Interesting or Weird NHL Facts

[FlamesAddiction]

I seem to recall several years ago, the Oilers accidentally forfeited a draft pick by getting the player's name or team wrong, or something like that. It was a later round pick, but still pretty funny. For the life of me, I can't find any links or anything.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I seem to recall several years ago, the Oilers accidentally forfeited a draft pick by getting the player's name or team wrong, or something like that. It was a later round pick, but still pretty funny. For the life of me, I can't find any links or anything.

Robin Kovar.

[In the 2002] draft the Oilers selected a Slovakian player who wasn’t even eligible. Everyone else on the floor of the arena seemed to know that the Slovak and several of his teammates hadn’t filed the necessary paperwork with the NHL in time.

https://edmontonjournal.com/sports/h...ry-robin-kovar

[timun]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

Yeah the NHL did not like Hunter. The Blues were on the verge of folding in 76 IIRC when Ralston/Purina took them over. But when the CEO changed the new CEO only wanted to be in horse racing and wanted to get rid of the Blues who were losing around 2 million per year. The Blues came very close to folding as the league had arrangements to do a player dispersal draft had a new local owner not stepped up.

It's a bit of a dirty secret that several NHL franchises were on the verge of folding in the '70s. The Cleveland Barons née California Seals did, but the North Stars (whom the Barons merged with in 1978), Blues and Penguins all came pretty close to going TU.

[GreenLantern2814]

Former Flame Jaromir Jagr is the second leading scorer in NHL history.

He scored the OT winner in Wayne Gretzky’s final game.

The 2nd all time leading scorer retired #1 (and funnily enough, finished his career as a Flame.)

[Reggie Dunlop]

St. Louis was awarded a NHL expansion team despite not having an ownership group. Bill Wirtz, owner of the Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Stadium also owned the arena in St. Louis, which was in a state of disrepair. He thought he could pawn off the arena to the eventual owner.

As such, St. Louis were the only one of the six 1967 expansion franchises to be conditional. The City of Baltimore, MD was waiting in the wings if the St. Louis deal fell through.

[Jiri Hrdina]

A lot of these are stories of various blunders, but the Canucks had a pretty savvy move to get Bure.

From Wikipedia:

Bure was selected 113th overall in the sixth round Draft by the Vancouver Canucks, following his rookie season with CSKA Moscow. The pick was controversial, as the Canucks had chosen him seemingly a year ahead of his eligible draft season. At the age of 18, he was available to be chosen in the first three rounds of the draft, but to be selected any later, he would have needed to play at least two seasons—with a minimum of 11 games per season—for his elite-level Soviet club, the Central Red Army.[25] While most teams believed he was ineligible, the Canucks' head scout at the time, Mike Penny, discovered Bure had played in additional exhibition and international games to make him an eligible late-round draft choice a year early.[26][27] Jack Button, the Washington Capitals' director of player personnel, admitted "everybody would have taken him earlier. We assumed he was not eligible... you've got to give the Canucks credit for doing their homework."[28]

[Ped]

When the Ottawa Senators came into the league, they were woefully unprepared. During the expansion draft, their laptop battery died and they couldn't charge it, so they had to do the draft of paper. They ended up trying to select three players who weren't even ineligible in Todd Ewen (Montreal), Todd Hawkins (Toronto) and CJ Young (Calgary).

[Mickey76]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

A lot of these are stories of various blunders, but the Canucks had a pretty savvy move to get Bure.

From Wikipedia:

Bure was selected 113th overall in the sixth round Draft by the Vancouver Canucks, following his rookie season with CSKA Moscow. The pick was controversial, as the Canucks had chosen him seemingly a year ahead of his eligible draft season. At the age of 18, he was available to be chosen in the first three rounds of the draft, but to be selected any later, he would have needed to play at least two seasons—with a minimum of 11 games per season—for his elite-level Soviet club, the Central Red Army.[25] While most teams believed he was ineligible, the Canucks' head scout at the time, Mike Penny, discovered Bure had played in additional exhibition and international games to make him an eligible late-round draft choice a year early.[26][27] Jack Button, the Washington Capitals' director of player personnel, admitted "everybody would have taken him earlier. We assumed he was not eligible... you've got to give the Canucks credit for doing their homework."[28]

I’ve heard this before and never understood it, even though it was high risk, how did the last pick of the third round not take him? Even if you’ve thought he might not come to the NHL I would risk a third rounder on him.

[You Need a Thneed]

Flames’ draft pick Patrick Seiloff is the only player in NHL history to both play in more than 1 NHL game, AND, score a goal in every NHL game that he ever played.

[Ba'alzamon]

Martin Brodeur holds the NHL record... for most first career goals scored against (56).

Marc-Andre Fleury is second with 47.

[Roughneck]

I'd wager that the Flames are probably the only team to have more than one player score their 500th goal against them by completing a hat trick.

[Ped]

Originally Posted by Mickey76

I’ve heard this before and never understood it, even though it was high risk, how did the last pick of the third round not take him? Even if you’ve thought he might not come to the NHL I would risk a third rounder on him.

If Bure wasn't a sure thing coming over, most teams probably had better bets to take in the first 3 rounds. It sounds funny, but it is true that he could have been selected by anyone in those rounds. They just thought there were better choices.


And to be fair, 34 of 63 players taken in those 1st 3 rounds played over 100 NHL games. Only 12 never played a game at all (although another 7 played less than 10).

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Ped

If Bure wasn't a sure thing coming over, most teams probably had better bets to take in the first 3 rounds.

And that's exactly the thing.

People forget, this was 1989. The only Russian player who had played any NHL games with the approval of the Soviet government was Sergei Pryakhin.

By the time of the '89 draft, I believe it was known that the Soviets were allowing the KLM unit to emigrate and play in the NHL – in exchange for plenty of hard Western currency, of course. But it was still generally believed that they weren't going to let young players out of the country, so it might be a decade before the likes of Bure came to North America. At that time, hardly anyone foresaw that the Soviet regime would collapse in just two years and Russians would be free to leave the country whenever they liked.

[Dion]

In 1971, the Boston Bruins signed Bobby Orr to a five-year deal, worth $200,000 per year. This was the first million-dollar contract signed in the NHL. Orr ended up scoring 181 goals over that time and was well worth the money spent.

[timun]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

St. Louis was awarded a NHL expansion team despite not having an ownership group. Bill Wirtz, owner of the Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Stadium also owned the arena in St. Louis, which was in a state of disrepair. He thought he could pawn off the arena to the eventual owner.

As such, St. Louis were the only one of the six 1967 expansion franchises to be conditional. The City of Baltimore, MD was waiting in the wings if the St. Louis deal fell through.

Correction: it was James D. Norris who was majority owner the St. Louis Arena, who arranged for awarding an expansion team to St. Louis in 1966 even though no ownership group was put forward. Norris and Bill Wirtz's father Arthur co-owned the Black Hawks, as well as their Central Hockey League affiliate the St. Louis Braves. Norris, his half-brother Bruce (who owned the Red Wings) and minority partner Wirtz owned the aforementioned St. Louis Arena, Chicago Stadium, the Olympia in Detroit, the Indianapolis Coliseum, and Madison Square Garden. (The latter of which gave them de facto control over the Rangers too.)

James D. Norris isn't remembered for his role in this scheme because he died of a heart attack only two weeks after the expansion was announced in 1966. Wirtz bought out the Norrises' shares in the Black Hawks, Chicago Stadium, and ultimately arranged for the sale of the St. Louis Arena and the conditional NHL franchise to a consortium fronted by Sid Salomon Jr. and Sid Salomon III.

Bill Wirtz was officially brought into the 'fold' of the Black Hawks business after Norris's death, his father making him president in 1966. Over the course of the '70s Arthur slowly transitioned more and more of the daily management of the Wirtz family business to Bill, until Arthur died in 1983.

[united]

Tom Glavine, first-ballot hall of fame pitcher, was selected 69th overall in the 1984 NHL draft ahead of:

Brett Hull, Cliff Ronning, Don Sweeney, Luc Robitaille, and Gary Suter.

[Just a guy]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

A lot of these are stories of various blunders, but the Canucks had a pretty savvy move to get Bure.

From Wikipedia:

Bure was selected 113th overall in the sixth round Draft by the Vancouver Canucks, following his rookie season with CSKA Moscow. The pick was controversial, as the Canucks had chosen him seemingly a year ahead of his eligible draft season. At the age of 18, he was available to be chosen in the first three rounds of the draft, but to be selected any later, he would have needed to play at least two seasons—with a minimum of 11 games per season—for his elite-level Soviet club, the Central Red Army.[25] While most teams believed he was ineligible, the Canucks' head scout at the time, Mike Penny, discovered Bure had played in additional exhibition and international games to make him an eligible late-round draft choice a year early.[26][27] Jack Button, the Washington Capitals' director of player personnel, admitted "everybody would have taken him earlier. We assumed he was not eligible... you've got to give the Canucks credit for doing their homework."[28]

If anyone had asked me my memory of this it would have been that Vancouver took him late and everyone was in an uproar. The NHL said that he was ineligible, but strangely Vancouver got him the next year with a later pick, which was highly suspicious (read collusion) as all other teams passed him by.

Must be the Mandela Effect.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Just a guy

If anyone had asked me my memory of this it would have been that Vancouver took him late and everyone was in an uproar. The NHL said that he was ineligible, but strangely Vancouver got him the next year with a later pick, which was highly suspicious (read collusion) as all other teams passed him by.

Must be the Mandela Effect.

I had the same idea, and had to look it up.

There was an uproar, all right, and the NHL did say Bure was ineligible. Apparently they didn't finally rule that he was eligible (and the Canucks' property) until just before the next year's draft. I suppose that's why I thought of him as having been drafted in 1990.

[wretched34]

Shane Doan became the Winnipeg Jets (Arizona Coyotes) Franchise record holder for most goals scored, taking the title from Dale Hawerchuk, when he scored his 380th (and 381st) goal(s) in a 4-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets (Atlanta Thrashers).

[Ped]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

I had the same idea, and had to look it up.

There was an uproar, all right, and the NHL did say Bure was ineligible. Apparently they didn't finally rule that he was eligible (and the Canucks' property) until just before the next year's draft. I suppose that's why I thought of him as having been drafted in 1990.

iirc correctly, the Canucks and Bure had to pay money to settle the whole thing, too.