NHL Playoffs

Insider Trading: DeBrusk's trade request sparking league-wide interest. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZW_nqCDI9E

Watch as Connor McDavid dekes past four Rangers players and fools the goalie as well to score the goal of the season so far.

OMG WHAT LIST!!

Sam Pollock made a brilliant trade with Colorado on Sept. 13, 1976. Wayne Gretzky was 15 years old at the time and Pollock saw him as a future franchise player.... So he arranged a trade with the Colorado Rockies sending prospects Ron Andruff and Sean Shanahan for the option of exchanging first round draft picks with Colorado in 1980. Pollock wanted the top pick in 1980, gambling that Gretzky would be draft eligible at age 18 and that Colorado would be the last place team that year. And he won that gamble when the Rockies finished in last place in 1980 earning them the number one pick in the annual amateur draft. This gave Montreal the option of exchanging their first round pick for Colorado's, which they did (The Rockies drafted Paul Gagne) giving Montreal the number one pick. At the time of the trade amateur players became NHL draft eligible at age 20. But The legal landscape of the NHL draft was changing. There were lawsuits brewing involving amateur players like John Tonelli and Ken Linseman which would challenge the NHL draft eligible age which was eventually lowered to 18. Sam Pollock was so ingrained into the NHL league office that he had actually written the rules for the 1967 expansion draft. It's unthinkable that he would not have known about the changes imminent in draft age eligibility. He gambled that Gretzky would be draft eligible at age 18 in 1980. His cost was negligible. Andruff and Shanahan were AHL players who didn't fit into Montreal plans. Gretzky, born January 26th 1961 along with Mark Messier, born 1-18-61, became draft eligible in 1979 but not by birthdate. Special rules were created to facilitate the transfer of former WHA players into the NHL. Amateur players born before 1-1-61 were eligible along with ANY younger player who played in the WHA in 1978-79. Gretzky and Messier were among these younger players. Since these younger ex-WHA players were professionals their eligibility wording excluded the word "amateur." This is why the 1979 draft was renamed "The Entry Draft" where previously it had been the "Amateur Draft" because these young players were professional players and not amateurs. The NHL struggled with the question of underage eligibility. A debate over this topic, plus the busy agenda for the 1979 June meetings, forced the league to postpone the draft from the weekend of June 10, 1979, until Aug. 9, 1979. This gave the NHL an extra two months to settle the eligibility issue, which would require the blessing of the NHLPA as well as the key players in major junior hockey. The league also faced legal pressure from agent Art Kaminsky, who insisted that his client Tom McCarthy be eligible for the draft or he would sue the NHL. McCarthy was not due to turn 19 until the end of July, so by waiting until August, the NHL was able to draft him as a 19-year-old rather than an 18-year-old. But drafting in August also meant that the NHL would be holding the latest draft in its history, another record that is all but certain to stand the test of time. Finally, the issue was settled when the league agreed to allow the drafting of 19-year-olds in 1979 with a promise to widen the pool to include 18-year-olds in 1980. So Pollock's vision was validated as he held the rights to select the first player in the 1980 draft which for the first time would include 18 year olds. But Gretzky slipped through his grasp for reasons beyond the control of the NHL and it's draft rules. Regardless of NHL draft rules, we live in a society governed by the rule of law which is a higher authority than the NHL. Gretzky had signed a personal services contract with Peter Pocklington the owner of the WHA Edmonton Oilers, not a standard WHA players contract which would terminate when the league ceased to exist. He owed his performance to Pocklington alone and only the Oilers owner could release him from the contract. As a result no NHL team could claim a legal right to employ him. This was a clever tactic by Pocklington to ensure that he and his Oilers would be a part of the NHL in the post WHA "expansion." It was for this reason alone that Gretzky was never drafted by an NHL team even though the eligiblity rules for the 1979 entry draft were crafted specifically to include players with his unique circumstances. As such Gretzky was ruled exempt from the NHL's 1979 entry draft and the Oilers were allowed to retain his rights. In 1980 Montreal drafted Doug Wickenheiser with the first pick, bypassing French Canadien Denis Savard. By then Pollock had left the Canadiens organization. Messier was drafted in the third round, 48th overall, by the Oilers in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft. The NHL avoided a draft dilemma by allowing Edmonton to retain Gretzky's rights. But Messier had played for a defunct WHA team, the Cincinnati Stingers, and had to join a new one in the NHL and entered the league through the special entry draft rule as a player born after 1-1-61 who played in the WHA in 1978-79 So Pollock's brilliant vision and planning was thwarted by an unpredictable circumstance. But Gretzky came oh so close to joining the Canadiens for the 1980's. Would Gretzky's arrival have compelled coach Scotty Bowman to remain in Montreal rather than leave to join the Buffalo Sabres? Would Guy Lafleur have enjoyed a career revival with a center ice linemate wearing 99? Would Ken Dryden hold off his retirement for a few more seasons? We'll never know.

The Philadelphia Flyers have signed forward Joel Farabee to a six-year, $30 million contract extension. MORE: https://www.tsn.ca/1.1688920

Jesperi Kotkaniemi has been offer sheeted by the Carolina Hurricanes

"Every team is going to have mental challenges with creating your own energy & emotion." The #Oilers got their first taste of playing in a fan-less Rogers Place on Tuesday in what set the stage for a very unique Return to Play.

Big-Time Knockouts through the years in the NHL

Missing pucks, ugly sweaters and more fun with Ryan Reaves in the latest edition of Weird NHL!