Small trades with big results is a series that looks at trades throughout NHL history that seemed small or insignificant at the time but turned out to be much, much more. In this installment, we look at how Ray Bourque ended up with the Boston Bruins.
Small NHL Trades with Big Results: Ray Bourque
Seems like teams were eager to trade their draft picks in the now famous 1979 draft. Rogie Vachon had been the goaltender of the Los Angeles Kings since 1971. He held every significant goaltending record for the Kings. So when he signed with the Detroit Red Wings in 1978, the Kings were understandably looking for a new NHL ready goalie. Backup Gary Simmons also left the Kings after 1978, so the Kings had a huge void. The Kings did have Mario Lessard on their roster, but they were clearly looking for an upgrade.
The Trade
The Los Angeles Kings traded their 1979 first-round pick to the Boston Bruins for goaltender Ron Grahame. The Bruins had a bit of an excess of goaltending depth at the time. Along with Grahame, they had an ageing Gerry Cheevers and Gilles Gilbert between the pipes, so they were comfortable moving on from one of them.
Kings
Ron Grahame
Grahame was a standout at the University of Denver from 1968 to 1973. He was named an All-American in his final season at Denver. He signed with the Houston Aeros following his college career, in 1973. After a season with the Aeros minor league affiliate, Grahame joined the Aeros for the 1974-75 season. In his first season with the Aeros, he led the league in wins, shutouts and goals-against average and also backstopped the Aeros to an AVCO Cup victory. He would win the Ben Hatskin Trophy as the league’s top goaltender as well as the WHA playoff MVP. Grahame’s strong play would continue, which included a second Hatskin Trophy in 1977.
Following the 1977 season, Grahame signed as a free agent with the NHL’s Boston Bruins. Grahame continued his strong play with the Bruins. He started 40 games and posted a 26-6-3 record. He had a 2.76 goals-against average and three shutouts. In the playoffs, however, Grahame only played in four games, seeding the starting role to future Hall of Famer Gerry Cheevers.
Bruins
Ray Bourque (1979 first-round pick)
Ray Bourque did not enter into the QMJHL with much fanfare. He was a third-round pick of the Trois-Riveres Draveurs in 1976. He was traded to the Sorel Blackhawks after 30 games in his rookie year. Still, Bourque had a strong showing in his rookie campaign, scoring 12 goals and 48 points split between Trois-Riveres and Sorel. Sorel relocated to Verdun for the 1977-78 season. In his first season in Verdun, Bourque exploded scoring 22 goals and 79 points. He was named a first-team All-Star. Things got even better for Bourque in 1978-79 when he scored 22 goals and 93 points and won the Emile Bouchard Trophy as the league’s top defenceman.
An interesting side story to this whole situation was the Bruins had their sights set on another player with the eighth overall pick. It’s been said that then Bruins GM Harry Sinden had designs to pick Portland Winter Hawks defenceman, Keith Brown. When the Chicago Blackhawks selected Brown at seventh overall, the Bruins were left scrambling and settled on Bourque, apparently against their better judgement.
The Aftermath
Kings
Ron Grahame had displayed an ability to be a good starting goalie in the NHL and at only 28-years-old, the Kings thought they had their starting goalie for years to come. Unfortunately, Grahame failed to impress the Kings. Grahame was unable to unseat Mario Lessard as the Kings starter for the 1979-80 season. He would play in Los Angeles for two seasons before being traded to the Quebec Nordiques in 1980. Grahame would retire from hockey following the 1980-81 season. Lessard would be the Kings starting goalie for the next five seasons.
Bruins
Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. That’s what the Bruins must have been feeling after Ray Bourque debuted in the 1979-80 season. Bourque quickly established himself as one of the best defencemen in the league. He set an NHL record for rookie defenceman scoring with 65 points en route to winning the Calder Trophy as the rookie of the year. He was also named a first-team All-Star, the first non-goalie to hold the distinction (Calder Trophy and first-team All-Star).
By 1985 Bourque was named co-captain of the Bruins and would be named sole captain in 1988. His 13 years as the sole captain of the Bruins set an NHL record at the time. Bourque developed into an all-time great player in Boston. He would win five Norris Trophies as the league’s top defenceman. He was a true two-way defenceman who excelled offensively while not sacrificing his defensive responsibilities. Bourque was such a force that he finished runner-up to Mark Messier for the 1990 Hart Trophy in the closest race in league history, the two players were separated by two votes. Bourque led the Bruins to two Stanley Cup appearances, in 1988 and 1990. Unfortunately, the Bruins would lose to the Edmonton Oilers on both occasions.
All-Time Great
Ray Bourque would be named a first-team All-Star 13 times, an NHL record. In his career, Bourque has played in 1,612 games, scoring 410 goals, 1,169 assists for 1,579 points. Bourque is 11th all-time (4th among defenceman) in games played, fourth all-time in assists (top defenceman), 11th all-time in points (top defenceman) and the all-time leader in goals among defenceman. He is the Bruins career leader in games played (1,518), assists (1,111) and points (1,506). Bourque had an incredibly accurate shot and is the all-time leader in shots on goal with 6,206 and an eight-time winner of the NHL All-Star game shot accuracy competition. Bourque was named to the NHL All-Star game for 19 consecutive seasons.
He finished his career with the Colorado Avalanche, where he would finally win the Stanley Cup in 2001. Bourque would retire following the 2001 season and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004.
Big Things Can Have Small Beginning
This one hurts for several reasons if you are a Kings fan. First trading away a pick that would become an all-time great hurts enough, but if they were able to at least get a serviceable player in return there could have been a rationale behind the move. The Kings didn’t even get that. Ron Grahame failed spectacularly with the Kings. Even more frustrating for the Kings is that their goalie of the future was already on their roster in Mario Lessard.
For the Bruins, they must thank their lucky stars the Kings were willing to part with their first-round pick, and then again when Chicago passed on Bourque. If you grew up watching hockey in the 80s and 90s there was no player more synonymous with a team than Ray Bourque with the Boston Bruins. He let the league know right away he was going to be a force and kept it up for his entire career. In an interesting conclusion to this story, Ron Grahame’s son John Grahame would also go on to be an NHL goalie and was a (brief) teammate of Bourque with the Bruins in the 1999-00 season.
Another franchise-altering trade made at or around the 1979 draft. Still, there is one more trade that had its conclusion playout at the 1979 draft and that’s what we will see in the next installment.
