I didn’t expect to go before the third round when we didn’t make the playoffs. I expect to go to New York but I’ll take Providence or Omaha.” Well, Hickey didn’t enter into the Ranger organization, signing with the newly-formed Toronto Toros of the WHA. Hickey believed he could get in on the big-league play right away rather than wait it out in junior play. And although he was only 20 when he started with Toronto, he matured and excelled into a good player, and popular among the fans. Hickey was one of the fastest skaters on the ice, thrilled the fans with his speed, and provided a lot of excitement for the new team. He scored 26 goals in his 1973-74 year with the Toros, and 35 goals in his next and final season with the team. Hickey then went to play for the Rangers, who stilled owned his NHL rights, and could pay him more money than the Toros. For the first two seasons in the Big Apple of 1975-76 and 1976-77, Hickey picked up 37 goals, but it was in the 1977-78 season that he really showed his stuff, scoring 40 goals. The 24-year old said he enjoyed living and working in the largest city in the United States, relishing in the large city atmosphere and media frenzy. “I’m a better hockey player because of it,” Hickey said about his time in New York in a January 1978 interview. “I’m more spiritually aware of myself and my surroundings because this city’s so exciting. It’s out there for me and I’m mentally strong enough to handle it day-to-day.” Hickey was the NHL’s leading goal scorer at the time. After only seven games with the Rangers in the 1979-80 season, Hickey went west to play with the Colorado Rockies, but after only two dozen games, was traded once again, this time to the other major Toronto hockey club, the Maple Leafs. His play in Toronto was revived somewhat, but nothing like his frenzied pace with the Rangers of previous years. For the 1981-82 season, he played for Toronto, the New York Rangers, and then the Quebec Nordiques. A year later he was traded to the Saint Louis Blues, putting up some modest numbers for the next, and final three seasons of his NHL career. After his three-trades-in-one-season year of 1981-82, Hickey started to prepare for his future in the business world, and while in New York City began to work on a career in finance that would eventually see him back in Hamilton, and in a hockey capacity. For Hickey’s return to Hamilton, read about his tenure with
the Hamilton Canucks in the “Flights of Fancy” series
in the Hockey History section.
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