I do recall that he had a bad knee, he only played 3 games in 75-6 and was
actually down to recondition where he only played 4. His GAA for those 3 was
5.63 with a .754 SVPC, and even before that in 74-5, it was 4.09 up from
2.71 the year before. Now due to his injury they had brought in Wayne Thomas
from the Habs who had not only pinch hit well when Dryden had sat out in
Montreal but had a 3.19 GAA in 75-6 but a much better.905 SVPC. They also
had Mike Palmateer in the wings. So you had Favell making good money in the
WHA era with a gimpy knee who had not played well in two years, Thomas who
had played pretty well both with the Habs in 73-4 and with TO in 75-6
outplaying Favell who was 31 at the time, and lesser paid guys like McRae
and Palmateer. McRae was a back up type, Palmateer was a prospect. Keep in
mind Favell was put of the league after 3 more years the last of which was
mostly in the AHL.he was declining and this is one that I can't blame the
leafs for. Favell was getting older, banged up and not playing well, Thomas
was not a bad goalie. And in the end, Palmateer was better than either. I
think it was the knee and just father time catching up to Dougie. Also bear
in mind that Favell was never the model of consistency. In Boston he was
down there on the depth chart and played third fiddle to Parent and Cheevers
in term of young goalies and was even behind Jack Norris when they had him.
Then in Philly he was #2 to Parent , took the job, then lost it when they
went out of the way to trade to get Bernie back. Then in TO he was ok for a
year and not so ok in year two. And, as I recall he had a number of
ailments. I remember when he played with the NLL Wings a bit in 784 he was
wearing a knee brace and could not play much. The truth is that Favell was
always one of those guys that could tease a little but never made the top
tier of NHL goalies unlike Parent. And when things went south they did so in
a hurry like often happens with guys like that.



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