25 years ago today; Coffey traded to Pittsburgh

"It's not fair to the players who are working hard now to keep going if I can ice a better team by trading Paul." said Glen Sather, a few days before he actually did pull the trigger on a trade. New York Rangers, Detroit, St.Louis, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia were the teams making serious pitches at Slats.
One report had the Red Wings ofering Adam Oates, two 1st-rounders and cash for Coffey. Detroit coach Jacques Demers was stunned by Edmonton's refusal. Another rumour was the Flyers offering Doug Crossman, Scott Mellanby and a 1st-round pick. Perhaps the craziest rumour was a three team trade involving Pittsburgh, Rangers and the Oilers wih the main players being James Patrick, Bob Froese and a Penguins 1st-rounder.
In the meantime, Coffey himself stayed in shape by skating with a Junior B team in Toronto. He and his agent, Gus Badali had begun their holdout mere minutes after Canada's victory over Russia in the Canada Cup on Sept. 15. They wanted the Oilers to renegotiate the last two years of Coffey's $325,000 contract. The demand was from between $600,000 and $800,000.

In the end, the deal went down as a seven player swap with the Pens, Edmonton getting Craig Simpson, Dave Hannan, Moe Mantha and Chris Joseph for Coffey, Dave Hunter and Wayne Van Dorp. Pens GM Bob Johnson proclaimed,"He's a world-class player. He's going to look great in black and gold."

Prior to his first game with Pittsburgh Penguin Doug Bodger said Coffey told him "Don't give me the puck too hard because I won't have my timing yet." After the match Bodger said,"Holy geez. I wonder what it's like when he does have his timing," as Coffey produced three assists in a 6-4 win over Quebec. He also had about 27 minutes of ice-time.

 At the time of the trade, Pittsburgh sat one point out of the playoffs with a 7-10-4 record, and Coffey would indeed help lead them over the .500 mark. They finished with 81 points yet still had fallen to sixth and last in the ultra competitive Patrick Division. Coffey would finish with 67 points in 46 games for Pittsburgh. The Oilers who were only point ahead of Calgary when the trade was made, finished in second place in the Smythe, but of course went on to win their fourth Stanley Cup in five years even without Coffey.

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