Rick Middleton

Lore & Background

Middleton was born in Toronto, Canada on Dec 4, 1953 to his parents Terry & Dick Middleton. He began skating at 4 years old when his dad froze a small rink in the backyard and the older boys would take him on the ice so they could skate. He would start playing organized hockey when he was 6 years old along with playing street hockey with his neighbors. As a youth, Middleton played in the 1966 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a minor ice hockey team from Wexford, Toronto.

Middleton’s family were very supportive of his hockey pursuits; his father who was a printer by trade would print flags that would say 'Go Wexford Go' for the parents to wave at games. Middleton continued to play for the team until he turned 13. When he received an invitation tryout with a new organization in the Toronto Hockey League with the Toronto Young Nationals. Middleton would make the team, spending the next 3 years with the team while greatly improving his play.

Reader's Guide

A right winger, during his final year with the Toronto Young Nationals in 1970–71, Middleton appeared in 42 games, scoring 39 goals and 34 assists. Following his stint with the Nationals, Middleton played two seasons with the Oshawa Generals. During his first year with the club, Middleton appeared in 53 games and scored 70 points (36 goals and 34 assists). However, it was during his second year with the Generals in 1972–73 that he led the OHL in scoring, finishing with 67 goals and 70 assists for 137 total points in 62 games.

He was named to the league’s Second All-Star Team and was awarded the Red Tilson Trophy as the league’s MVP. Middleton was drafted in the first round, 14th overall, by the Rangers in the 1973 NHL Amateur Draft. He spent the 1973–74 season with the Rangers' farm team, the AHL Providence Reds, earning the Dudley 'Red' Garrett Memorial Award as the AHL’s Rookie of the Year with 36 goals and 48 assists in 63 games and was also named to the AHL's First All-Star Team.

During the postseason, Middleton recorded 15 points in 15 games as he helped lead the Reds to the Calder Cup Finals, where they were defeated by the Hershey Bears 4–1. Middleton made the big club during the 1974–75 season and went on to score his first two NHL goals during his debut in a 6–3 Rangers victory over the Washington Capitals. Later in the year, during a game vs. the California Golden Seals, Middleton scored a career-best four goals as the Rangers won 10–0.

During his rookie year, Middleton suffered multiple injuries that restricted him to 47 games; during that time, he scored 22 goals and 18 assists for 40 points. That year, he played in all three postseason games as the Rangers were eliminated 2–1 by the New York Islanders. The following year, in 1975–76, Middleton appeared in 77 games for the Rangers and recorded 24 goals and 26 assists. The Rangers missed the playoffs that year.

Middleton was traded to the Boston Bruins for Ken Hodge on May 26, 1976. Rangers head coach and general manager John Ferguson Sr. was confident that his team had enough young talent to justify making Middleton expendable. What the Bruins got was a player who was ten years younger and a swifter skater than Hodge. The transaction became even more one-sided in favor of the Bruins when head coach Don Cherry developed Middleton's defensive skills, making him a solid two-way player.