Book Excerpt: How Sad Sam Almost Snagged both The Flower And Little Beaver
The NHL All Star weekend conjures up memories of many great stars. Two of the more memorable were the gold-dust twins of 1971, Guy Lafleur and Marcel Dionne, who went 1-2 in the draft that year. Their selection represented the end of a dramatic scouting process that lasted four years. Along the way the pair vied for the top spot. Their rivalry was so hot that even the FLQ got involved when the two met for the right to go to the 1971 Memorial Cup.
In our book Inexact Science: the Six Most Compelling Drafts in NHL History (ECW Press) my son Evan and I describe how Montreal’s legendary Sam Pollock almost ended up with both of the future Hall of Fame stars on draft day.
“Just weeks before the epochal 1971 draft, Pollock’s underdog Canadiens garnered yet another Stanley Cup title in a Game Seven, comeback 3-2 win on Chicago Stadium ice. The fact that the Habs also ousted the record-setting, powerhouse Bruins along the way to their 1971 Final series, this championship was likely the most surprising of any that the storied franchise had won— and arguably has ever won. The magical journey of ’71 occurred primarily due to the heroic efforts of rookie goalie Ken Dryden. However, the leadership of 39-year old captain Jean Beliveau proved essential to the “Cinderella” run as well.
With his most unexpected of conquests yet, “Le Gros Bill” had earned a then-unprecedented tenth Cup ring as a player (for Henri Richard, it was his tenth of a record eleven Cups). In the midst of the dressing room euphoria, Beliveau was besieged. Was he truly was hanging up his skates for good? No better symbolism could have been found following the winning send-off than to have Les Habitants replace Beliveau with yet another Quebecois wunderkind. No French-Canadian star from the ‘70-71 Habs— Jacques Lemaire, Yvan Cournoyer or Serge Savard— could “carry that torch” despite their level of experience or abilities. Instead, the pressure would be deferred from actual proven hockey superstars and placed on a rookie— either Lafleur or Dionne. It sounds whacky today, but it totally made sense to Habs fans in the summer of 1971.
Just 22 days after the sweet victory of May 18, Beliveau made it official that his pro career was over. Lafleur’s top draft selection would fittingly come just a day after Beliveau’s June 9 announcement of retirement. But while fans saw it as a slam-dunk, the choice of Lafleur was far from a sure thing as the playoffs ended. While hockey scribes had puzzled over which French Canadian prospect would go to the Canadiens, Pollock agonized over the important decision as well.
Scouting wisdom deemed both to be “can’t miss.” Lafleur was the more explosive, electrifying and raw talent while Dionne was perhaps the more pro-ready. Many asserted that Lafleur owned the higher ceiling of the two, but would have to be worked on by coaching in order to improve his two-way game and iron out the bad habits that one can get away at the amateur/junior level. He would be stepping onto a championship team if he went to Montreal, after all, and expectations would be enormous— so would the fight for ice time.
Upon Pollock’s passing in 2018, Scotty Bowman recalled that “the night before the draft, we met for three hours, and Sam grilled everybody in the room— Al MacNeil, Ronnie Caron, Claude Ruel and a couple of scouts— What should they do with Lafleur and Dionne? Then he excused himself and made a call to coach/GM Ned Harkness, in Detroit, to propose a trade... Sam offered Detroit goalie Phil Myre, plus either Terry Harper or J.C. Tremblay and something else, to get the second pick. Hapless Detroit was willing to do it, because they were going to get three players who could help them immediately.
I remember Sam came back in the room and said ‘If I make this deal, could it be another Beliveau and Geoffrion for ten years?’ But nobody would stand up and say yes. So he didn’t make the deal— because that’s how Sam worked. If there were five people in the room, he would never do anything until he talked all five people into doing what he wanted to do.”
Despite a tongue-in-cheek “timeout” called by Pollock when the Canadiens’ turn to pick came around, it was Lafleur whose name was called first on June 10, 1971. The ultimate determination to select Lafleur came after a whirlwind 24-hour period in which not only had Beliveau retired but Bowman had been hired to take over as Habs’ head coach after Al MacNeil’s resignation following clashes with veterans such as Henri Richard, who called him the “worst coach I ever played for” upon a benching during their Cup Final series with Chicago. The Red Wings would still get to select the “consolation prize” of Dionne at second overall, after all was said and done.
Dionne certainly felt no reservations about being passed over, wryly observing many years later that he “didn’t even want to go to Montreal... Looking back, Detroit was the right place for me to go. If I had gone to Montreal, I probably would have committed suicide— jumped off the Jacques Cartier Bridge. I had too much emotion, they would have destroyed me in Montreal”
Sadly for Dionne he never got beyond the second round of the playoffs in his 18-year NHL career with three teams. After a slow start in Montreal Lafleur, the “Démon Blond" went on to win five Stanley Cups, all with Montreal, three Art Ross Trophies and two Hart Trophies. We can only wonder what might have happened to the two of them if Sam Pollock had pulled the trigger on that trade with Detroit in 1971.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author was nominated for the BBN Business Book award of 2020 for Personal Account with Tony Comper. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he’s also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book with his son Evan Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx