If Ronald Reagan played hockey: right wing, rated 83

Ronald Reagan as a hockey player: scouting report

Ronald Reagan lines up at right wing, but the best mark on his card is goaltending, and his early life explains why. As a young man he spent seven summers as a lifeguard at Lowell Park on the Rock River near Dixon, Illinois, and he is credited with pulling 77 people out of the water. A player who spent summers scanning a river for trouble reads a hockey game the same way, spotting the open man or the developing two on one before anyone else on the ice.

He played football at Eureka College and then became a sports announcer at WHO radio in Des Moines, where he famously recreated Chicago Cubs games from telegraph reports. That job meant describing a game he could not see, which is a useful forward's skill when he has to picture where his linemates will be before he looks up. His skating is the second best mark on his card, so he can carry the puck up the right side, and his shooting, passing and defense are all solid and close together. In Hollywood he played George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American, the role that gave him a lasting nickname.

Physical play is the weakest part of his game, though not by much. He is not a bruiser, so pair him with a center who can win pucks in the corners and let him play off the rush. Goalie is his natural second spot given how well he reads danger, and center is a reasonable third. A well rounded card like his is useful in any lineup. Draft him as a dependable two way winger in the middle rounds, the kind who rarely makes a mistake and always seems to be in the right place when the puck arrives.

Plays like A smart, steady winger with a lifeguard's eye for danger

Put Ronald Reagan in your lineup

8 rolls, a starting six and a bench, 82 games. Can you go 82-0? Free, no account.