Randy MacGregor

Randy MacGregor was a diminutive but feisty right winger out of southern Ontario. He carved out a decent minor league career.

After being passed over by both the NHL and WHA because of his size, MacGregor joined the Broome Dusters (no joke) of the lowly NAHL in 1973-74. He transferred with the franchise to Binghamton in 1974-75. Binghamton would become home for Randy, as he played there for the next 9 seasons. The team soon merged with the American Hockey League and MacGregor showed he could play at the higher level, consistently scoring 20 goals and over 100 penalty minutes in a year.

When the Hartford Whalers signed an affiliation agreement with the Binghamton franchise in 1981, they signed MacGregor, too, with the sole purpose of keeping the popular spark plug in that city. In fact, his #11 jersey would be retired by the organization, although the number returned to circulation when the New York Rangers formed an affiliation with the team in 1991.

"Goldy" MacGregor was having a fine season with the baby Whalers in 1981-82 - 23 goals and 50 assists in 71 games, plus 115 PIMs. The NHL Whalers, suffering through a less than memorable season, were giving their prospects a look-see by the end of the year and that included MacGregor. He got his only NHL call-up and responded well. He scored on his only shot on goal - at the time of this writing is the only player since 1967 expansion to score on his only shot on goal - and added an assist and a minor penalty, in two games.

Randy slumped through a bad 1982-83 season though, scoring just 13 goals in 62 AHL games. He was released at the end of the year and signed on with Adirondack of the AHL for one final season of professional hockey.

In 1998 MacGregor, Ken Holland and Dusters team founder Jim Matthews were the first people inducted into the Binghamton Hockey Hall of Fame.