Sam Pollock

Mm-hmm.

And that was per the Molson family at the time, and Sam Pollock, and Frank Selke Sr.

At the time.

They wanted guys to have an insurance policy with one year to go-

I know his wife, you know.

I, I cheer for a guy like that.

I call him Sam Pollock Jr., that's what I'm calling him.

[laughs]

Uh, he was drafted, like, 170th or something.

The Canadians and Sam Pollock would never stop the draft until they were done selecting players.

That's how they got Chris Nilan.

But, um, Rick Green, somebody said, "Isn't it, uh, kind of ironic, though, that they did end up with the number one pick in the '76 draft?" That was Rick Green, key member of the team that won in '86.

Yeah.

Sam Pollock wasn't a hockey player, he was a baseball man.

He's the best general manager in the history of hockey.

Yep.

Guy Lafleur was the prize of the National Hockey League draft, going back to the early 70s.

And Sam Pollock, who's considered by many to be the greatest GM in National Hockey League history, They owned the California Golden Seals first overall pick.

The Habs did.

The Montreal Canadiens did.

Sam Pollock, the GM of the Canadiens.

The Los Angeles Kings were threatening the Golden Seals to be the worst team in the National Hockey League.

And as a result, the Habs wouldn't have the first overall pick.

And Sam Pollock sent a player by the name of, a solid veteran player by the name of Ralph Backstrom to the Kings to help them get better.

Oh, what's the matter? Do you

remember, I'm trying to remember, I think his name, the family name was Pollock, the guy used to own the Montreal Canadiens, and he lived on Monkland just around the corner from the house I grew up

in.

Yeah, not Pollock.

You're thinking of Sam Pollock? Is that who you're thinking of? I think so.

Okay,

yeah.

in in my notes that i sent you this morning i said there's kind of a downtown abbey connection and that's because it was a big deal from around eighteen eighty two uh... nineteen twenty uh... really really super rich american barons wanted their daughters to be royalty or to be noble so that they would i and and the problem was in england the nobles were being taxed for the first time and they were running out of money and they couldn't run their estates You would have an American, and they'd come in with millions and millions and millions of dollars, and they would get to be a duchess or something like that.

But the injuries, they were catching up with him.

By the end of the 1969-70 season, Jean was having thoughts of retirement, but general manager Sam Pollock convinced him to play one more season.

They needed a leader that could take the Canadians through the 1970s.

Jean agreed and in 1970-71, he recorded 76 points in 70 games and won his 10th Stanley Cup with the team.

I mean, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

You know, if Ken Dryden hadn't come along, the Bruins would have won three in a row in my youth, and I wouldn't hate Sam Pollock with the fire of a thousand suns.

Lots of things could be different, but they're not.

We are living in this reality, and there's not another one coming along.

But, uh, there, there were so many others.

Sam Pollock unloaded guys with a year or two years of fairly good level of hockey, pro hockey or NHL level of hockey ability left, and got draft picks from Jack Kent Cooke.

I mean, you, you just go on and on.

They were just guaranteed to be top three picks, too, between them and the Seals, and he was robbing both teams.