1982 NHL Draft : The Boston Bruins draft Gord Kuzlak 1st overall

[JuJu Mobb]

Gord Kluzak Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com

Statistics of Gord Kluzak, a hockey player from Climax, SASK born Mar 4 1964 who was active from 1980 to 1991.

www.hockeydb.com

Can anyone explain this to me? Why Gord Kuzlak? He was not even a great player at junior level...

Notable players drafted after Kuzlak :

Doug Gilmour, Dave Andreychuk. Phil Housley, Pat Verbeek, Brian Bellows, Scott Stevens, Tomas Sandstrom, Ray Ferraro, etc...

1982 NHL Entry Draft Picks at hockeydb.com

A sortable list of players drafted in the 1982 NHL Entry draft, including their career scoring after being drafted

www.hockeydb.com

Click to read more...

 

[MS]

Gord Kluzak Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com

Statistics of Gord Kluzak, a hockey player from Climax, SASK born Mar 4 1964 who was active from 1980 to 1991.

www.hockeydb.com

Can anyone explain this to me? Why Gord Kuzlak? He was not even a great player at junior level...

Notable players drafted after Kuzlak :

Doug Gilmour, Dave Andreychuk. Phil Housley, Pat Verbeek, Brian Bellows, Scott Stevens, Tomas Sandstrom, Ray Ferraro, etc...

1982 NHL Entry Draft Picks at hockeydb.com

A sortable list of players drafted in the 1982 NHL Entry draft, including their career scoring after being drafted

www.hockeydb.com

Kluzak would have been a franchise defender if he stayed healthy. 6'4, skilled, mean. Rob Blake type. There was nothing wrong with the pick at all.

I've mentioned this before here but when you watch games from the 1988 playoffs and Kluzak is basically at the end of his career (at only age 24) and his knees barely work but his size and skill and presence still just absolutely pops.

 

[Doctor Coffin]

Because the North Stars sent Brad Palmer and Dave Donnelly to the Bruins so that they would not draft Brian Bellows first overall.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

kluzak was a special talent who was done in by injuries

but my understanding was always that bellows was the real #1 pick

minnesota sent two players to boston for "future considerations” to let bellows fall to them, effectively getting kluzak, brad palmer (former 16OA who had an 8 goal/13 pt finals run as a callup, before putting up 22 goals as a rookie), and dave donnelly (27OA in 1981). both of the guys they got from minny flopped, but on paper that was a good package to pass up bellows.

 

[Doctor Coffin]

An even more puzzling question is how the Rockies/Devils managed to get suckered out of their first round draft picks for that year AND the following year, in return for the disadvantageous returns that they received in trades with Boston and the Islanders, respectively.

 

[MS]

An even more puzzling question is how the Rockies/Devils managed to get suckered out of their first round draft picks for that year AND the following year, in return for the disadvantageous returns that they received in trades with Boston and the Islanders, respectively.

Getting 'Pollocked' was a fairly common thing for bad teams in the 1970s and early 1980s. In the days before UFA it was really hard to turn a corner as a bad team and it was a fairly common thing that desperate GMs of bad teams (LA, Pittsburgh, Hartford, Colorado/NJ) would get suckered when elite teams (Montreal, Boston, Philly) offered them some solid mid-level veteran players in exchange for a 1st round pick 2-3 years down the line. The GM would hope the new players would help the team turn the corner and the pick wouldn't be that high, it never usually happened, and then the powerhouse team would end up with a top-5 pick in the draft to further entrench their dominance and the lack of league parity.

You could make a whole list of deals like this. The last really prominent one of that era was probably the Kurvers-Niedermayer pick swap in 1990.

 

[Doctor Coffin]

Getting 'Pollocked' was a fairly common thing for bad teams in the 1970s and early 1980s...

In the early 1970's, when the whole NHL entry draft thing was newer and expansion teams were desperate for any form of what they perceived as established, quality players - yes. But by 1981, I think the prudence of not trading away one's number one draft picks for a handful of magic beans had been amply demonstrated and proven. Especially when viewing the contemporary (for 1982-era) recent success of the Islanders, Bill Torrey having never been tempted to fritter away his top picks as other GMs of the 1970s were. I guess it just took a special type of Colorado Rockies GM to pull off those deals...much like the Leafs' trade for Kurvers which you noted.

 

[MS]

In the early 1970's, when the whole NHL entry draft thing was newer and expansion teams were desperate for any form of what they perceived as established, quality players - yes. But by 1981, I think the prudence of not trading away one's number one draft picks for a handful of magic beans had been amply demonstrated and proven. Especially when viewing the contemporary (for 1982-era) recent success of the Islanders, Bill Torrey having never been tempted to fritter away his top picks as other GMs of the 1970s were. I guess it just took a special type of Colorado Rockies GM to pull off those deals...much like the Leafs' trade for Kurvers which you noted.

There were a bunch of them in the early 1980s, but it looks like the big cut-off was about 1982 :

Montreal had a bunch of extra picks in 1980 and 1981 but those trades were made in the 1970s (the swap for the Wickenheiser pick was made in 1976, incredibly, by Pollock).

1982 - picks 1, 2, 4, and 6 were all moved in 'Pollock deals' during 1981.
1983 - picks 1, 3, and 5 were moved in deals in 1981 and 1982.
1984 - pick 5 was moved in a deal in 1981.

Post-1982 you have the Glen Wesley picked moved in the Barry Pederson deal in 1986 and the Niedermayer-Kurvers trade in 1990.

 

[Doctor Coffin]

There were a bunch of them in the early 1980s, but it looks like the big cut-off was about 1982 :

Montreal had a bunch of extra picks in 1980 and 1981 but those trades were made in the 1970s (the swap for the Wickenheiser pick was made in 1976, incredibly, by Pollock).

1982 - picks 1, 2, 4, and 6 were all moved in 'Pollock deals' during 1981.
1983 - picks 1, 3, and 5 were moved in deals in 1981 and 1982.
1984 - pick 5 was moved in a deal in 1981.

Post-1982 you have the Glen Wesley picked moved in the Barry Pederson deal in 1986 and the Niedermayer-Kurvers trade in 1990.

That's a fair partial summation. To me it wasn't so much about the trading away of first round picks itself, so much as it was about trading them away for utterly ridiculous returns. Detroit traded away their 1982 first overall, as well, with which the North Stars used to select Bellows. But they did manage a modest return of Minnesota's number one with which they selected Murray Craven, who went on to have a long, productive NHL career, Greg Smith, a serviceable defenseman who played regularly for them for several seasons, as well as the booby prize of talented-but-troubled Don Murdoch. Many of the deals in which the Rockies traded away their number ones were more one-sided.

 

[MS]

That's a fair partial summation. To me it wasn't so much about the trading away of first round picks itself, so much as it was about trading them away for utterly ridiculous returns. Detroit traded away their 1982 first overall, as well, with which the North Stars used to select Bellows. But they did manage a modest return of Minnesota's number one with which they selected Murray Craven, who went on to have a long, productive NHL career, Greg Smith, a serviceable defenseman who played regularly for them for several seasons, as well as the booby prize of talented-but-troubled Don Murdoch. Many of the deals in which the Rockies traded away their number ones were more one-sided.

The whole gist of the 'Pollock deal' was that the team trading the pick didn't actually think they were trading it for an utterly ridiculous return.

Like, the Wickenheiser deal, in 1976 Colorado acquires two pretty good prospects from Montreal for a swap of 1sts in 1980. The Colorado GM convinces himself that the disparity between the two teams won't be as great years from now so this is like free money to turn the corner! And if it doesn't work out, he'll be long fired anyway.

The basis for a lot of these deals was a swap of firsts way in the future and that was what killed the trading team when the relative strength of the teams simply didn't change the way that was hoped over the next couple years.