Taro Tsujimoto - Junior Review

[Gustav 6,468]

 

Taro Tsujimoto is a name which stands out to many a hockey fan who's read up on their hockey history. Born in 1954, he became the first-ever Japanese player selected in the NHL draft twenty years later, going to the Buffalo Sabres in the eleventh round to a fair amount of local media attention. Though he put up only fairly average numbers with the Tokyo Katanas, his team in Japan (putting up 15 goals in his pre-draft season, hardly NHL numbers), fans and reporters eagerly awaited his arrival in Buffalo to meet with the team and potentially set a new mark in the history of the sport, becoming a symbol of global interest and diversity. For weeks, questions were asked--where was Taro, when would he show up, what was the team planning for him--and for weeks, these questions were non-answered with explanations that his travel had been delayed due to legal complications and that it was unclear when the NHL would see its first Japanese draftee. Eventually, rumors floated about, and some news broke to the surface--neither Taro, nor his team, ever even existed.

 

...that is, until 46 years after the fact, when a 20-year-old Japanese hockey player walked into the training facility of the Ottawa Lynx and was offered a roster position on the spot. "Yeah, I actually did exist," said Taro to news outlets in Ottawa at a press conference Tuesday night. "I go to bed before my flight over, and the next thing I know I wake up and it's 2020. Must have been some sort of weird time-warp thing or something."

 

Tsujimoto looked around for a job in the NHL, hoping to be invited to a training camp or two, but was rejected by just about every team, including the Sabres--who cited his "initiative and drive to succeed" as being "in direct contrast with team philosophy". After being turned down by his fourteenth NHL team in the Ottawa Senators, he saw a few Lynx jerseys on the street, asked around, and found his way into the VHLM, where he's found himself off to a solid start and being scouted early on as a potential top prospect after, well, stepping out onto the ice in a brand-new playing environment, in a brand-new era where the game is entirely different, and putting up three points in his first four games. Only time will tell whether he's able to turn his solid start into a bright and shining career, but at the moment, he's ready to make the most of his time in the minors and do what spacetime kept him out of in the '70s--prove himself to a big-league club and make history.

[Spaz 297]

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