Your discription doesn’t tell the whole story. Everyone believed bure hadn’t played the minimum 11 international games that u needed to be selected after round 3. Come 5th round, Detroit wanted to take him but like everyone they thought they couldn’t, and confirmed with the league who also thought they couldn’t. But then Vancouver came in an drafted him 6th and proved he had the required 11 games as that Vancouver scout was the only Scout at 1 game and no one else knew about it because he was a last minute addition to the lineup. The only place it was written was in an IIHF scoresheet. The Canucks has to prove that and they did shortly after the draft, but during the draft they still were told it wasn’t a legal pick. Detroit could’ve done the same thing but they didn’t want to take the risk of wasting a pick. The only reason the canucks knows was because one scout had been keeping a very close eye on bure for over a year.

Therefore, the nhl didn’t “screw anyone”. The red wings asked if they could draft him regardless of the rules and the nhl said no. No one knew about the extra game except for Vancouver. And the nhl told Vancouver it was a wasted pick as soon as they made it. But the canucks provided proof of the 11th game and the rest is history.

I don’t understand why Detroit fans are so mad about this, they could’ve drafted him if they were brave enough to take the risk. The truth is they weren’t and Vancouver was and was also better prepared and Vancouver benefitted because of that. The truth is that to everyone, bure was an illegal pick

That scout was legend Mike Penny by the way.

Also I don’t think I need to say this but...”hindsight is 20/20”

"Christer Rockstrom, who was our European scout, spent the next 45 minutes convincing Jim Devollano and chief scout Neil Smith to take Bure, because he had to have played I think seven or nine games in the Russian men’s league to be eligible for any round, so if he played any less he was only in the three first rounds.

“Two picks before we picked, Vancouver took him and proved what Christer Rockstrom was convincing us that we could." - Ken Holland
Seems the NHL had nothing to do with it

As a Canucks fan, I actually think they fudged the numbers. It wasn't Mike Penny, it was Igor Kuperman who was hired by Larionov, who was playing for the Canucks, to do some "research". Boris Mikhailov, the assistant coach of CKSA supplied Kuperman with the evidence. Mikhailov and Larionov had known each other for years and the story was that Larionov paid Mikhailov to falsify the 11th game papers.

Mike Penny got the credit but he was just camouflage for the russians.

In generalization I'm not gonna write a novel explaining every damn detail when ppl can google it...i have a damn life....yes NHL DID SCREW RedWings cuz today ALL THE RULES would be acknowledged & known by teams NHL WOULD HAVE WRITTEN GUIDELINES NO EXCEPTIONS ..NHL Would know ..not just one team...so yes ..wings got screwed out of BURE ..& it matters.. cuz its fun to think of what ifs.. especially when a pandemic shuts down the world leaving fans nothing to watch & now social unrest ....so yes..if I wanna use the what if ..which actually would've been real...i will & don't need to explain anything to you or anyone..period..so have fun ..guess I'll have to make sure u explain ..every detail or your future posts now too...lol ..oh never mind..i have a life..bye

You would think the NHL would have a player of Bure's ability on the appropriate list where/where not he could be drafted. Even if the draft rounds were incorrect, it would have let all the teams know the draft eligiblity of Bure, instead of the flip/flop of his eligibility.

Exactly..it wouldn't happen today

My point is that the nhl didn’t just screw Detroit out of him, if they screwed anyone they screwed everyone because they didn’t know he eligible. The truth is that Detroit didn’t know about that 11th game but Vancouver did because they had been keeping a very close eye on bure. They had down their due diligence which is why they got him, Detroit didn’t.

The league should've known & let it be known..PERIOD..so again yes ..redwings screwed..

Sure but it’s not fair to say the red wings were the only ones. The canucks benefitted because they did their homework...the red wings did not

Life's not fair...as we all know now.. In hockey terms ..heal its ok to admit nhl screwed up..lol

I don’t care tbh. It was a technicality that the nhl missed along with every club and Scout in the nhl expect for Vancouver. If the nhl was wrong so was every other team. It’s just wrong to say the nhl ripped off the red wings exclusively

Nope