Height: 5-11
Weight: 155
Catch: L
Born: 29 Jun 1952, LaSalle PQ
| 
| 
|
Regular Season Goaltending Record (key)
| year | team | ||||||||
| 1972-73 | Ottawa | ||||||||
| 1973-74 | Toronto | ||||||||
| 1974-75 | Toronto | ||||||||
| Totals: |
Playoff Goaltending Record
| year | team | ||||||||
| 1973 | Ottawa | ||||||||
| 1974 | Toronto | ||||||||
| 1975 | Toronto | ||||||||
| Totals: |
Shutouts
| Date | Opponent | Home/Away | Score | Saves |
| Feb 24, 1974 | New England | Home | 2-0 | 21 |
| Feb 28, 1974 | Winnipeg | Home | 3-0 | 28 |
| Apr 7, 1974 | Cleveland | Home | *4-0 | 29 |
| Nov 10, 1974 | Chicago | Away | 6-0 | 25 |
| Jan 31, 1975 | Vancouer | Home | 6-0 | 33 |
• Shared shutout with Les Binkley on Oct 16, 1973.
|
Gratton an Accelerated Student • by Bob Mellor • The Hockey Spectator • March 30, 1973
It's tough enough stepping out of junior hockey and into pro ranks as a forward or defenseman. You're allowed a few mistakes and, if you're lucky, you might even get away with them without bringing disaster down on your teammates. But when you're a goalie in similar circumstances, the opportunities for wearing goats horns are unlimited, so normally the breaking-in period for a graduated junior is spaced out over a couple of seasons. Gilles Gratton, however, was thrust into a set of circumstances where neither he nor the coach could afford the luxury of bringing him along slowly. So it was, that in the heat of a hot playoff race, Gilles Gratton found that he had already played 43 games for the Ottawa Nationals in his first year as a pro, and found himself a little dumbfounded by that fact. "Imagine," he said. "Forty-three games. When I came to the Nationals, I thought I'd be lucky if I even played four, but forty-three..." It is, in fact, remarkable that Nationals coach Billy Harris has made so much use of a rookie in the Ottawa nets. What is more remarkable, however, is the fashion in which Gratton has played a position that, above all else, normally requires years of experience to play well. After those 43 appearances, Gratton had an average of 3.96 goals-against, and there is no intention to make out that's great. But, in the light of a number of other factors, it's not bad. Gratton, it must be remembered, has been playing behind a defense all season who, with one exception, were almost as green as himself. And out of those 43 games, he'd won 19, lost 21, and tied three. The 41 standings points that represented were two-thirds of the 62 the Nats owned going into the stretch of the playoff race. All things considered, Harris is extremely pleased about the way Gratton has performed. "He's got to be considered, at least, in the Rookie-of-the-Year balloting," says Billy. "For a kid, Gratton has done a hell of a job for us." The reason that the 21-year-old native of LaSalle, Quebec, has seen so much work is not that Harris had planned it that way in the beginning. Veteran pro goalie Les Binkley has been ailing much of the season. He suffered a knee injury early in the campaign that hampered him most of the year, and then after returning to action and backstopping the Nats for four straight wins, succumbed to a bout with the flu. That particular situation set the stage for what became one of Gratton's finest hours. With every game becoming crucial in the almost-ridiculous daily juggle for the Eastern Division's last playoff spot, the Nats were on their longest win streak of the year and coming up against Winnipeg. More than that, when the Nats took to the ice that night in Ottawa's Civic Centre, they had a genuine full-price, no-special-promotion, standing-room-only crowd of 9,450 in the rink ... The first time they packed it all year. That's the kind of situation to give even a greybeard the nervous yips. But that night, Gratton stood in there and won it for them, eating pucks with the poise of a veteran, including four blasts off the cannon of one Robert Marvin Hull that almost blew him through the backboards. Hull played 41 minutes that night but the Nats won 5-2. "Sure I was nervous," Gratton said. "But Hull came at me really early in the first period on a breakaway, and he let one go that hit me in the chest so hard I thought it was going through, but I hung on to it after that I wasn't nervous a bit. It settled me right down." At that point, Gratton already owned one victory over Winnipeg in three previous meetings, and that one had been captured on Winnipeg ice. But he admits readily that facing the Jets does not make for one of the easier assignments around the league. Buck Houle, the Nats' general manager, has seen a lot of youngsters come and go in a lifetime career of hockey development and scouting. His assessment of Gratton? "Gilles Gratton," says Buck, "is someday going to be a great goalie — and mark you — I said great, not just good." Buck and Billy spotted Gratton's capability back in training camp when they chose the just-graduated junior off the Oshawa Generals over a couple of others with some pro experience, for what they expected then would be a backup job. But they never expected to have to bring him along so quickly. And, as it happened, a large portion of the Nats' playoff hopes were resting on Gratton's shoulders with Binkley ailing again as the playoff race headed into the stretch. Are the Nats going to make it? As of this writing, Gilles Gratton believes it. You see, Gilles has a thing about astrology. He's a Leo and the forecast for April says it's a good month for Leos in "teamwork, alliances, partnership, affairs, cooperative ventures, and activities." "It's in the stars," says Gilles. The team's destiny may leave room for a speculation. But there's no disputing that young Gratton's own star has climbed a lot higher in the sky that anyone expected a few months ago. |
|
Excerpts from Pro Hockey, WHA 1975-76 (by Dan Proudfoot)
There's a wide gulf between being called the brightest young goaltender in hockey, as Gilles Gratton was desbribed by his coach in the autumn of 1974, and being told to go play piano in a bar, as Gilles Gratton was in the spring of 1975. In between, Gratton played some extremely erratic hockey, brilliant on some nights and vacant of skills other times. Gratton clamed it all could be explained by astrology. What really annoyed Toro president John F. Bassett was when Gratton claimed, publicly, that hockey players are overpaid, that he was overpaid, that he wasn't particularly interested in his job and might indeed prefer playing piano in a bar. He's an excellent piano player. Gratton wasn't used in the playoffs after a terrible start in the opening game. Toros were eliminated and newspaper reports suggested the team might finally be fed up with the 23-year-old, despite his potential brilliance. Team president Bassett invited Gratton to dinner to discuss the future, and the player didn't show up, suggesting the end of the Toro road. Still, Gratton's performance figures, showing an average of 3.85 goals in each of his 51 games despite Toros' inept defensive play, suggest he should be working somewhere in 1975-76, not necessarily a bar. |
_______________________________________
Home • Book • Credits & Legal Stuff
(c) Scott Surgent