John Davidson

John Arthur Davidson (born February 27, 1953) is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and former player. He is the current president of the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL). As a player, he played for the St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers in the NHL. He is also well known as a long-time hockey broadcaster. On June 4, 2009, it was announced that Davidson would be honored by the Hockey Hall of Fame with the 2009 Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for his contributions to broadcasting.

Playing career
Growing up in western Canada, he played his junior hockey in Calgary, Alberta. He was drafted fifth overall in 1973, and became the first goalie in NHL history to jump directly from major junior to the NHL.

St. Louis Blues
Davidson stepped right into the NHL and split duties with veteran Wayne Stephenson during his rookie year and posted slightly better numbers. Just before the start of Davidson's second season in the league, the Blues dealt Stephenson to the Philadelphia Flyers making Davidson the Blues starting goaltender. Davidson played forty games for the Blues but his goals against average rose from an impressive 3.08 as a rookie all the way up to 3.66 in his second year. That summer, the Blues packaged up Davidson with Bill Collins and shipped him to the New York Rangers for Jerry Butler, Ted Irvine and Bert Wilson

New York Rangers
In New York, Davidson would share the crease with Hall of Fame Ed Giacomin who had tended goal for the Rangers for the ten previous seasons. However, early in the year, the Rangers shocked their fans by placing Giacomin on waivers where he was claimed by the Detroit Red Wings and making Davidson the undisputed starting goaltender for the team. JD - as he was known - played a career-high 56 games for New York that year, a number that would never really be challenged due to a string of injury issues over the years to come. He is perhaps best remembered as a player for leading the Rangers to the 1979 Stanley Cup Finals on an injured left knee. His jersey numbers were 35, 00 and 30. Davidson was the first, and one of only two, NHL players to wear the number 00; after Martin Biron briefly wore the number in 1995, the league banned the use of the number.

Davidson was the inspiration for the song "Double Vision" from 1978's album Double Vision by Foreigner. Members of the band who were Rangers fans were watching a Stanley Cup Playoff game between Davidson's New York Rangers and the Buffalo Sabres. Davidson was shaken up when a shot hit his goalie mask. As he was recovering, announcers Jim Gordon and Bill Chadwick said Davidson was suffering from "Double Vision."

Broadcasting career
After retiring due to injury, he joined MSG's hockey coverage staff in 1983, and was the color commentator for Rangers games from 1986–87 to 2005–06. Davidson, often known by the nickname "J.D.", became one of the most prominent color commentators in the sport, and his hockey insight is so well respected that he currently sits on the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee. Long-time network TV partner Mike Emrick also sits on that committee, and the two shared the 2004 Lester Patrick Trophy for service to hockey in the U.S.

Davidson (like his former MSG Network booth-mates Sam Rosen and Al Trautwig) has also contributed to NHL coverage on various national television networks (including CBC, Fox, ABC, ESPN, NBC, SportsChannel America, and Global). Davidson served as the lead color commentator, partnering with play-by-play announcer Mike Emrick, for the NHL on Fox from 1994–1999 and again for the NHL on NBC from 2005–2006. Eddie Olczyk, a studio analyst, would take over the color commentator position in the 2006–2007 season after Davidson left broadcasting to take over as President of the St. Louis Blues.

The following timeline is a list of all season-long hockey coverage he has done, such as in-game commentary and post-game analysis shows. It does not include special events such as the Winter Olympics or Canada Cup. Davidson was known as a broadcaster for his signature phrase of "Oh, baby!" He was also featured in full motion videos shot for the EA Sports video game NHL 97.

Davidson co-authored the book Hockey for Dummies with sportswriter John Steinbreder.

Executive career
Davidson was named president of the St. Louis Blues on June 30, 2006. He left the Blues after agreeing to a buyout of his contract on October 9, 2012. He was then named president of the Columbus Blue Jackets on October 24, 2012, and held this position until his resignation on May 17, 2019.

On May 17, 2019, Davidson was named as president of the New York Rangers.

Playing

 * Alberta Junior Hockey League – MVP (1970–71)
 * Alberta Junior Hockey League – Best goalie (1970–71)
 * Alberta Junior Hockey League – Second team All-Star (1970–71)
 * Western Hockey League – MVP (1971–72)
 * Western Hockey League – Del Wilson Trophy as best goalie (1971–72)
 * Western Hockey League – First team All-Star (1971–73)
 * In the 2009 book 100 Ranger Greats, was ranked No. 56 all-time of the 901 New York Rangers who had played during the team's first 82 seasons

Broadcasting

 * CableACE – "Outstanding Live Event Coverage" (1994)
 * New York Emmy – "Outstanding On-Camera Achievement" (1995, 2001)
 * Lester Patrick Trophy – "Contribution to American hockey" (2004)
 * Foster Hewitt Memorial Award; Hockey Hall Of Fame (2009)

Career statistics
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