Height: 5-9
Weight: 170
Shoot: R
Born: 8 Mar 1949, Ste-Anne des Plaines PQ
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | Winnipeg | |||||||||||
| 1973-74 | Winnipeg | |||||||||||
| 1974-75 | Winnipeg | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
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Unknown Commodity, Gratton Produces (excerpts) • by Vic Grant • The Hockey Spectator • January 12, 1973
A diamond in the rough for the Winnipeg Jets is Jean-Guy Gratton. Grats, as the players refer to him, was a major disappointment to club management through the first third of the Jets schedule, but started to attain some of the shine that caught the eye of the Winnipeg recruiters when he was toiling with the Hershey Bears in the American Hockey League. Gratton was the last Jet signed by player bird-dog Bill Robinson and he was signed unseen. What caught Robinson's eye was the statistical story last year in Hershey. Grattan played 76 games for the Bears last year and contributed 30 goals and 34 assists and as far as Robinson was concerned, it warranted a World Hockey Association contract. Signing any player unseen is dangerous and can sometimes prove a mistake. When the Jets started the season, there were second thoughts on Gratton's usefulness. At first, Gratton was inflicted with that malady that has ruined many a career — the footstep disease. Gratton was hearing footsteps around the corner of the rink and it was only through the kid-glove handling by Bobby Hull that pulled Gratton over the crisis period. There were even thoughts of trying to trade Grats in that early going but the Jets were up there battling for first place in the division. But Hull isn't going to take a piece out of a winning combination. Gratton overcame his fear of the corners and he helped make a solid attacking unit out of centerman Danny Johnson and left winger Ab McDonald. Then everything started to fall into place when Grats scored the first home-ice hat trick. Up to that point, Hull had been picking the spots for Gratton, using him more as a home player rather than in road rinks. Another habit Gratton managed to shake was one of trying to stickhandle too much. There were times when he was set up in the slot and any sort of shot would have done the trick but instead he tried an extra deke. Finally the Jets told him what to do with his superfluous deke. The day Grats scored his hat trick, all three goals came off blistering slapshots. Although his point total 17 points off of 8 goals and 9 assists wasn't anything to get excited about after 41 games, Gratton was showing signs of what was to come. The Jets are now prepared to wait. |
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