RSS - Posts
To adapt a current-day political statement for hockey purposes, call this “Buds for Oil“: A long-ago proposal to simultaneously relocate two Canadian-based NHL teams.
The biography of one-time Oilers owner Peter Pocklington says the scheme called for the entire team to move to Toronto to play in Maple Leaf Gardens. The Leafs, in turn, would have found a home in Edmonton’s new arena, which at that time was called the Coliseum.
In the book “I’d Trade Him Again,” Pocklington says Leafs owner Harold Ballard was having financial troubles and made the proposal in 1980. Ballard also wanted Pocklington to pay him $50 million in cash.
Pocklington, who was vilified in Edmonton when he traded Wayne Gretzky in 1988, says he was all for the market swap, but Ballard backed out in the end.
To find an equivalent, you could look to the 1972 NFL ownership swap between the Los Angeles Rams and Baltimore Colts. That deal actually went down, although the team colors and players remained in their established locations (until both teams left their towns years later), with only Robert Irsay and Carroll Rosenbloom swapping deeds. The Oilers-Leafs exchange would have taken things a step further, with an Original Six franchise leaving Canada’s largest city, and being replaced by a squad from the just-vanquished upstart World Hockey Association.
Had this somehow happened, the obvious result would have been the transfer of the Ontario-born and bred Wayne Gretzky from the western hinterlands to the heart of hockey country. Presumably, these Toronto Oilers would have hauled in a clutch of Stanley Cups in the ’80s. What’s more, it would have been extremely unlikely that Pocklington would have felt the financial pressure to trade away Gretzky by the end of that decade. So the Great One might have stayed with one team for his whole career, and the NHL’s Sunbelt expansion would have needed a different catalyst than the LA Kings’ acquisition of Gretzky (although it still would have happened).
As for the prospects of the Edmonton Maple Leafs, I’d have to believe they would have fared much worse. The city of Edmonton showed during the lean ’90s that it didn’t care much for supporting a foundering organization, and the Ballard-led Leafs were exactly that. Without a wildly successful team to root for, chances are that NHL hockey would have withered in Oil Town, to the point where a relocated Leafs franchise might have had to relocate yet again — leaving Edmonton without an NHL team in the end.
No telling just how much meat there was to this. Ballard could have just been feeling out possibilities for raising the cash he wanted (which he ultimately got from bringing in Molson Brewery as a partner). Likewise, Pocklington could be trumping up what was only informal talks, just to generate interest in his book. But it’s an intriguing alternate-history scenario.
Category: Football, History, Hockey
| Permalink | Trackback |
No Buds for Oil: How Gretzky almost became king of Toronto…
[...] Note: Headline pun shamelessly borrowed from Pop Stat, because you’re not getting any better than [...]
Pingback by Puck Daddy – A Y! Sports Blog — 10/12/2009 @ 12:31 PM
FURTHER BUDS FOR OIL, AKA NHL ALTERNATE HISTORY…
Greg “Puck Daddy” Wyshynski saw fit to link back and expand upon my little post on what might have been had the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs swapped cities/arenas in the early 1980s, the proposal of which recently has been alleg…
Trackback by Population Statistic — 10/12/2009 @ 10:46 PM
you obviously know alot of stuff but this is the problem of bloggers sounding off about stuff they clearly know nothing about….the remark about Edmonton not supporting a “floundering” franchise in the 90’s and the implication that the only reason it stayed because of our legacy…both of these comments couldn’t be further from the truth.
As Canadians it’s clear the NHL doesn’t want hockey up here. They want big American money. WHich is why they are bending over backwards to make sure hockey doesn’t get to Hamilton.
sure hockey fans here didn’t like the crap teams in the mid 90’s, who would have. But fans didn’t abandon this team. hell, games are still a sellout here despite the AHL quality product they put on the ice.
What saved us from Puck’s whims was a group of local businessmen who came together and bought the team to keep it here. Something that never happened in Winnipeg. Or Quebec City. Or Hartford. Or Denver. Or Minnesota (the first go around). So first off, props to Edmontonians. Second, do a little more research before you make off the cuff remarks like that.
Oh and the title of the Pocklington book, which if anyone buys is a complete moron, is completely inaccurate and a testament to Puck’s hubris. He never traded Gretzky, he sold him. It was all about the money to pay his debts to ATB, Gainers, and his other failing businesses, which were legion.
People forget Puck signed Gretz to a personal services contract in 1979, which at that time owners could still do. He was Puck’s property to do with as he pleased. Krush, McSorley, Carson et al were only throw-ins to make the deal seem like a trade. People forget Puck got $18 million out of the deal. It was always only about the money.
yes the Oilers did squat with their draft picks since the Gretzky deal; that’s nothing new. they’ve done next to nothing at the draft since the early 80’s.
Puck was a narcissistic manipulator who lives in his own reality. If anyone thinks any of what he says in that book is true, go get an Edmonton phone book, make a random call, and ask an Edmontonian for yourself. I don’t have to read it to know this book belongs in a landfill or at the local recycling plant.
Comment by harleyS — 10/13/2009 @ 2:44 PM
oh yeah given the historical revisionism going on I should add that this Leafs – Oilers swap garble like could have come from a statement Mike Nykoluk made in 1981 or 82 where he said if he had his druthers, he would trade the entire Leafs roster for Gretzky….hmmmmmmmm………….I believe he was quoted in a Terry Jones book to this effect….
Comment by harleyS — 10/13/2009 @ 2:56 PM
[...] sports leagues, with a tinge of economics and “what if,” then check out Costa’s recap what ALMOST happened in the NHL almost three decades ago. He’s got more [...]
Pingback by » LYNTC: 10/13/09 » tombiro.com — 10/13/2009 @ 8:21 PM