1971 NHL Intra-League Draft

The 1971 Intra-League Draft was known more for the antics of Punch Imlach than the transactions themselves.

The draft was held June 8. Each team protected 18 skaters and two goalies. When a goalie was lost another could be added to the protected list as a fill-in. The draft price was $40,000.

Overall	Player Chosen	By	From	Player Removed From Protected List	Claim player or cash
Round 1
1	Wayne Carleton	California Golden Seals	Boston Bruins	Gerry Ehman	cash
2	Al Smith	Detroit Red Wings	Pittsburgh Penguins	Jim Rutherford	claim
3	Dennis Kearns	Vancouver Canucks	Chicago Black Hawks	Murray Hall	cash
4	Dave Burrows	Pittsburgh Penguins	Chicago Black Hawks	Dean Prentice	cash
5	Ray McKay	Buffalo Sabres	Chicago Black Hawks	Jean-Guy Talbot	cash
6	Gary Edwards	Los Angeles Kings	Buffalo Sabres	Bruce Landon	cash
	pass	Minnesota North Stars
7	Larry Brown	Philadelphia Flyers	New York Rangers	Larry Hillman	cash
8	Don Marshall	Toronto Maple Leafs	Buffalo Sabres	Brian Marchinko	cash
9	Mike Parizeau	St. Louis Blues	New York Rangers	Claude Laforge	cash
	pass	Montreal Canadiens
	pass	Chicago Black Hawks
	pass	New York Rangers
	pass	Boston Bruins
Round 2
10	Frank Hughes	California Golden Seals	Toronto Maple Leafs	Doug Roberts	cash
11	Fred Speck	Vancouver Canucks	Detroit Red Wings	Ron Ward	cash
12	Tim Horton	Pittsburgh Penguins	New York Rangers	Bob Blackburn	cash
13	Rene Robert	Buffalo Sabres	Toronto Maple Leafs	Floyd Smith	cash
14	Frank Spring	Philadelphia Flyers	Boston Bruins	Garry Peters	claim
Round 3
15	Stan Gilbertson	California Golden Seals	Boston Bruins	Bill Hicke	cash
16	Rey Comeau	Vancouver Canucks	Montreal Canadiens	Jim Wiste	cash
17	Hugh Harris	Buffalo Sabres	Montreal Canadiens	Paul Andrea	cash
18	Brian Lavender	Minnesota North Stars	Montreal Canadiens	Bob Murdoch	claim
Round 4
	Dick Duff	Buffalo Sabres	Buffalo Sabres	Rene Robert
19	Rene Robert	Pittsburgh Penguins	Buffalo Sabres	Wally Boyer	cash
Round 5
	Reg Fleming	Buffalo Sabres	Buffalo Sabres	Hugh Harris
Round 6
20	Danny Lawson	Buffalo Sabres	Minnesota North Stars	Reg Fleming	cash
Round 7
	Reg Fleming	Buffalo Sabres	Buffalo Sabres	Dick Duff
Round 8
21	Rod Zaine	Buffalo Sabres	Pittsburgh Penguins	Reg Fleming	cash
Round 9
	Reg Fleming	Buffalo Sabres	Buffalo Sabres	Rod Zaine
Round 10
22	Tom Miller	Buffalo Sabres	Detroit Red Wings	Reg Fleming	cash
Round 11
	Reg Fleming	Buffalo Sabres	Buffalo Sabres	Tom Miller
Round 12
23	Ken Murray	Buffalo Sabres	Toronto Maple Leafs	Reg Fleming	cash
Round 13
	Reg Fleming	Buffalo Sabres	Buffalo Sabres	Ken Murrary

(Note: After goalies Al Smith and Gary Edwards were drafted the Penguins and Sabres filled in their protected lists with Paul Hoganson and Rocky Farr, respectively.)

As you can see from the results the Sabres had no problem bending the rules a bit to get what they wanted. You see, there was nothing that said a team couldn't draft one of its own unprotected players. Punch Imlach used 35-year-old Reg Fleming, who because of his age and his salary was not likely to be picked by another team anyway, as a pawn. Fleming was 'drafted' and 'dropped' nine times, and in the process the Sabres acquired four players well after the rest of the teams were done drafting. As Imlach drafted a player from another team he'd drop Fleming, who wasn't claimed, and then reclaim him in the next round by dropping the player he'd just drafted. If the drafted player was claimed by another team the Sabres didn't really stand to lose anything: they'd get the $40,000 back from having drafted the player in the first place and they were right back were they started. If they lost Fleming to another team, so what? He was 35; he never played another game in the NHL after this anyway.

Trivia for you: Rene Robert was drafted from the Maple Leafs by the Sabres in the second round but was lost to the Penguins in the fourth round as Punch Imlach was reshuffling his list of players. Imlach wanted to have Robert on his team but ended up having to trade Eddie Shack to the Penguins in 1972 to finally get him.

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NHL Draft Results