Montreal Canadiens Legend Patrick Roy was born on October 5, 1965 in Quebec City, Quebec but grew up in Cap-Rouge, Quebec. His playing career was from 1984 to 2003. He is a former goaltender and the former Head Coach and Vice President of hockey operations for the Colorado Avalanche. Roy split his playing career in the NHL between Montreal (played 10 years) and Colorado (8 years). He won four Stanley Cups, two with each team.
Roy was drafted in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft by the Montreal Canadiens, which he didn’t care for (he was a fan of the Quebec Nordiques). His Grandmother was a huge Canadiens fan but she passed away before seeing her Grandson being drafted. He made his NHL debut February 23, 1985 by replacing the Canadiens starting goaltender in the third period. Roy played for twenty minutes and earned his first NHL win without allowing a goal.
In the following season, Roy played regularly for the Canadiens. During the regular season, he played 47 games and won the starting job for the Stanley Cup playoffs where he was a star and led the team to an unexpected Stanley Cup title and winning the Conn Smythe Trophy (most valuable player in playoffs) for himself. Since he was 20 years old, Roy became the youngest winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy ever and was chosen for the NHL All-Rookie Team. Roy was nicknames “St. Patrick” after this victory.
Roy was regarded one of the greatest goaltenders of all time. Roy is widely credited with popularizing the butterfly style of goaltending. The butterfly style is when the goaltender guards the lower part of the net by dropping to his knees to block the goal. The spread goal pads and hands resemble a butterfly’s wings. This method has become the dominant style around the world.
In the 1995 – 1996 season, Roy was traded to Colorado after an incident between Roy and Montreal’s new Head Coach, Mario Tremblay. Roy’s final game with the Avalanche was played on April 22, 2003.
Roy was selected as Team Canada’s starting goaltender for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. He played all six games, but Canada was unable to win a medal after a loss to the Czech Republic in the semi-final. Czech’s beat Canada 1-0 in a tiebreaker shootout.
After retiring from NHL, Roy became the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL (Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) Vice President of hockey operations; also became the owner and General Manager, and on September 29, 2005, named Head Coach of the team.
In September 2012, he became a hockey analyst on the French-Canadian hockey talk show l’Antichambre.
On May 23, 2013, Roy was named Head Coach and Vice President of hockey operations of the Colorado Avalanche.
On November 13, 2006 Roy was inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He is the only player in NHL history to win the Conn Smythe Trophy three times, the only one to do it in different decades, and the only one to do it for two different teams. Roy’s number 33 jersey was retired by both the Canadiens and the Avalanche.
On August 11, 2016 Roy stepped down as the Head Coach and Vice President of hockey operations for the Avalanche.
Some NHL Records held by Patrick Roy are:
- Most NHL playoff games played by a goaltender (247)
- Most NHL playoff wins by a goaltender (151)
- First NHL goaltender to play 1,000 NHL games (finished with 1,029 games)
- First NHL goaltender to win 500 games
Have a look in our shop for a nice collection of Patrick Roy Memorabilia.
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