Europeans on the early-1980s' Vancouver Canucks

[Iron Mike Sharpe]

Hlinka and Bubla are curious cases because they were drafted in this special Czechoslovakian draft in 1981 (Hlinka selected by Jets and Bubla by Rockies). Later the legality of that draft was questioned, but at the end Canucks lost Brent Ashton and fourth round pick in 1982 draft as compensation for their rights. Complicated.

I believe after 1981 summer the rule changed and you could not sign Europeans as free agents. You had to draft them first. Or they had to play one season in NA before they earned their free agent status. Example is Jan Ludvig who spent the first year in Oilers organization after defecting. Without contract with NHL team ofcourse, but Oilers was paying his house, clothes and training, After earning his freee agent status he signed with Devils (Oilers was not offering him a great contract though).

Right! I forgot that about Hlinka/Ashton, but I don't recall the actual draft. Didn't the Canucks just go ahead and sign Bubla even though the Rockies claimed him? I don't recall there being an exchange or compensation deal. I remember that Ashton went the other way only after it was confirmed that Hlinka would play here.

 

[Sanf]

Right! I forgot that about Hlinka/Ashton, but I don't recall the actual draft. Didn't the Canucks just go ahead and sign Bubla even though the Rockies claimed him? I don't recall there being an exchange or compensation deal. I remember that Ashton went the other way only after it was confirmed that Hlinka would play here.

I´m talking from memory of what I have read, but I believe it was three way deal. Canucks signed both of them despite of the "draft". Canucks and Jets swapped Hlinka and Ashton and after that Rockies and Jets swapped DeBlois and Ashton. There was some reason DeBlois wasn´t keen on resigning with Rockies so I guess they avoided possible holdout. Rockies also got third round pick from Jets.

 

[Jim Genac]

They were also very active in courting the Soviet hockey authorities in the late 1980s, after drafting both Larionov and Krutov. They invited Tarasov for surgery, and had him sit in on some practices, and sent one of their coaches and a goalie (Troy Gamble) to Moscow for some training.

@Jim Genac has written on that here, and I believe he noted he met Tarasov at least once when the latter was in Vancouver then (I want to say 1987?).

Yes. Tarasov was a guest coach in February/March 1987. He invited me to join him on the bench at Pacific Coliseum for four of the practices he conducted with the Canucks.

At the end of the week, he also conducted a coaching clinic for about 50 minor hockey coaches at the University of British Columbia (UBC). A 45-on-ice and 45-minute dryland session was run by Tarasov using the players from the Bantam A and Midget A teams at Kerrisdale Point-Grey MHA (the local minor hockey association where I was a coach at the time). A two-hour Q&A session with the minor hockey coaches followed.

In May/June of 1987, he returned to Vancouver for hip surgery courtesy of the Canucks organization. I met with him twice in Vancouver Hospital and then numerous times at the Bayshore Hotel where he was recuperating after the operation.

 

[wetcoast]

I noticed that the late 70s' and (esp.) early 80s' Canucks had a lot of European players, especially for the period:

1978-79: Roland Eriksson (Swede -- only 35 games this one season)
1978-79: Lars Zetterström (Swede -- only 14 games this one season)
1978-1983: Lars Lindgren (Swede)
1978-1986: Thomas Gradin (Swede)
1980-1983: Ivan Boldirev (Yugoslav [Serbian])
1980-1986: Rick Lanz (Czech-born, but moved to Canada aged 6)
1981-1984: Lars Molin (Swede)
1981-1983: Ivan Hlinka (Czech)
1981-1983: Anders Eldebrink (Swede -- only 43 games over two seasons)
1981-1986: Jiří Bubla (Czech)
1982-1987: Patrik Sundström (Swede)

So, in 1982-83 alone, the Canucks had 9 European players on their roster in total. That must have been a record for that period!

What's the story behind that? Was Harry Neale really into recruiting Swedes / Czechs or something? How did it happen?

Fond memories as a Canucks fan but both Bolidirev and Lanz were Canadian hockey players.