It would be wrong to suggest that Ron Duguay brought the Detroit Red Wings back from the Dead Wings era into prominence. However, he certainly was among the early contributors to the rise of the franchise.
That, in itself, is somewhat remarkable, considering that originally, Duguay wanted nothing to do with Detroit.
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Duguay, who died Thursday at the age of 69 following a long bout with cancer, certainly took more than his fair share of bites out of the Big Apple while playing for the New York Rangers. Along with playing a starring role on the ice for the Broadway Blueshirts, Duguay was also skating on the top line in New York’s nightlife.
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He dated Cher and Cheryl Tiegs. Duguay operated Sticks, a popular bistro on Manhattan’s East Side, which he co-owned with Rangers teammates Ron Greschner and Phil Esposito.
Leaving New York was the last thing Duguay sought to do. So when he was dealt to the Red Wings in a six-player swap in 1983, he was devastated.
“I don’t see much future in Detroit,” Duguay told writer Joe Lapointe at the time of the trade. “They’re not a contender.
They haven’t had much success in the [recent] past.
“I really don’t know much about Detroit. I know the team never had much success.
It was real disorganized, but that was before they got the new management.”
Duguay Sparked Red Wings Turnaround
After originally questioning whether he’d play for the Red Wings, Duguay showed up in Detroit. And then he showed out.
Duguay contributed 33 goals and 80 points in 1983-84, his first season with the Red Wings. More importantly, Detroit made the playoffs for the first time since the 1977-78 campaign.
“He sure could score some,” remembered Red Wings senior vice-president Jim Devellano, who made the trade to acquire Duguay.
“That same draft year [1983], we took Steve Yzerman in the first round. We thought if we were going to put an 18-year-old kid in the NHL – which we were going to do – we needed to surround him with some talent.”
The Red Wings put John Ogrodnick and Duguay on Yzerman’s wings, and the unit clicked.
“Duguay turned out to be a good fit on the right side,” Devellano said. “It gave us a really good scoring line.”
He followed with a career-high 89 points in 1984-85, and the Red Wings were again a playoff club.
Tom Laidlaw, who played alongside Duguay on the Rangers, thinks Duguay’s playboy lifestyle was overblown.
“The perception was that he was at Studio 54 all the time, but his teammates saw him as a good teammate,” Laidlaw said. “He was a physical player who would fight and score goals.”
If Duguay had a fault, it was that he didn’t like people telling him what to do. Laidlaw recalled that Rangers coach Herb Brooks had a rule that everyone had to be at the rink 45 minutes before practice time, or they would pay a $50 fine.
Duguay wrote out a check for $500 to pay the fines in advance and told the team to let him know when he’d used up the funds, so he could write another check.
“He played as hard as anyone,” Laidlaw said. “But he liked to do things his way.
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Devellano echoed those sentiments.
“He was very upbeat and a good guy,” Devellano said. “But he was also a real carefree guy.”
By Bob Duff
Bob Duff has worked in the sports media industry since 1984 and covered the Red Wings since 1988. As.
