The year the Blues skipped the draft

[Bingo]

https://sports.yahoo.com/pht-time-ma...185808715.html

Didn't know this tidbit ...

Finally, in May, the NHL officially voted 15-3 against the sale and relocation of the Blues to Saskatoon (St. Louis, Montreal, and Calgary were the only three teams to vote in favor it) which sent the entire situation into chaos.

Edmonton voted against? Vancouver? Quebec?

As part of ownerships anger with the NHL over the rejected sale of the team, Ralston Purina informed the league the Blues would be boycotting the draft and sent zero representation to Montreal for the event.

Their draft table was empty and the team made zero selections, forfeiting all of them.

[Erick Estrada]

Maybe the Oilers didn’t want a Sask team eating into their eastern fan base? Looking back this decision was probably for the best as I can’t imagine a Saskatoon team surviving in the 90’s and St. Louis is a pretty strong US market.

[GioforPM]

Not having a pick in the first two rounds maybe made their boycott a little more symbolic than otherwise.

[GreenLantern]

At the time there was no chance of long term support for that team.

We do well with a smaller number of home games, for instance the Rush and Riders. And both teams have shown that Saskatchewan residents will travel for a game. I think the stat was something like 40% of tickets are from residents outside of Saskatoon and Regina (this counts Saskatoon residents for Rider games and Regina residents for Rush games).

However, having attended a few of these games I can say that the kind of culture that has manifested itself with both teams would keep me and my family, especially young children, away from any type of NHL games as well.

Add on to that, if Cities like Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg have trouble attracting players, Saskatoon has no chance. I love my city, it is a beautifil city and we do well for tourism, but I understand when you are comparing it to places like New York, Los Angeles, even Vancouver, there really isn't a hope unless you want to consistently over pay. Which puts the club at a disadvantage from the start.

Very interesting read though.

[Iggy_12]

The Oilers should boycott the draft not like they do anything past first overall

[ken0042]

The article mentions 18 teams a few times, wasn't there 21 teams in the early 80s?

[powderjunkie]

TIL a dogfood company used to own an NHL team.

Spoiler!

What did they potentially miss on?

Here is a quick rundown of the best players taken after their pick in each round.

Round 3: Brian Bradley, Marc Bergevin
Round 4: Bob Essensa, Darren Puppa, Esa Tikkanen
Round 5: Gary Galley
Round 6: Kevin Stevens (selected with the sixth pick in the third round, that should have been the Blues on the clock), Dave Lowry, Rick Tocchet
Round 7: Vladislav Tretiak (never played in the NHL, still notable name)
Round 8: Tommy Albelin, Pelle Eklund
Round 9: Brian Noonan
Round 10: Dominik Hasek
Round 11: Uwe Krupp
Round 12: Sergei Makarov

Lots of gems in there. I didn't realize Hasek was drafted so long ago. I feel like there were a lot of forks in the road in his early career that probably could have lead to him never becoming what he did. I suppose Cujo and Fuhr were not slouches, so that theoretical timeline wouldn't have been much different

[GordonBlue]

I didn't realize how badly the purina people gutted the franchise.
wow.

"During this time Ralston Purina had completely shut down the Blues’ offices and dismissed almost all of the staff, including team president and general manager Emile Francis"

One day after the draft, the NHL filed a $78 million countersuit against Ralston Purina alleging that they “willfully, wantonly, and maliciously collapsed its hockey operation” in an effort to force the NHL to approve the sale of the team.
Meanwhile, Ralston Purina was planning to sell off players and other assets (including equipment) belonging to the team unless the league accepted their offer to “tender” the team to the league."

[Hockey Fan #751]

When you think about it, it was pretty dumb to just not show up for the draft. They probably could have achieved the same effect of their "protest" if they'd traded all their picks for assets.

[Hockey Fan #751]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Edmonton voted against? Vancouver? Quebec?

If only 18 teams voted, then 3 teams abstained. Edmonton could have been one of those.

No surprise Montreal voted to move the team to Saskatoon after their owners (Molson) were hurt by the WHA boycotts.

[Toonage]

I wonder what the relationship was like between Edmonton ownership and Bill Hunter at that time. Hunter was the man behind the Oilers in its WHA days and was the one trying to move the Blues to Saskatoon. Granted the Oilers changed hands a few times after Hunter but that relationship still could have factored into their vote or lack thereof.

Neat story though. I remember being here when this was going on, the "Saskatoon has the Blues" stuff in the media.

If nothing else at least we got an arena out of the deal I guess.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by Hockey Fan #751

When you think about it, it was pretty dumb to just not show up for the draft. They probably could have achieved the same effect of their "protest" if they'd traded all their picks for assets.

except it appears by the draft they had already let go of their hockey staff. they likely had nobody that could make picks or trades.

plus it looks like they didn't care about gaining assets as they had already washed their hands of running the team.

[Canada 02]

In a roundabout way, that situation really helped the Flames.
Purina sold the team to Harry Ornest, who ran the team on a shoestring budget after spending $3M for the team, $5M for the Checkerdome and $12M for building improvements, retro active player salary and operating budget. Over the next few years they traded away assets, including many key pieces to the Flames

[Hey Connor, It's Mess]

The Flames skipped a few drafts too.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by ken0042

The article mentions 18 teams a few times, wasn't there 21 teams in the early 80s?

St. Louis probably didn't get a vote, one abstained and just like they still do today they didn't care about Edmonton's opinion.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

St. Louis probably didn't get a vote, one abstained and just like they still do today they didn't care about Edmonton's opinion.

The article specifically states that St. Louis voted in favour. I would be interested to know who abstained.

[Hockey Fan #751]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

The article specifically states that St. Louis voted in favour. I would be interested to know who abstained.

I wonder if it was Winnipeg, Quebec and Hartford, not wanting to ruffle feathers after all the issues with the WHA and getting voting in there but also not wanting to seem hypocritical, either.

With Edmonton, I can see Pocklington just outright voting no and not caring about the optics.

[Resolute 14]

Speaking of the Oilers, Bill Hunter was part of the group that tried to relocate the Blues to Saskatoon. Far more in-depth story here: https://www.stlouisgametime.com/2009...lues-the-story

As a side note, Ralston Purina was into all kinds of unexpected things at that time. They had also spun up a video game division in 1983 that released an Atari game based on their commercials.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Speaking of the Oilers, Bill Hunter was part of the group that tried to relocate the Blues to Saskatoon. Far more in-depth story here: https://www.stlouisgametime.com/2009...lues-the-story

As a side note, Ralston Purina was into all kinds of unexpected things at that time. They had also spun up a video game division in 1983 that released an Atari game based on their commercials.

interesting note in that story.

On January 12, 1983, Ralston told a stunned St. Louis community that it had received a purchase offer to buy the Blues from a Saskatoon based company known as Batoni-Hunter Enterprises, Ltd. Batoni's president, Bill Hunter, was one of the founders of the World Hockey Association in 1972, and an owner of the WHA's Edmonton Oilers before they joined the NHL in 1979. Hunter claimed that after all the necessary approvals had been granted, his group was ready to break ground on a $43 million 18,000-seat arena that could be completed in time for the 1983-84 season.

I don't know if I'd want to risk stepping into an arena that could get approvals and be open in less than 8 months.
although I do know that any claim by Bill Hunter was always taken with a grain of salt.

[Toonage]

lol. The arena didn't open until February 1988.

Wild Bill was very ambitious.