Quote:
Originally Posted by Dion
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Just cause I just posted this in the Gilmour thread the other day:
1968 season, the Blackhawks trade outspoken Esposito as well as Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield to the Bruins for Gilles Marotte and Pit Martin.
Esposito immediately becomes an all-time great. He becomes the first player in league history to score 100 points in a season. He scores 126 points in 1969...the previous record was 97.
In 1971, Esposito sets an all-time league record with 152 points breaking his own previous 126 points. With the scoring of the 80's, it's easy to forget just how hard it use to be to break the 50 goal barrier. By 1970, there was only a single player in all of NHL history to score more than 50 goals in a season. That was Bobby Hull who had scored 58 (1969), 54 (1966) and 52 (1967).
In 1971 Esposito scored 76. He annihilated the NHL all-time goal scoring record.
Okay, fine, but Esposito was only one player, that trade might not have had the same affect as the multi-players in the Gilmour trade.
1971 scoring leaders:
1.
Esposito - 152 points
2. Orr - 139 points
3. Bucyk - 116 points
4.
Hodge - 105 points
5. Hull - 96 points
6. Ullman - 85 points
7. Cashman - 79 points
8. McKenzie - 77 points
9.
Stanfield - 76 points
The Bruins had acquired the 1st, 4th and 9th overall highest scoring players of the 1971 season in a single trade.
The Blackhawks lost to the Canadiens in the final that year...imagine if they had those three players? There's an incredible possibility that the Blackhawks lost out at an all-time great dynasty because of that trade.