‘A good time’ for Gainey to part with mementos
Canadiens legend auctioning off jerseys, Cup rings, trophies, but not first goal puck
Bob Gainey said he never wore his Stanley Cup rings in public — and he accumulated many during his career. The sweaters he retained over the years remained in boxes, gathering dust. He didn’t even hang mementos on the walls of his home.
“It felt to me like a good time to move forward, address one of the areas in my life that were going to be addressed at some point,” Gainey said Wednesday while participating in a video conference call with Marc Juteau, the president of classicauctions.net.
Since last Monday, 66 items Gainey has collected have been available online to the highest bidders through Juteau’s Delson-based company. Juteau called it a “very diversified” collection, offering a bit of everything.
Juteau said the bidding already has raised close to US$90,000, adding that total easily could double before the auction closes on June 16. Gainey will donate part of the proceeds to the Canadiens Children’s Foundation.
There are Stanley Cup rings and trophies, as well as jerseys Gainey wore with the Canadiens, and while playing in the Canada Cup and the 1977 NHL All-star Game. Considered one of the game’s best defensive forwards, Gainey was the first winner of the Selke Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL’S best defensive forward. He captured it four consecutive seasons, starting in 1978.
He also won four consecutive Cups with the Canadiens, starting in 1976, and five in total — the last as a player in ’86 after he had replaced Serge Savard as captain. His playing career, from 1973-89, totalled 1,160 regular-season games. Gainey scored 239 goals and had 501 points.
The Canadiens retired his jersey in 2008. Gainey was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1992.
“There’s examples of these kinds of collections creating problems for families down the road,” said Gainey, a youthful-looking 66. “Just digging things out one more time to repack them and put them back in a closet? It struck me as a good opportunity to take a hard look at it and make some decisions.”
Those decisions, Gainey said, took slightly more than a year to address. Over time, he has donated items to the Hockey Hall of Fame as well as the hall in his hometown of Peterborough, Ont.
He hesitated to relinquish some trinkets, retaining the puck he used to score his first NHL goal, in November 1973, against Cesare Maniago. Some of the donated items, he explained, aren’t from his personal collection. For example, there’s a pair of leggings worn by goaltender Patrick Roy that were presented to Gainey’s son, Steven.
“It was the idea of moving ahead and addressing this. Addressing it myself,” Gainey explained. “I have more of a history of trying to do things early rather than late. Whether it’s leaving a coaching position or manager’s position. Whatever it might be, I prefer to do things when I have control of them.”
Gainey never has been one to sing the praises of his career. But he said he was at his best from 1975-82, when the Canadiens were a dominant club. The 197677 team, in particular, might be considered the league’s strongest in history. They set an NHL record for most points in a season, with 132, losing only eight times over 80 games.
“Each of the different things (donated) ... touches a part of my gradual growth in the 1970s as a player,” he said. “Winning my first Stanley Cup in 1976, being awarded the Selke Trophy. Being honoured to play in the NHL all-star game. They’re really markers for me that I was able to continue to grow and participate with the best players in the league on a terrific team.
“Those were my greatest years. These (awards and championships) are the markers that tell me those were good years.”
Gainey said he has been living at his home, north of Peterborough, throughout the pandemic.
“It’s been a long time to be there, but it’s a great place to avoid the chaos and the difficulty people have had to endure in more populated areas,” he said. “I’m fortunate that it’s been a safe place.”
Upon retirement, Gainey became a player/coach in France before returning to the NHL in a front-office capacity, first with Minnesota/dallas and then with the Canadiens. The Stars won the Cup with Gainey as general manager in 1999. Gainey was Montreal’s GM from 2003-10 and was interim head coach after the firings of Claude Julien and Guy Carbonneau.
Gainey resigned as GM in 2010, but remained with the team as a consultant until the end of the 2012 season. He remains a consultant for the St. Louis Blues and a volunteer senior adviser with the junior Peterborough Petes.
There’s examples of these kinds of collections creating problems for families down the road.