Ron Duguay has a new pep in his step.
The Rangers legend, who recently revealed that he’s been battling Stage 4 colon cancer, just received much-needed good news.
After a visit with his doctor at City of Hope cancer center in Orange County, California, he learned his once spiking blood markers have improved considerably, and he is one step closer to possibly being enrolled in a new immunotherapy trial.
“My strength has come back and when I have days like this, I have to celebrate it,” Duguay, 68, told me.
Also returned: The trademark locks that helped solidify Duguay — who played without a helmet — as one of the most flamboyant players of his 1970s and ’80s era.
“I shaved my head, and it’s grown back darker and thicker,” he said.
Since being diagnosed in late 2024, Duguay has been treated with a combination of traditional cancer medications like chemotherapy and alternative therapies like methylene blue, Ivermectin, blood-filtering ozone therapy and Vitamin C.
For more than a year, the father of three and grandfather of six kept his health battle private, even as he underwent surgery to remove his gallbladder and appendix and dropped from 210 to a sickly 170 pounds.
“A part of me was embarrassed. Here I am a role model for good health, and I’m the one who gets sick,” he explained.
But his daughters, Shay Thomas and Amber Starvos, had other ideas. They put together a GoFundMe to help defray the exorbitant medical bills that piled up as he has traveled back and forth from his home in Florida to treatment in California.
“The cost of constant travel, along with medical care, holistic therapies, supplements and alternative healing approaches he has committed to, has become extremely overwhelming financially,” Thomas wrote.
The news sparked an outpouring of donations, to the tune of more than $126k — but also of love.
“I’ve been overwhelmed with people reaching out,” said Duguay.
He’s had support from old friends and professional foes like Islanders legend Bryan Trottier. The NHL and its alumni association have offered help, and his old Ontario junior club, the Sudbury Wolves, has planned a homecoming fundraiser for its favorite son in September.
“It’s helped my mood and made me feel better,” he said.
So has Sarah Palin. Duguay began seeing the former Vice Presidential candidate in 2022. In fact, he was at her Alaska home when he first started to feel ill before his diagnosis.
“Sarah is the sweetest, kindest person,” said Duguay adding that she’s “been a great companion.
“Any parent who has a special needs child, they get it,” he said, referring to her 16-year-old son, Trig, who has Down Syndrome.
Palin is equally effusive.
“Ron is so good with Trig,” Palin told me. “A lot of people would shy away from a situation like that but Ron is very nurturing and empathetic. He’s been a helpmate with Trig.”
But when they first started seeing each other, Palin warned Duguay about getting involved with her.
“I said, ‘You are going to take a lot of heat. I’m a polarizing figure,’” she told me.
Instead, Duguay fully embraced the Republican without regrets.
He recalled a 2022 incident when the pair were dining outdoors at Elio’s on the Upper East Side and a photographer approached Palin, who had publicly revealed she had Covid, to ask if anyone was concerned that she had tested positive.
Duguay sprung into action, confronting the photographer and asking if the guy was “looking for trouble.”
His first instinct, he told me, was protective: “It was like I was playing with Wayne Gretzky on my line and someone was messing with him.”
Palin has his back, too. When he had surgery a few months ago, she flew from her home in Alaska to be with him. For five days, she slept in a chair at his bedside instead of a hotel room.
“She’s been there all the way,” said Duguay.
But both wonder if their relationship contributed to a very visible, and confusing, freeze-out from the Rangers organization.
Duguay, who played center for the Rangers from 1977-1983 and again in 1987-1988, also served as an MSG Networks analyst for 12 seasons.
He was let go after the 2017-2018 season but remained in good standing as an alum and, for a while, an ambassador making appearances on behalf of the organization.
Last week, Ronald McDonald House staged its annual “Skate with the Greats” event with the Rangers, but he told me he was not invited — a snub noticed by fans on X. (A source said Duguay was invited to the 2026 Winter Classic and two other alumni events in recent months – one of which he attended.)
“I’m heartbroken,” said Duguay.
He doesn’t blame MSG, the Rangers or CEO Jim Dolan but thinks someone high up “has a dislike for me.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Rangers told The Post: “The Rangers organization wishes Ron and his family the best during this difficult battle.”
Duguay also cops to possibly stirring up controversy when, in 2024, he tweeted that former Ranger Dave Maloney should get the job then held by Joe Micheletti. Fearing it was too critical, he soon erased it.
“Sure enough, six months goes by and I’m not invited to anything,” he said. “They’ve thrown me to the curb like a cat with freaking rabies, and I’m hurt by it.”
He would love an olive branch. Even a phone call to explain why things soured.
And yet the Duguay family’s love for the Blueshirts endures. His son Noah, 32, whom he shares with his model ex, Kim Alexis, named his infant son Ranger.
Despite his health battle and friction with his old franchise, Duguay knows he’s a lucky man.
The “little kid” from Sudbury, Ontario, was drafted by the Rangers in 1977 and quickly became a fixture of Big Apple high life, including nights at Studio 54 and starring in a denim ad — crooning “ooh la la Sasson” and sporting magnificent hockey-flow hair. In March of 1980, Andy Warhol featured him on the cover of Interview Magazine and it took Duguay to whole other level of celebrity, rubbing elbows with Liza Minnelli, Farah Fawcett and Cher.
“And then I’m having dinner with Steven Spielberg, and he’s thinking about using me as the lead role in ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’” Duguay told me.
But his naivete sunk any chance of a Hollywood closeup.
“I just wasn’t mature enough,” he said.
The part went to Harrison Ford, of course, and Duguay played 12 seasons in the NHL — including for the Red Wings and the Penguins before finishing out his career with the Kings.
He expects his next role to be less glam but, perhaps, his most important: serving as an advocate for early cancer detection and encouraging people to get colonoscopies — something he personally avoided because “it seemed so invasive.”
And Duguay is enthusiastic about sharing his experience with alternative therapies to help other patients understand the array of treatment options.
Though the cancer has put him through hell, “I find that it’s taken me to a kinder place,” he said, adding that he sees his future more clearly. “I believe I have a calling.”