In hockey history, you could argue that the Trinity is divided into three unequivocal things. First is Foster Hewitt’s call on the goal that ended the ’72 Summit Series, second is the Stanley Cup of course, and the third is the Great One, blessed be his holy name.
The man we’re talking about has touched two of these things, one he still has to this day, the other he let go to save the finances of a folding hockey team in Indianapolis.
The first time I came across Pat Stapleton, the man who owns what could arguably be part one of Canada’s Holy Grail, he was getting grilled on his decision to keep the Paul Henderson puck ‘til the Summit Series anniversary in 2012. “I was thinking my grandkids could shoot it into a snow-bank,” Stapleton said half-seriously to Joe Warmington,
Stapleton was on that Summit Series team, and has said he was the last person to touch the winning puck on Moscow ice, scooping it up before Team Canada left the ice.
“I was about to shoot it down the ice, but something came over me,” he said.
In modern NHL history, his career numbers and size would have reminded some of Brian Rafalski or Dan Boyle. Stapleton wasn’t a big defenseman at 5’8 but like both players, he made up for it with leadership extraordinaire, so much so, that he became the ‘player/coach’ combination on the Indianapolis Racers
“And… GM of sorts,” says Stapleton.
On November 3, 1973, the day Good Morning America premiered on ABC, the financially challenged Racers put Stapleton in charge of liquidating the team’s most valuable on-ice asset. The player was a young Canadian by the name of Wayne Gretzky that owner Nelson Skalbania had signed for $850,000 a year. ‘The Great One’, as he would later on be named.
Stephen Brunt would write in his book (Gretzky‘s Tears) that Stapleton had a vivid animosity towards Gretzky and disliked him almost instantly on arrival. The Racers asked for $1.7 million to buy Gretzky, the highest price ever for a player at that time. When the Winnipeg Jets got cold feet, Oilers owner Peter Pocklington would move in with a cash-in-hand deal that was irresistible for the Racers.
Edmonton signed Gretzky to a 21-year agreement that was rumored to pay Gretzky between $4 and $5 million for his entire career.
Stapleton didn’t get paid for his last year in Indianapolis and threatened to sue.
The Canadiens wouldn’t approach Stapleton at the time per UPI’s Mike Shalin.
“Sam Pollock had surprised everybody by retiring just before the start of the season, literally a week before the Gretzky deal fell into Pock’s lap,” he said. “The Canadiens had enough talent to fill two teams and didn’t flinch.”
Digging further into the subject it became clear that the newly minted Irving Grundman was slow to understand the shifting dynamics of the NHL and would lose Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman as well as a few players despite winning another Stanley Cup in 1979. A member of the ’79 Canadiens staff said the following:
“Irving had enough trouble finding toughness around Lafleur and the team was littered with salary disputes. Gretzky had done well with the Racers in the pre-season but his lack of size and the price tag were too much of a risk in his book to add to what he already had to contend with. Who could have guessed that 1978 Gretzky would turn into 1982 Gretzky at that time.”
Stapleton would say:
“A lot of teams refused to take the risk on Gretzky and the Habs were not alone.”
Predictably enough, the closest Gretzky would ever come to the North East division was in ’97, if you’re to believe Al Strachan’s book ‘Why the Leafs suck, and how they can be fixed’. Strachan revealed how in ’97, Cliff Fletcher offered Gretzky a contract that was turned down by then owner Steve Stavro.
The only taste the Canadiens would get of seeing what could have been of a Gretzky-Lafleur combination was in the 1981 Canada Cup. Gretzky set up Lafleur for a goal against Sweden from behind the net to a streaking Demon Blond, beating team Sweden phenom goalie Pelle Lindbergh.
Rumors swirled for years of a car accident involving both players during the tournament.
Lafleur’s career slowed down after ’81 while Gretzky’s soared.
Dream on of what could have been, Habs fans.
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