Adding Hart Trophy Winners Always a Positive For Red Wings

Will Patrick Kane be joining the Detroit Red Wings? At this stage, such talk is nothing more than mere speculation. However, what is known is this – when the Red Wings are adding a player who won the Hart Trophy with another NHL club, it’s always a move leading to happy endings in Hockeytown.

Kane was the Hart Trophy winner with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015-16. Published reports are indicating that he would have some interest in reuniting with his old Chicago teammate Alex DeBrincat in Detroit. Will it happen? Who knows?

What is certain is that on three previous occasions, the Red Wings were adding a past Hart Trophy winner from another team to their lineup. And in each instance, those additions were leading to Stanley Cup final appearances for Detroit.

Bathgate Was A Red Wings Record Setter

Right-winger Andy Bathgate was the Hart Trophy winner with the 1958-59 New York Rangers. Like Kane, Bathgate was also the scorer of a Stanley Cup-winning goal. His addition from the Toronto Maple Leafs came via trade prior to the 1965-66 season.

Bathgate put up respectable regular-season numbers of 15-32-47 in 70 games for Detroit during that campaign. However, he really would ignite in the playoffs as the fourth-place Red Wings made a surprising run to the Stanley Cup final.

#ClipTrip

You think using 5 forwards on the Power Play is a flawed strategy that breaks from tradition? Well, here are the Red Wings using 5 forwards in Game 6 of the 1966 Cup Finals. Norm Ullman, Alex Delvecchio, Gordie Howe, Andy Bathgate & Dean Prentice. Wonder what happens? pic.twitter.com/BrDgUw5Oqk

— The Hockey Samurai 侍 (@hockey_samurai) July 28, 2022

Upsetting Chicago in the semifinals, Bathgate scored five goals – all of them on the power play. That remains a club record for a playoff series, as does his six power-play markers during the postseason that spring as the Wings lost the final series to Montreal in six games.

Brett Was A Hull Of An Addition

The 1990-91 Hart Trophy winner with the St. Louis Blues, right-winger Brett Hull also scored a Cup winner for the Dallas Stars. Signing with Detroit as a UFA in August of 2001, he became the final piece of the all-star puzzle that was the 2001-02 Cup champion Red Wings.

Hull was a 30-goal scorer during the regular season. He would add another 10 tallies in the playoffs as Detroit won the Cup.

Hasek Doubled Down On Detroit Stanley Cups

One of the best trades in Red Wings history was the summer 2001 deal landing six-time Vezina Trophy winner Dominik Hasek from the Buffalo Sabres. Winner of back-to-back Harts with the Sabres in 1996-97 and 1997-98, The Dominator would live up to that billing with Detroit.

On this day in 2002, @DetroitRedWings' Dominik Hasek set a single-year playoff record with his fifth shutout, as the Red Wings advanced to the Stanley Cup Final with a 7-0 victory over the Avs in Game 7 #Hockey365 #LGRW pic.twitter.com/NhvzT7kTXc

— Mike Commito (@mikecommito) May 31, 2023

During the 2001-02 playoffs Hasek would post a playoff-record six shutouts in backstopping the Red Wings to the Cup. Down 3-2 to Colorado in the Western Conference final, Hasek hung up successive zeroes in Games 6 and 7.

He would add a second Cup title with the Wings in 2007-08, sharing the netminding duties with Chris Osgood.