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Rick Middleton
Rickmiddleton
Position Right Wing
Shoots Right
Nickname(s) Nifty
Height
Weight
5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
175 lb (80 kg)
Teams New York Rangers
Boston Bruins
Nationality Flag of Canada Canadian
Born December 4,1953,
Toronto, ON, CAN
NHL Draft 14th overall, 1973
New York Rangers
Pro Career 1974 – 1988


Richard (Rick) Middleton (born December 4, 1953, in Toronto, Ontario) is a former professional player for the NHL New York Rangers and Boston Bruins.

A right wing, Middleton was drafted in the 1st round, 14th overall, by the Rangers in the 1973 NHL Amateur Draft after a glittering junior hockey career with the Oshawa Generals in which he led his league in scoring his final year and was named to the league's Second All-Star Team. He spent the 1973–74 season with the Rangers' farm team, the AHL Providence Reds, earning rookie of the year honors and being named to the AHL's First All-Star Team.

He made the big club during the 1974–75 season, and despite suffering injuries that restricted him to 47 games, scored 22 goals in that limited time. The following season was not as spectacular, as he scored 24 goals in 77 games while showing defensive deficiencies. Following the 1975–76 season, the Rangers traded Middleton to the Boston Bruins for veteran winger Ken Hodge.

It was one of the most one-sided deals in hockey history. Hodge played only a single season more before his career ended, while Middleton became a great star in Boston, scoring a hat trick in his first game as a Bruin and nearly nine hundred points in a Bruins uniform over the next twelve years. Generally paired with centre Barry Pederson, "Nifty" had five straight seasons of at least forty goals and ninety points and led the Bruins to perennial glittering records. His leadership was apparent in being named co-captain (with Ray Bourque) to succeed Terry O'Reilly in 1985, a position he held until he retired.

His best season was the 1981–82 season, during which Middleton scored a career high 51 goals, won the Lady Byng Trophy for excellence and sportsmanship, and was named to the NHL's Second All-Star Team. The following season he led the Bruins to the league's best regular season record, and set still unbroken records that year for the most points scored in the playoffs by a player not advancing to the finals (33) and for a single playoff series (19, in the quarterfinals against Buffalo). His 105 points in the 1983–84 season tied Ken Hodge's team record for most points scored in a season by a right winger, and remains unbroken.

Middleton also starred in international play, being named to play for Team Canada in the Canada Cup in 1981 and 1984. Teamed on a line with Wayne Gretzky and Michel Goulet in the 1984 series, he scored four goals and four assists in seven games.

Middleton played in the NHL All-Star Game in 1981, 1982 and 1984. He retired with 448 goals and 540 assists for 988 points in 1005 games, and added 100 points in 114 playoff games.


Career statistics[]

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1971–72 Oshawa Generals OHA 53 36 34 70 24 12 5 5 10 2
1972–73 Oshawa Generals OHL 62 67 70 137 14
1973–74 Providence Reds AHL 63 36 48 84 14 15 9 6 15 2
1974–75 New York Rangers NHL 47 22 18 40 19 3 0 0 0 2
1975–76 New York Rangers NHL 77 24 26 50 14
1976–77 Boston Bruins NHL 72 20 22 42 2 13 5 4 9 0
1977–78 Boston Bruins NHL 79 25 35 60 8 15 5 2 7 0
1978–79 Boston Bruins NHL 71 38 48 86 7 11 4 8 12 0
1979–80 Boston Bruins NHL 80 40 52 92 24 10 4 2 6 5
1980–81 Boston Bruins NHL 80 44 59 103 16 3 0 1 1 2
1981–82 Boston Bruins NHL 75 51 43 94 12 11 6 9 15 0
1982–83 Boston Bruins NHL 80 49 47 96 8 17 11 22 33 6
1983–84 Boston Bruins NHL 80 47 58 105 14 3 0 0 0 0
1984–85 Boston Bruins NHL 80 30 46 76 6 5 3 0 3 0
1985–86 Boston Bruins NHL 49 14 30 44 10
1986–87 Boston Bruins NHL 76 31 37 68 6 4 2 2 4 0
1987–88 Boston Bruins NHL 59 13 19 32 11 19 5 5 10 4
OHA totals 115 103 104 207 38 12 5 5 10 2
NHL totals 1005 448 540 988 157 114 45 55 100 19

External links[]

Preceded by
Terry O'Reilly
Boston Bruins captains
1985-88, with Ray Bourque
Succeeded by
Ray Bourque
Preceded by
Rick Kehoe
Winner of the Lady Byng Trophy
1982
Succeeded by
Mike Bossy


Boston Bruins Captains
Cleghorn | Hitchman | Owen | Clapper | Barry | Stewart | Shore | Weiland | Clapper | Cowley | Crawford | Bauer | Schmidt | Sandford | Flaman | McKenney | Boivin | Bucyk | Cashman | O'Reilly | Middleton | Bourque | Allison | Thornton | Chára | Bergeron


This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Rick Middleton. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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