Spider-Man: Brand New Day landing in theaters is a convenient excuse to revisit one of the more memorable bits of New York Rangers lore: Steve Valiquette’s Spider-Man mask.
Valiquette is better known now as a leading NHL analytics voice and as part of the Rangers’ MSG broadcast, but he first made his mark as a backup goalie with Broadway ties. And among the things people still remember from his playing days, the mask he wore during his Rangers stint stands out the most.
The look started as a partnership with Marvel Comics, which fit neatly with Spider-Man’s New York roots. After the mask got strong reactions from kids at the hockey camps he visited, Valiquette leaned into it and wore several different versions over the years.
Valiquette first joined the Rangers in 2003-04 and appeared in just two games. The 2004-05 season disappeared because of the lockout, and he spent 2005-06 in the KHL as the starter for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, going 24-11-9 with a 1.95 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage. That run brought him back to New York in 2006-07 as Henrik Lundqvist’s backup, though he only played three games and finished 1-2-0.
His busiest stretch came in 2007-08, when he went 5-3-3 in 13 games and posted two shutouts, a .916 save percentage and a 2.19 goals-against average. The following season brought a 5-5-2 record, along with a .907 save percentage and a 2.84 goals-against average. By 2009-10, the workload and results had dipped, as he finished 2-3-0 with a .852 save percentage, a 3.74 goals-against average and one shutout.
In all, Valiquette played 39 games over five seasons with the Rangers and put together a 14-14-5 record with a .901 save percentage and a 2.78 goals-against average.
After his playing career, Valiquette became president and CEO of Clear Sight Analytics, which uses a private proprietary method to catalog every shot sequence that leads to a shot on goal in all NHL games. The company tracks 34 different individual points of date and has analyzed more than 250,000 sequences over the years.
He also shares that perspective on NHL Network and remains a key part of MSG’s Blueshirts broadcasts. But for all of that, the Spider-Man mask is still the image that jumps out first - the one that made him impossible to forget.
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