Looking back 37 seasons

[Cowboy 20]

Looking Back 37 Seasons

The Scotty Campbell Trade

                                                                                                                                                                                      

I wasn't even alive when former Edmonton Oilers' owner Peter Pocklington sold Wayne Gretzky for $15 Million, but I grew up KNOWING you just don't do that. You don't trade the best player in the game. I honestly never thought something like that could happen in my lifetime. People are smarter nowadays, I used to think. Believe it or not it's been 37 seasons since the VHL's "Great One," Scotty Campbell was dealt to the Seattle Bears. I remember exactly where I was at the time, what I had for breakfast, and that I had to stop what I was doing for a few minutes and consider the repercussions of what had happened.


(S1) C - Scotty Campbell
(S2) LW - Matt Defosse


(S3) C - Mike Szatkowski
(S2) RW - Brannan Anthony
(S1) D - Cody Banks
S5 SEA 1st (D Luciano Marjamaki)

From the outset everyone jumped on the Bears' bandwagon and claimed that Danny Tremblay had performed a miracle with this deal. Tremblay essentially dealt a future #2 career scorer in Szatkowski (573GP, 434G, 537A, 971P) and a future hall-of-famer in Anthony (506GP, 316G, 421A, 737P) for two Continental Cups. Looking at it now and considering what things were at the time, Vasteras GM Lucas Tannahill basically got a value as close as there was at the time for Campbell.  Cody Banks (430GP, 118G, 173A, 291P) had potential at the time, but ended up hitting his ceiling early and Luciano Marjamaki (288GP, 24G, 91A, 115P) was a first rounder who never turned out.

 

I look at this deal and although the circumstances are a lot different than the Gretzky deal, I can't help but compare Lucas Tannahill's situation to that of Oilers' manager Glen Sather. Sather's hand was forced by owner Pocklington and he did what he could to make the sale look like a trade. Tannahill's hand was forced by Campbell and Defosse who wanted out of Vasteras. In both cases, had the trade not happened, you have to think that more championships could and potentially would have been won in those cities.

 

When you're the most powerful man in hockey, you can make demands that others simply cannot; for a decade or more that man was Scotty Campbell.

 

"I wasn't really in favor of moving from Vasteras when the idea of the trade first arose. Scotty approached me about going to Seattle and sold me on the idea. 'We'll win a cup there,' he said. I was going into my sophomore season, I was still pretty young and impressionable and even then Scotty's aura was overwhelming so I just kinda nodded and said 'sure man.' It was obvious that we had good chemistry playing on the same line, so I'm not sure if I was just a casualty of the trade or if Campbell actually wanted me to come to Seattle," recollects an almost 60 year-old Matt Defosse on the trade. "In the end I ended up filling a second and fourth hole to Alex McNeil of all people and left for Helsinki after only the first cup. If anything I think it was the second time Scotty was traded that the values were skewed."

 

Next week we'll be looking at the second Scotty Campbell trade and will talk about the winless Turku Outlaws of the VHLM.

Edited October 11, 2014 by Cowboy

[CoachReilly 688]

Great article, man.

[sterling 1,990]

I'm glad you posted this because I was telling people a few weeks ago that it was more pens fans incompetence that led to this

[Cowboy 20]

Chances are if someone else was GM in Vasteras at the time, Campbell wouldn't have left. I don't remember the exact circumstances on why we left since it was '08

[HawksFan19 89]

Content: 3/3

 

559 words. Great job with this, I didn't actually know who Scotty Campbell was, so I need to learn my VHL history soon! 

 

Grammar: 2/2

 

kinda = kind of

 

Appearance: 1/1

 

Nice.

 

FINAL: 6/6