1987 NHL Waiver Draft

The 1987 Waiver Draft was held on October 5. The rules were the same as they were in 1986, except that non-playoff clubs were only allowed to choose to not drop a player from their protected lists when they made a selection in the first rounds of exclusive selections amongst themselves. In '86 they were afforded this luxury in any round.

Player	Picked by	Picked from	Player dropped from protected list	Cash or claim?
Round 1
Kevin Maguire	Buffalo Sabres	Toronto Maple Leafs	none	$40,000
Reijo Ruotsalainen	New Jersey Devils	Edmonton Oilers	none	cash
Randy Boyd	Vancouver Canucks	New York Islanders	none	cash
Al Tuer	Minnesota North Stars	Edmonton Oilers	none	cash
Charlie Simmer	Pittsburgh Penguins	Boston Bruins	none	$2,500
Round 2
Risto Siltanen	New Jersey Devils	Quebec Nordiques	none	cash
Round 3
all non-playoff clubs passed
Round 4
Tim Tookey	Los Angeles Kings	Philadelphia Flyers	Dave Williams	cash
Glen Cochrane	Chicago Blackhawks	Vancouver Canucks	Jack O'Callahan	cash
Bill Root	St. Louis Blues	Hartford Whalers	Doug Wickenheiser	claim
Willi Plett	Boston Bruins	New York Rangers	Dave Reid	cash
Round 5
Ed Hospodar	Buffalo Sabres	Philadelphia Flyers	Dave Fenyves	claim
Jack O'Callahan	New Jersey Devils	Chicago Blackhawks	Risto Siltanen	cash
Doug Wickenheiser	Vancouver Canucks	Hartford Whalers	Brent Peterson	claim
Stu Kulak	Quebec Nordiques	New York Rangers	Richard Zemlak	claim
Round 6
Richard Zemlak	Minnesota North Stars	New York Rangers	Al Tuer	cash

This was easily the busiest waiver draft ever up to that point. 17 players changed hands as a result of 15 draft picks. Doug Wickenheiser and Richard Zemlak were members of the Whalers and Rangers respectively for mere minutes: when the Blues took Bill Root from the Whalers in the fourth round the Blues dropped Wickenheiser from their protected list, and the Whalers claimed him as compensation for Root in lieu of cash. However, he was not placed on the Whalers' protected list. In the fifth round Wickenheiser was taken from the Whalers by the Canucks. Similarly Zemlak was dropped when the Nordiques chose Stu Kulak from the Rangers, and in the next round was taken from the Rangers by the North Stars.


Some sources state that two other players changed hands during this waiver draft: Mark Lamb from the Red Wings to the Oilers and Paul Fenton from the Rangers to the Kings. I have not found any period sources to substantiate this. I suspect they may have been offered on waivers later that same day for a reduced draft price (teams were free to set whatever waiver price they wanted up to the maximum).

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1988 Waiver Draft→

NHL Draft Results