1704204973
In the more than century-long history of the National Hockey League (NHL), there are thousands of interesting, unusual and even unbelievable stories. One of the highlights, however, is the selection of the fictional hockey player at the rookie selection ceremony, now part of the league’s golden folklore collection.
The legend of Japanese Tsujimoto
In 1974, the 12th NHL Draft took place, where teams selected a total of 247 players (absurdly many) in 25 rounds. To be more precise: the representatives of the clubs named 247 surnames. Why this comment? You will understand this a few paragraphs later.
The 12th NHL Draft was also held in Montreal, Quebec City, but for the first time was not hosted at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. The draft was a call to representatives of the league’s clubs, conducted by NHL headquarters staff.
To prevent the then-rival World Hockey Association (WHA) from stealing the best players, the NHL decided to conduct the draft in secret. Admittedly, the draft was slow and lasted three days, with a call being made to the respective team for each pick. Therefore, it wasn’t really possible to hide anything. The information spread quickly enough among the players’ agents.
With the first pick in the first round, the Washington Capitals selected Canadian defenseman Greg Jolly. Capitals General Manager Milt Schmidt even referred to Joly as “the next Bobby Orr,” but all that came out of it was…
#fictional #player #NHL #world #hockey #legend