Doru Tureanu, best player you never heard of?

[Canadiens1958]

Position

Curious topic. Current Frölunda HC goaltender (also Danish national team goalie) Fredrik Andersen is 194 cm tall (6' 4'') and weighs in at 116 kg (255 lbs) and he is actually very swift for his size. Journalists who have interviewed him in the locker room say that he looks nothing like an elite hockey player, yet after 6 games played in the SEL this season he has been absolutely stellar and is at 0.99 GAA and 0.966 SV%.

I'd be interested to see a thread discussing the fitness of players in a historical perspective.

Goalies and skaters are viewed differently.

Historically the NHL has had a few of each that were out of shape - Gump Worsley. Skaters - Gilles Marotte, Phil Esposito, Jaroslav Spacek, Joe Thornton, Jaromir Jagr but they either under achieved, adjusted or left the league before their time.

My point about Tureanu was that it is doubtful that Sam Pollock would even invest in an overseas return plane ticket for a player who was not in shape, playing B pool hockey.

 

[Iain Fyffe]

To say he was a Top-1000 all-time player is nothing to sneeze at! Spread out over a hundred years, that's a not insignificant mention.

What I meant was, whoever selected him at 849 picked him on name recognition alone, surely. With players like Carson Cooper and Billy Breen and Billy McGimsie and Wally Hergesheimer not taken in the top 1000, there's no way a player who played at his level should be at 849, unless he completely and utterly dominated that level, which he didn't.

 

[Iain Fyffe]

Journalists who have interviewed him in the locker room say that he looks nothing like an elite hockey player, yet after 6 games played in the SEL this season he has been absolutely stellar and is at 0.99 GAA and 0.966 SV%.

I love it when "journalists" judge a player's ability based on his appearance, rather than how well he plays.

My point about Tureanu was that it is doubtful that Sam Pollock would even invest in an overseas return plane ticket for a player who was not in shape, playing B pool hockey.

I agree, even without physique in the equation. I'd like to see some evidence for the claim about the enormous contract offer. It seems apocryphal to me.

 

[RabbinsDuck]

2 mil in Romanian currency is most likely.

 

[plusandminus]

2 mil in Romanian currency is most likely.

How much was/is that in for example USD?

 

[nutbar]

Doubtful physique, photo shows the start of a "Beer League" gut.

I don't know much about this guy, but to my knowledge, national teams wore those Adidas jerseys in the mid-late 80's, so this suggests to me this picture was taken towards the end of his career.

 

[Killion]

How much was/is that in for example USD?

Not so straightforward a question as you might think, and my math/currency conversions are pathetic. Romania redenominated its currency in 2005 so you'd have to factor that into the equation. $100 in the New Lei is worth app. $30.80 USD. The Old Lei, 1880-2005 consisted of 100 Bani per Lei; upon redenomination, you needed something like 10,000 Old Lei's to make One New Lei...

1 Romanian Lei = 0.322644221 Canadian. You figure it out. Beyond my pay grade.

 

[Pear Juice]

I love it when "journalists" judge a player's ability based on his appearance, rather than how well he plays.

To be fair, all of said journalists are completely up in the air about Andersen though Probably the most talked about (positively) player inte SEL so far this season.

 

[TheStranger]

Curious topic. Current Frölunda HC goaltender (also Danish national team goalie) Fredrik Andersen is 194 cm tall (6' 4'') and weighs in at 116 kg (255 lbs) and he is actually very swift for his size. Journalists who have interviewed him in the locker room say that he looks nothing like an elite hockey player, yet after 6 games played in the SEL this season he has been absolutely stellar and is at 0.99 GAA and 0.966 SV%.

I'd be interested to see a thread discussing the fitness of players in a historical perspective.

This guy must have gained a lot of weight. Hockeydb has him as 180 something, wonder when that weight was taken

 

[Pear Juice]

This guy must have gained a lot of weight. Hockeydb has him as 180 something, wonder when that weight was taken

On the Hurricanes training camp (2010) he weighed in at 116 kg (255 lbs). According to himself his current match weight is 112 kg.

edit: His HockeyDB length is also 6'0. Right now he is 6'4.

 

[Hardyvan123]

To say he was a Top-1000 all-time player is nothing to sneeze at! Spread out over a hundred years, that's a not insignificant mention.

Is he Top-500 all time? He could have been, but based on weighing all factors, it's hard to say he's better than several hundred others who played against the very best of their era.

849th all time is respectable.

Tony was better Hand(s) down but who is really to say?

 

[nutbar]

Tony was better Hand(s) down but who is really to say?

Hand was a notable disappointment in his only A pool world championships in 1994. Zero goals, zero assists, zero points.

 

[Stray Wasp]

In mitigation, Hand was worn out by the time Pool A took place in 1994. It didn't help that the British season had only ended 48 hours before the first game. Given the huge differences between the British league and top-class hockey at the time, it was asking a lot of the players to adjust so quickly, especially Hand, who had to carry his club side to a large degree.

 

[cupcrazyman]

maybe the Habs could have had their 70's Dynasty last a little longer ?

 

[Hasbro]

Doru Tureanu of Romania: How Good Was He?

Looking back on the 1980 Olympics I discovered Doru Tureanu. Did anyone see him or know of his relative talent? Was he another player we never got to enjoy because he was stuck in the Eastern Bloc or was he just a big fish in a small pond?

 

[boris4c]

He was quite good.

There was another thread about him some years ago (here).

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

He was quite good.

There was another thread about him some years ago (here).

Thanks. Merged threads

 

[iamjs]

Doubtful physique, photo shows the start of a "Beer League" gut.

 

[kmad]

Surprisingly this guy hasn't been profiled by Joe Pelletier yet.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

A great B pool player but let's be honest here, the whole Canadiens bit is almost certainly in the realm of myth.

And also, let's face it, you don't have to delve into the world of B pool hockey to find good European players from the 60s through 80s that very few fans in North America have ever heard of.

 

[seventieslord]

What I meant was, whoever selected him at 849 picked him on name recognition alone, surely. With players like Carson Cooper and Billy Breen and Billy McGimsie and Wally Hergesheimer not taken in the top 1000, there's no way a player who played at his level should be at 849, unless he completely and utterly dominated that level, which he didn't.

Not to mention, it wasn't a consensus decision, it takes one GM to draft a player. Donald brashear went top 1000 last year.

 

[Danny46]

Who was better Doru Tureanu or Eduard Pana?

 

[Stephen]

Curious topic. Current Frölunda HC goaltender (also Danish national team goalie) Fredrik Andersen is 194 cm tall (6' 4'') and weighs in at 116 kg (255 lbs) and he is actually very swift for his size. Journalists who have interviewed him in the locker room say that he looks nothing like an elite hockey player, yet after 6 games played in the SEL this season he has been absolutely stellar and is at 0.99 GAA and 0.966 SV%.

I'd be interested to see a thread discussing the fitness of players in a historical perspective.

Very curious to find out whatever happened to this Frederik Andersen...

 

[Iron Mike Sharpe]

I call BS on the whole "Habs offered him a contract" thing. It is a little surprising this board was taken in by this, considering the amount of historical knowledge people have of hockey here. The entire thing lacks credibility, beyond just the price tag.

1. The only source for this claim appears to be Tureanu himself more than 30 years later, telling the story to the Romanian website ProSport.ro. There is no apparent corroboration from the Montreal Canadiens in any news report or anecdote. When the Canadiens were interested in Vladislav Tretiak, for example, it was a news story, as was practically every other attempt to lure an Eastern Bloc star during that time.

2. The Canadiens could not have offered him a contract, period: NHL teams were required to draft European players and everyone else considered an amateur player, regardless of age or country. Tretiak was drafted, for example, Tearenu was not. I'm not sure how this point whizzed by everyone like a MacInnis slapshot.

 

[Theokritos]

I call BS on the whole "Habs offered him a contract" thing. It is a little surprising this board was taken in by this, considering the amount of historical knowledge people have of hockey here. The entire thing lacks credibility, beyond just the price tag.

I'm not entirely convinced by those arguments beyond the price tag:

There is no apparent corroboration from the Montreal Canadiens in any news report or anecdote. When the Canadiens were interested in Vladislav Tretiak, for example, it was a news story, as was practically every other attempt to lure an Eastern Bloc star during that time.

Tureanu wasn't exactly a star. Even for knowledgable hockey fans in North America, he was basically a no-name. As opposed to Tretiak and others. And even with prominent Soviet players, it appears not all attempts by NHL clubs became known to the public. For example, Anatoli Firsov has claimed that the Montreal Canadiens had invited and pursued him circa 1972/1973 and he would have loved to go, but the clearance from the Soviet authorities never came. I have not seen corrobation from the North American side either, but I don't doubt the claim is true.

The Canadiens could not have offered him a contract, period: NHL teams were required to draft European players and everyone else considered an amateur player, regardless of age or country. Tretiak was drafted, for example, Tearenu was not.

Montreal couldn't have expected him to just come over if he was drafted. That also applies to other players from the Eastern Bloc, but the prominent Soviet players were subject of interest to many NHL teams, so if a club wanted to have any chance to get e.g. Tretiak, they had to draft him. If you didn't, someone else could secure his NHL rights. Tureanu? If the Canadiens were really looking into him, they were surely the only ones in the entire league, so they weren't in danger of losing his rights to anyone else. It would have made sense to talk with him first and come to an agreement and then draft him afterwards.

That being said, the price tag does indeed sink the story for me. Two millions dollars? That's pure fiction.