TORONTO, ON - OCTOBER 14: Pat Verbeek #16 of the the New York Rangers watches the play develop against the Toronto Maple Leafs during NHL game action on October 14, 1995 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Graig Abel/Getty Images)
Welcome to another edition of Blueshirts Briefs, a series profiling individuals who worked a short shift for the New York Rangers.
The way Pat Verbeek saw it, losing a thumb in a farming accident only enhanced his career as a professional hockey player.
Three years after being taken in the third round (43rd overall) in the 1982 Entry Draft by the New Jersey Devils, Verbeek had his thumb cut off by an auger while working on his family’s pig farm just outside of Sarnia, Ontario, some 65 miles to the north and east of Detroit, where the St.