Time to Retire Number 5

When Hall of Famer Henrik Lundqvist had his number 30 retired by the Rangers in 2022, he became the 11th player in franchise history to receive the honor.  They only had two retired numbers for a long time (Rod Gilbert's No. 7 & Eddie Giacomin's No. 1) before adding the four most important members of the 1994 Stanley Cup champions and four others from the 1960s and 70s who were long overdue for the honor.  Lundqvist was a no-brainer to join them.

With the franchise's 100th anniversary coming up in 2026, I propose adding a 12th banner to the Garden rafters.  While it might not seem like there's an obvious candidate, I think there's one player who's long been overlooked, but deserves his due.  The Rangers' first-ever captain, Bill Cook.

Cook was the first player the Rangers ever signed, earning him the moniker "The Original Ranger."  Along with his brother, Bun, he joined the team for its inaugural season and was named captain before the first game.  He wore the "C" for 11 years before retiring during the 1936-37 season.

The Cook brothers and Frank Boucher combined to form the "Bread Line," which starred for the team during the Rangers' first nine years of existence.  They were one of the first great scoring lines in NHL history, and all three were eventually inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.  Bill Cook was the most prolific scorer of the three, and he scored the Rangers' first-ever goal in their inaugural game, a 1-0 win over the Montreal Maroons on Nov. 16, 1926.

He led the league with 33 goals and 37 points during the 1926-27 season, then led the Rangers to the Stanley Cup in 1928.  He had 59 points in 44 games in 1929-30, and scored a career-high 34 goals in 1931-32.  That would stand as the Rangers single-season record until 1958-59.  In 1932-33, Cook was again the NHL's top scorer, finishing with 28 goals and 50 points.  He was 36 years old that season and would remain the oldest NHL scoring champion until 39-year-old Martin St. Louis 80 years later.

In 474 games, all with the Rangers, Cook tallied 229 goals, 138 assists and 367 points.  Those were all franchise records at the time of his retirement, and he's still 11th on the Rangers' all-time list in goals.  Keep in mind that the NHL only played a 48-game season in those days, too.  Everyone ahead of him played in at least 162 more games.  Cook averaged 0.48 goals per game, so his adjusted goals (based on the current 82-game schedule) would be over 400.  Rod Gilbert's franchise record is 406.

There's one category where no adjustment is necessary.  All these years later, his nine career hat tricks are still a franchise record.  Cook also scored 43 career game-winners, which still ranks third in Rangers history (although, Chris Kreider is right behind him at 42, so you'd have to figure he'll likely fall to fourth sometime relatively soon).

That's all just the regular season.  What he did in the playoffs, leading the Rangers to a pair of Stanley Cups and two other appearances in the Final, is just as impressive.  In 46 career playoff games, he scored 13 goals and added 11 assists.  The Bread Line scored every Rangers goal in the 1928 Stanley Cup Final, as the team won its first Cup, then Cook had two game-winners in the 1933 Final.  His overtime power play goal, the first in NHL history, was the Cup clincher for the Rangers' second championship.

They've won a grand total of four Stanley Cups in franchise history.  Cook was the captain on half of those teams.  And they appeared in two other Stanley Cup Finals (1929, 1932).  That's four in his 11 seasons as captain (they also went in 1937, which I'm not counting since he retired midseason).  Since 1937, they've made it to the Stanley Cup Final a grand total of six times.

Not only was he the captain, he was also the best player.  Cook made the All-NHL team four years in a row and was the Hart Trophy runner-up twice.  He led the team in scoring six times and is still regarded as one of the greatest right wings in NHL history.  Bill Cook was the Rangers' first star player, and he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1952.

It's also worth noting that he was a career Ranger.  He even came back and coached the team for a year and a half at the tail end of 1951-52 and the entire 1952-53 season.  Until Rod Gilbert came along and earned the "Mr. Ranger" moniker, Bill Cook was the face of the franchise for the better part of its first half-century of existence.  His status was so significant, in fact, that he was invited to symbolically "close" the old Madison Square Garden and "open" the current version in 1968, when he "scored" the first goal at the arena (just as he had in the Rangers' first game at the previous Garden).

Retiring numbers wasn't really a thing back then.  If it was, there's no question that Bill Cook's No. 5 would've been hanging from the Garden rafters long ago.  Maybe even when the current Garden opened.  Instead, the Rangers didn't retire any numbers until 1979, when Rod Gilbert's No. 7 became the first.  It took another 10 years for Eddie Giacomin to become the second.  And it was just those two until Mike Richter in 2004.

Since then, the Rangers have retired the numbers of franchise legends Mark Messier (2006), Brian Leetch (2008), Adam Graves (2009), Harry Howell & Andy Bathgate (a combined ceremony in 2009), Jean Ratelle (2018), Vic Hadfield (2018) and Henrik Lundqvist (2022).  You'd get very little, if any, debate that each of them is deserving.  There's one name on the list of all-time Rangers greats that's missing, though.  Bill Cook.

Even though he passed away in 1986, that doesn't mean Bill Cook can't be recognized with a jersey retirement.  He was the Rangers' first captain, first star player, and he's still among the franchise's all-time leaders 85 years after his retirement.  I can think of no better way to honor his legacy and his place in Rangers history than retiring his No. 5.  I know the perfect date, too.  Nov. 16, 2026, the 100th anniversary of his game-winning goal in the team's first-ever game.