My father remembered the Bentley trade vividly – could tell me all about each of the players involved.
Chicago gave up the best player in the deal by far, but it was a trade they needed to make.
This was the heyday of the sponsorship system, when NHL clubs controlled whole junior teams and every 16-year-old who was any good was already in an NHL system. Montreal sponsored most teams in Quebec, Toronto had the lion's share of teams in Ontario, and the American clubs had to share the leftovers.
The Black Hawks (as they were then officially known) had one of the weaker farm systems, so they really needed a big infusion of youth just to keep going. They didn't want to trade the top scorer in the league, but they had so many holes to fill that there was really no other way.
Technically, an NHL club could only sponsor two junior teams. But the club's minor-league affiliates could each sponsor two more teams, and Junior A teams could sponsor Junior B teams, and it added up to a crazy pyramid of absolute control.
Historical Hockey Stats and Trivia gives an example from a later era:
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Take the Montreal Canadiens as an example. In the 1965-66 season they sponsored the Montreal Junior Canadiens and Peterborough TPT Petes of the OHA Jr. A league. The Canadiens also had affiliation agreements with the AHL's Cleveland Barons, Providence Reds and Quebec Aces, and the WHL's Seattle Totems and CPHL's Houston Apollos. The Barons sponsored Jr. A teams in Kirkland and Verdun, the Reds sponsored its own pair of Jr. A teams, the Aces sponsored the Regina Pats, the Totems sponsored another pair of Junior teams, and the Apollos sponsored a couple Junior B teams. Several of these Junior A and B teams in turn sponsored other Junior B, Juvenile and Midget clubs. All in all the Montreal Canadiens had 21 Junior A, Junior B, Juvenile and Midget clubs under its control. The Canadiens could place up to 18 players from each of its sponsored clubs on a list of sponsored players, a list of players which no other professional team in North America (since the NHL exercised control over the other leagues) could touch. In effect the Canadiens could direct the careers of over 300 young players.
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