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June 13, 1986
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
Will High Scorer Win Defensive Honor?
Troy Murray is battling more than Guy Carbonneau and Ron Sutter for the Frank Selke Trophy—he is fighting tradition. Defensive forwards are supposed to prevent goals, not score them. In the eight-year history of the award which goes to the National Hockey League’s top defensive forward, no Selke winner has ever accounted for more than 23 goals. Murray exploded for nearly twice as many—45—this year. And only the spirited Bobby Clarke was a significant offensive force when he was honored, scoring 85 points (62 assists) in 1982-83. Murray, the Chicago Blackhawks’ 23-year-old two-way center, accounted for 99 points this season—nearly twice as many as all previous winners but Clarke—despite being matched against the top centers in the NHL. Carbonneau and Sutter fit better the mold established by Bob Gainey who won the Selke the…
Oilers Looking To Move Up At Entry Draft
EDMONTON—The last supper wasn’t much. Just pizza. But, what did you expect following a premature Stanley Cup playoff exit at the hands of the Calgary Flames? The gala civic banquets of last year and the year were things of the past. Gone too was something else. As the 1985-86 Edmonton Oilers congregated as a group for a last time, proof of two previous Stanley Cup championships was missing. The Oilers’ Stanley Cup banners, stolen from the Northlands Coliseum rafters following a Simple Minds rock concert, will be replaced of course by next autumn—just as certain members of the Oilers will be by new faces. Manager-coach Glen Sather invariably makes changes. Such is the nature of the business even in victory. Losing, however, dictates that changes are necessary. “We made changes last year when we won,”…
Mandatory Drug Testing Proposed
MONTREAL—National Hockey League president John Ziegler, Jr., and NHL Players’ Association executive director Alan Eagleson believe the league does not have a drug problem. And they want to prove it. Whether the rank-and-file membership of the NHLPA feels a need to do the same remains to be seen. Ziegler and Eagleson, teaming up at a May 21 press conference between Games Three and Four of the 1986 Stanley Cup final, announced a proposed plan that would: ● Make drug testing mandatory in the NHL. ● Expand current NHL and NHLPA drug education progams. ● Continue to punish, not rehabilitate, any NHL player found to have used illegal drugs. Ziegler and Eagleson said they initiated the mandatory drug-testing proposal in response to media tactics of “McCarthyism”, which they claim have smeared the reputation of each and every player…
The ‘Hab-Nots’ No Longer
Divine intervention no longer plays a part but 17 years later the Montreal Canadiens are still shaping their destiny in a familiar fashion. Today, as they did yesterday, the Canadiens—like most teams—rely on the annual entry draft to form the team’s nucleus. At times, the process can be more exasperating than expedient but it remains the essential means to the National Hockey League’s ultimate end—the Stanley Cup. Of the 30 most prominent players on this year’s championship team, 20 are draft choices. One other—Gaston Gingras—was drafted, traded and later brought back. Five more were obtained in trades and four others signed as free agents. In contrast, the Calgary Flames followed a different path to the Cup final. Of the 26 top Flames, only 10 arrived via the draft, nine through trades and seven as…
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