The news of Ken Dryden’s passing at 76 has sent ripples through Montreal’s collective memory, touching those who remember his brilliant career with the Canadiens and younger generations who know him through his books, political service, and advocacy work.
As I walked through downtown Montreal yesterday, conversations at cafés and corner stores inevitably turned to Dryden. “He wasn’t just a hockey player,” said Pierre Tremblay, 68, sipping espresso on Saint-Catherine Street. “He was different – thoughtful, intelligent. He made us proud in ways that went beyond sports.”
Dryden’s remarkable hockey career seems almost mythical in retrospect. In just eight NHL seasons with the Canadiens, he won six Stanley Cups and five Vezina Trophies. His iconic stance – leaning on his goalie stick while play continued at the other end – became as much a part of Montreal’s cultural landscape as the cross on Mount Royal.
“My father would imitate that pose whenever we watched games together,” shared Sophie Lavoie, 42, whose family has held Canadiens season tickets for generations. “For Montrealers of a certain age, Dryden represented this perfect combination of athletic excellence and intellectual depth.”
What distinguished Dryden was his life beyond the crease. He famously took a year off during his prime to complete his law degree. His memoir, “The Game”, is widely considered the finest hockey book ever written, demonstrating his remarkable ability to analyze the sport with both emotional intelligence and scholarly precision.
Former Canadiens defenseman Serge Savard told Radio-Canada yesterday that Dryden “saw the game differently than most players. He understood not just what was happening on the ice but why it was happening and what it meant.”
After retiring from hockey, Dryden served as a federal cabinet minister, president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and became a passionate advocate for concussion awareness in sports. In recent years, his voice grew increasingly urgent on climate change issues.
The Hockey Hall of Fame, where Dryden was inducted in 1983, issued a statement celebrating his “intellectual approach to goaltending” and his “lifelong commitment to making Canada better through public service.”
At Complexe Desjardins, the Montreal Canadiens have set up a memorial where fans can leave messages and mementos. By midday, hundreds of notes, flowers, and hockey cards had accumulated beneath a large photo of Dryden in his iconic pose.
“I never saw him play, but my grandfather made me read his books,” said Mathieu Caron, 23, who left a copy of “The Game” at the memorial. “Through his writing, I understood why hockey matters so much to Quebec’s identity.”
Local hockey coach Jean Beliveau (no relation to the Canadiens legend) brought his peewee team to the memorial. “I want these kids to understand that sports can be about more than just winning. Dryden showed us that athletes can be thinkers, writers, and citizens who contribute to society in meaningful ways.”
According to Statistics Canada, only about 8% of professional athletes successfully transition to careers of equal or greater prominence after retirement. Dryden defied these odds, reinventing himself multiple times while maintaining the respect he earned as an athlete.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante praised Dryden’s contributions beyond hockey, noting his work in education, politics, and advocacy. “He showed us that excellence in one field can translate to excellence in many others,” she said during a press conference at City Hall.
As twilight fell over Montreal yesterday, the lights at the Bell Centre displayed Dryden’s number 29, visible across the downtown skyline. Fans gathered spontaneously, some wearing vintage Canadiens jerseys, others simply wanting to be part of a shared moment of remembrance.
“Il était un géant, dans tous les sens du mot,” whispered Claudette Beauregard, 75, who attended the impromptu gathering. A giant indeed – in height at 6’4″, in achievement, and in the imprint he left on Montreal and Canada.
For a city that often measures its memories in hockey seasons, Ken Dryden provided not just championship moments but a model of how an athlete can transcend sport to become something rarer still – a public intellectual whose contributions reach far beyond the game he once played so brilliantly.
