1982 NHL Draft : The Boston Bruins draft Gord Kluzak 1st overall
- Thread starter JuJu Mobb
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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
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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
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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.
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
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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
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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
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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.
Kuzlak was a really good prospect but unfortunately was the 3rd first round draft ick in a row that Boston had that suffered career altering injuries.
The 80s Bruins with a healthy Barry Pederson, Normand Leveille and Gord Kluzak would probably have fared even better than the Bruins did, although in this alternate historical universe they wouldn't have Cam Neely nor Glen Wesley later on.
The 80s Bruins with a healthy Barry Pederson, Normand Leveille and Gord Kluzak would probably have fared even better than the Bruins did, although in this alternate historical universe they wouldn't have Cam Neely nor Glen Wesley later on.
Stephen
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Probably a lot off topic, but I'd make the argument those Pollock type deals have persisted well into recent times.
The first overall pick in 1998 originally belonged to the Florida Panthers, who traded it to San Jose for Viktor Kozlov in 1997. Somehow San Jose then ended up trading that pick to Tampa for Bryan Marchment and junk. Months later, Vincent Lecavalier...
Phil Kessel to Toronto for the Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton picks.
Just Linda
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Stephen
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Yep, the Stutzle pick, that's right. Ottawa almost made the same mistake before that trade when they sent the Byram pick to Colorado for Matt Duchene a couple of years before.
Just Linda
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I completely forgot about that trade. Yeah, that's definitely a much better example of a Pollock trade.
It was an interesting trade, Phil Esposito wanted the option to swap picks with San Jose. At that point, Tampa was going to be #1 heading into the lottery. I think Florida was somewhere around #3 or #4 at the trade deadline. Sharks GM Dean Lombardi was willing to use the Florida lottery odds as an asset.
The worst case scenario was the Florida pick winning the lottery but the Sharks would still pick #2. Harder with hindsight, but in the moment most scouts didn't think David Legwand was a big drop off from Lecavalier; And perhaps the Sharks knew they were eyeing Brad Stuart like how Lombardi coveted Drew Doughty in the Steven Stamkos draft year.
Florida had made the playoffs in 1997 so they probably weren't anticipating giving up a top 5 pick for Kozlov.
Sharks also gave up their own 1998 1st to get Mike Ricci after trading away Kozlov. By some small miracle, Colorado didn't have higher picks as Pierre Lacroix went on a side quest to try to land Lecavalier.
June 1996: Traded Stephane Fiset to Los Angeles for his son Eric Lacroix and the option to swap 1998 1sts
November 1996: Traded Chris Simon and Curtis Leschyshyn to Washington for Keith Jones and 1998 1st + 4th
November 1996: Traded Landon Wilson and Anders Myrvold to Boston for 1998 1st
November 1997: Traded Mike Ricci + 1998 2nd to San Jose for Shean Donovan and 1998 1st
After that last trade, Colorado had the 1998 1sts from the teams who picked #1-2-3-9 in the 1997 Draft. All four teams ended up making the playoffs in 1998.
I thought Colorado made a risky trade in July 2011. They gave up their 2012 1st (unprotected?) to get Semyon Varlamov. Colorado was a week removed from picking Gabriel Landeskog #2. But it seemed like teams knew the 2012 class wasn't strong, so maybe Colorado took the calculated risk. Washington still had Filip Forsberg fall in their laps.
Nashville traded Tomas Vokoun in 2007 to Florida for a 2008 1st which ended up being in the top 10. Maybe more memorable if Nashville had walked out with somebody better than Colin Wilson.
seventieslord
Student Of The Game
The modern trades that have had the same effect are a bit different in that they've generally been for a prime-age star player. Like, trading a future high pick for Erik Karlsson isn't exactly the same as doing it for Ron Andruff and Sean Shanahan.
But yeah, occasionally it does happen and this is why my Rule 1A for being an NHL GM would be that you never trade future unprotected #1 picks when you're a non-playoff team.
vadim sharifijanov
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i was going to say the same thing. but it was a different league back then, and in the early years of the draft, when expansion teams just didn’t have the deep well of prospects established teams had because they hadn’t spent years developing that infrastructure, having to find NHL-calibre players to field a halfway competitive team was a matter of survival or moving to the midwest.
one later and often forgotten version of this trade was bob lorimer to colorado for the 1983 pick that became pat lafontaine in the fall of 1981. as it stands, the rockies moved to new jersey anyway. (bonus content: some years ago i mapped out how the lorimer trade tree is still active, in the form of noah dobson)
but yeah, these trades are like if seattle or utah went ahead and traded their unprotected 2027 first rounder for someone like nick paul. but in the age of unrestricted free agency, a bad team can just pay crazy money to a nick foligno or tyler bertuzzi.
WarriorofTime
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Perhaps stupidity was involved, but I also imagine in a lot of cases, it's important to realize that viability and survival were not guaranteed in these days. Without national tv deals and revenue sharing, the revenue sources for these expansion teams were not exactly guaranteed. The owners, who themselves weren't so wealthy to be able to be able to throw money in a bottomless pit for five years, likely demanded their GMs to make the team as good as it could be to give people a reason to buy tickets. I don't think winning a Cup or even a cost-benefit analysis from a present to future hockey value was really that much a consideration.
Hobnobs
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Ironically Lacroix did some Pollockish stuff with the Avs as well. Obviously not at the 1st overall level but he did manage to get an impressive collection of picks in 98. Getting Tanguay, Skoula, Regehr and for some reason Scott Parker which always baffled me even if the era was a size thing. Especially considering the player who were ranked over him. If you wanted skill there was Gagne and Gomes who both slid in the draft iirc. I understand not wanting Biron and Fischer since they had already taken two defensemen but what a waste of pick Parker was. Oh, and the other pick they got from the Lechychyn and Simon for Jones was traded back to and used on Krys Barch while Avs picked an actor who was in "The sum of all fears".
What was I on about? Oh yeah so Lacroix wasn't Pollock but he tried to be with mixed results
Bear of Bad News
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Hobnobs
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Yeah, I've heard many stories about him being a nice guy off the ice. So no insult meant to him as a person.
Bear of Bad News
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Absolutely - I’m with you. It was an odd pick (although his fights with Dingman during intrasquad games were legendary).
Hobnobs
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Yeah and from what I've heard they are still friends.
Dingman was also a bad pick for a 1st round but at least to the Flames credit he was at least in the draft rankings iirc.
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