Ron Duguay, the Rangers' Free-Spirited Star of the '79 Run, Dies at 69
Ron Duguay, whose flowing hair, breakaway speed and unmistakable charisma made him one of the most beloved Rangers of his era, died Thursday after a battle with Stage 4 colon cancer. He was 69.
The Rangers announced his passing after his family informed the team. Duguay had been diagnosed in 2024; the cancer spread to his liver, and he fought it for more than a year, through surgeries and treatments, with the same stubborn energy he once brought to the Madison Square Garden ice.
"Ron's signature skating style — with his hair flowing as he moved down the ice — captivated The Garden Faithful, and his skill, tenacity, and charisma earned him the admiration of all New Yorkers," the Rangers said in a statement.
He arrived as a can't-miss kid. Born July 6, 1957, in Sudbury, Ontario, Duguay starred for his hometown Sudbury Wolves — 134 points in 1975–76, his sweater later retired — and won silver with Canada at the 1977 World Juniors. Winnipeg had taken him third overall in the 1976 WHA draft, but he chose the NHL, and the Rangers took him 13th overall in 1977. He scored 20 goals as a rookie, and New York had its matinee idol: a 6-foot-2 winger who flew down the wing with that mane streaming behind him, as much a part of the city's nightlife pages as its sports pages.
Then came the spring that defined him. The 1978–79 Rangers, Fred Shero's underdogs, rode an unforgettable run to the Stanley Cup Final before falling to Montreal in five games. Nearly thirty years later, when Duguay sat down with me on SPORTSTALKNY, I asked him for his fondest memory of playing for the Rangers. He didn't hesitate:
"Probably that one year, in that series, and going to the finals, just the excitement that the fans created. We didn't expect to go to the finals, and the type of players that we had on our team — we all got along. We all really cared for each other. We enjoyed being with each other. And that whole season was a year of just — I can write a book for every month of that season."
He was just as candid about how that Final ended. Phil Esposito had long maintained that Shero's great mistake was letting the team loose in Montreal. Duguay, laughing, pleaded guilty:
"He was probably right, because I can remember the first night — and I shouldn't admit this — but our first night, our first game, we beat Montreal in Montreal. And I can remember rolling in the next day at six o'clock in the morning… We needed to pull back, but a lot of us didn't. We were just happy having a good old time, and it eventually hurt us. So I agree with Phil Esposito, and I was one of them that was out partying. By the way, I became a very good dancer though."
The highlights kept coming. On April 6, 1980, he scored nine seconds into a game against Philadelphia — still tied for the fastest goal from the start of a game in Rangers history. In 1981–82 he put together his finest season: 40 goals, tops on the team, a point-a-game pace, a berth in the NHL All-Star Game, and a spot on Canada's 1981 Canada Cup roster.
The 1983 trade to Detroit shook him — and, by his own account, saved him. "I was everything that you'd read about," he told me. "I was having a good time, burning that candle both ends. And it wasn't until I got traded that kind of shook me up. And I went to Detroit and I decided I'd make some changes in my life." He changed his diet, his sleep, his drinking. "You can make a difference on how you age by the things that you do, the choices that you make," he said. "I like to think that I've slowed down the aging process." At 51, he could joke that he could still barely fit into the famous Sassoon jeans — "I'm probably seven pounds heavier than I was when I was 20 years old."
Duguay came home to the Rangers from 1986 to 1988, and his 12 NHL seasons — New York, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles — closed with 274 goals and 620 points in 860 games. As a Ranger, he totaled 164 goals and 340 points in 499 games. A second career followed behind the microphone: 12 years as a Rangers analyst on MSG Network, and four seasons coaching in the minor leagues, where his philosophy said everything about the man: "I treated my players the way I wanted to be treated. I wasn't a yeller. I wasn't a screamer."
But the truest measure of Ron Duguay is what he was doing the week I interviewed him in March 2009. At 51, he was about to become one of the oldest men ever to play a professional game — suiting up that weekend for two different minor-league teams, Brooklyn on Saturday and New Jersey on Sunday, at the lowest rung of pro hockey. He wanted no spotlight for it:
"I don't want this to be about me, but I would like to use this as an opportunity to raise money for Garden of Dreams, which I do a lot of work for."
He kept skating for the alumni, appearing at the 2012 Winter Classic alumni game, and he gave his time and his memories generously. When Howie Karpin and I were writing Before 94: The Story of the 1978–79 New York Rangers, I spoke with Ron at length about that magical Stanley Cup run — Fred Shero's underdogs storming past Philadelphia and the Islanders to the Final — and his firsthand accounts are woven through the book, alongside those of Phil Esposito, the Maloney brothers, John Davidson and the rest of that unforgettable team. On the Garden ice, he once said, "As soon as I stepped on the ice, I could feel the energy. You then become more than a hockey player. You become an artist."
His girlfriend, Sarah Palin, wrote Thursday: "It's with a shattered heart but also deep peace knowing Ron is with Jesus now. He fought so hard. Love never ends."
The hair, the speed, the smile — and underneath it all, a hardworking winger who, as he put it himself, got his goals "just from working hard and going to the net." The Garden Faithful will not forget him.
Below: our complete SPORTSTALKNY interview with Ron Duguay from March 31, 2009, with A.J. Carter — Duguay weeks before his 52nd birthday, still playing, raising money for Garden of Dreams, and remembering 1979. The interview audio accompanies this post.
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