What Could've Been: Rangers Had Their Shot At Signing Gordie Howe

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- There are conflicting accounts of what exactly happened in 1943, but the gist of the story is not up for debate: The New York Rangers had a 15-year-old Gordie Howe in their reach and let him slip away.

Stories have circulated for years that Howe, who died Friday at age 88, was invited to try out for the Rangers at a camp in Winnipeg. Howe said it was the first time he had ever traveled out of his hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Growing up in a family that didn't have a lot of money, he never owned full hockey equipment, and when he got to the Rangers' camp, he had to watch other players put on their gear first so that he would know how.

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The veteran players teased him, and a homesick Howe left the next week without a "C" form (junior) contract, the story goes. A year later, a Detroit Red Wings scout, Fred Pinkney, noticed Howe and signed him.

The Rangers' official website, however, disputes some of those details from 73 years ago.

It says, citing a 1980 New York Times article, that Howe, who went on to become a 23-time All-Star, explained the Rangers did ask him to join their junior team in Regina, Saskatchewan. But Howe said he would only sign if some friends from Saskatoon would be there, too. The Rangers were not interested in other kids from his hometown, and the player who would later become known as "Mr. Hockey" passed on the opportunity.

When the Red Wings offered Howe a contract in 1944, they, knowing what had happened with the Rangers a year earlier, assured him that several of his friends from Saskatoon would be joining him.

The Rangers have won the Stanley Cup just once since that fateful tryout -- in 1994. The Red Wings won four titles in the Gordie Howe era (1950, '52, '54, '55).

Howe eventually did play for the Rangers -- however, it was Vic Howe, Gordie's brother, who was a member of the Blueshirts for 33 games from 1950-55.