“I darn near fell out of my chair, it came as a complete shock,” said Robin Sadler upon hearing the news he had been the Canadiens’ first pick in 1975. “I kind of like the idea of playing in a Canadian city, even if I have to spend some time in the minors.”
Sadler had it all. As a defenseman with good size (6’2, 180 lbs), offensive flair galore had meant leading the Junior Edmonton Oil Kings and establishing a WHL rookie record with 32 goals and 61 assists.
In a time when Bobby Orr was the NHL’s prime phenom, the appeal for the Habs was easy to understand. However, times were changing quickly in the league and prospects weren’t getting the big bucks they were expecting from teams just a year after they were drafted.
His agent and controversial NHL figure Alan Eagleson was quoted saying:
“In the case of Sadler, the Canadiens are offering 35 to 40% less than they paid a year ago,” he said.
Selected 9th overall in 1975 by the Canadiens, Sadler’s controversial foray into pro sports could have been one that led to Cup rings through any road he had chosen. Instead, training camp with the Canadiens had been a disaster. After one week and a $250,000 contract offer from the Canadiens, he walked away and expressed his desire to become a fireman.
“I found it wasn’t a game anymore, it’s a serious business, a lot more serious than I like to play,” said Sadler.
The Vancouver native returned home and wound up driving an Eaton truck for $250 a week.
However, Sadler’s assets meant he wouldn’t stay out of NHL or WHA training camps for long. Unfortunately, his post-Habs career started with Glen Sather (then GM of the Edmonton Oilers) calling him a thief.
Sadler had agreed in the fall of ’77 to a contract with the Oilers that would have paid him $100,000 over two years. After four days of training camp, he walked out telling the coaching staff he had lost the desire to play hockey; Sather was dumbfounded.
“He said the pressure was too much for him, he wasn’t eating right.”
“The thing that bothers me most is his quitting so early,” Sather said. “He never gave it a chance.”
Sather’s incomprehension soon turned to rage when a few months later, Sadler signed a tryout with the Nova Scotia Voyageurs, the Habs’ AHL affiliate.
“We had agreed to terms with him and he even accepted a generous five figure signing sum,” he said. “Next thing I know come March 1978, he’s on a 5 game trial with Nova Scotia, we never got the money back.”
“I really think Robin is a quitter, even with the trouble we’re having now with injuries to our blue line, I wouldn’t have him back,” said Sather at the time.
Sadler‘s nine-game stint in the AHL was impressive. He collected six points in nine games, but soon after, left once again. He reappeared in Europe playing as a hired gun on the Dutch and Austrian National teams that managed to find some local lineage in Sadler’s family tree.
Some claim Sadler was prone to bouts of anxiety; the ‘70s and ‘80s NHL was a tough era to play in. Yet, who knows what his legacy could have been had he stuck it out as a member of the Oilers or Canadiens.
But as Alice Meynell would say:
“Happiness is not a matter of events, it depends upon the tides of the mind.”
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