Giacomin began his professional career with brief stints with the Eastern Hockey League\'s legendary Clinton Comets in 1958-59 and 1959-60. Despite suffering serious burns in a kitchen accident, Giacomin made the roster of the Providence Reds in the 1960–61 season. In the Original Six days of the 1960s, with only six starting goaltending jobs in the NHL, positions were hard to obtain, and Giacomin starred for the Reds for five full seasons.\n', '

NHL teams, particularly the Detroit Red Wings and the New York Rangers, began to express interest in Giacomin. New York traded three players and starting goaltender Marcel Paille to the Reds for Giacomin in 1965. He was impressive in his first month with the Rangers, but faltered thereafter, and lost the starting job. The following season he improved markedly; he led the NHL in shutouts and backstopped the Rangers to their second playoff berth in nine seasons.\n', '

A classic stand-up goaltender and a skilled stickhandler known for leaving the crease to play the puck, Giacomin was the Rangers\' starting goaltender for the next nine seasons. He led the league in games played for four straight years from 1967 to 1970 and in shutouts in 1967, 1968 and 1971. In 1971 he shared the Vezina Trophy with teammate Gilles Villemure. Typical of his competitive nature, in a game in the 1971 playoffs against Chicago, when Bobby Hull skated over the back of his hand, Giacomin continued to play, and when the Rangers won the game, even the Black Hawks used the word "guts" to describe his determination. The Rangers went on to meet the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals in 1972, losing in a hard-fought six game series.\n', '

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