Darryl Sittler, Toronto Toro?

This is the rare occaison for my blog where I post a photo of an item which is NOT in my real-life den. This is only the case because this card of course doesn't exist (a little photoshop on my part). I recently picked up an old hockey magazine from March 1974 with an article about how Sittler almost became a Toronto Toro of the WHA.

Apparently, after his third NHL season of 1972-73 he was offered a $1,000,000, five year deal by John Bassett, owner of the Toros. The team was in the midst of transferring from Ottawa after the inaugural WHA season. Sittler was coming of a 77 point year in leading the Leafs in scoring. Bassett wanted to snag the 23 year old who was taking the city by storm. The Toros had traded a player to the Alberta Oilers just to obtain his WHA rights. Sittler had earned $30,000 the previous season and soon after the year ended had verbally agreed to a $70,000 yearly deal with the Leafs. Then came the Toros offer, mindblowing to all.

Sittler's agent, the convict, Alan Eagleson went back to the Leafs with the giant offer. The Buds offered a counter of $750,000, which at $150,000/year was more than enough to keep him a Leaf. Eagleson, being the classy gentleman he is went back to the Toros and asked for the original million, plus crazy additional demands such as a rent free farm for Sittler, endorsements with food-chain stores associated with the Toros, cars for Sittler and his wife AND Eagleson's fees. Bassett and the Toros of course withdrew from the bidding, and within a week Sittler's signing with the Leafs was announced.

Sittler of course went on to score 789 points in his final 643 games with the Leafs. The Toros on the other hand would try to fill the superstar void with ex-Leafs, Frank Mahovlich, Paul Henderson, Wayne Carleton and Brit Selby with minimal degrees of sucess. In three years, they would be the Birmingham Bulls, and Sittler, on his way to the Hall of Fame.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ron Hextall and the stolen Conn Smythe Trophy

Image
Ron Hextall did not deserve the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1987....there, I said it. I recently caught game seven of the '87 finals on ESPN Classic, where the Oilers beat the Flyers 3-1. Hextall was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy to the disdain and boos of the Northlands Coliseum. Hextall was (and remains) the fourth player to win the trophy in a losing cause. Even as a teenager following these playoffs as they happened, I thought this was an injustice. Upon further inspection, I believe he only won because he was a rookie, and was the "sexy" pick as opposed to the proper pick. When looking at his numbers, it's hard to figure why he won. Hextall finished with 15 wins, 11 losses and a GAA of 2.77. Oilers, Grant Fuhr went 14 and 5 with an average of 2.46. I realize that stats cannot tell the whole story, but even if we dig further the award doesn't seem justified. His .908 Save Pct was the same as Fuhr's and tied for third behind Ken Wregget and Kelly Hrudey. Also,
Read more

WHA Ottawa Civics, The Two Week Franchise

Image
Tom Earl, Daryl Maggs, Mark Lomenda, Gary MacGregor, Garry Swain "Please let the fans make up their own minds," Henry Feller told a press gathering. "Let them decide if they want pro hockey here. We have to average 7,000 or 8,000 in the remaining 19 home games for a break-even point." Feller was a director of the Founders Club who had interest in buying the WHA's Denver Spurs club. Ivan Mullinex, owner of the Spurs had brought his team to Ottawa in an attempt to drum up interest and save his investment. The date was January 2, 1976 and Mullinex was in debt to a Denver bank to the tune of $1 million dollars. This same day, the newly christened Civics lost their first game under the new moniker by a score of 2-1 at Cincinnati. Star of the team, Ralph Backstrom said after the game, "Our first official notice of the move hit us when we entered the Cincinnati rink and the names on the big scoreboard read: Stingers and Civics. Until that moment we were un
Read more

Team Canada 1972, What Might have Been

Image
Guy Lafleur, if he had played in the 72 Summit Series "No way. Can you imagine what our fans would say if we allowed Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito to play for Canada in that series and either...suffered an injury that might prevent them from playing with us for a year or more?" This was the concern of Weston Adams Jr, president of the Boston Bruins as quoted on April 20, 1972. After being speculated and discussed since February 1972 at the Olympics in Sapporo Japan, the series was set to go. Early on however, controversy stirred as to who exactly would be representing Canada. Bruins GM, Milt Schmidt agreed with his boss saying, "My only interest would be to see the Russians play the Bruins for the world championship...or whatever team wins the Stanley Cup." In the Vancouver Sun a few days later, the legendary Jim Coleman responds to the American naysayers suggesting that Team Canada should be made up strictly of players from Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal
Read more