I lived in Vancouver from 56 to 79, and suffered along with all Canucks fans. Even one of those SC appearances wasn't THAT legit - "King Richard" stood on his head throughout the playoffs and carried the team. Truthfully, though, I wasn't fully aware of the extent of LV's deal. Hard to not be at the very least respectable with a start like that.
And when you compare the cast-offs with whom the Canucks had to make do with LV? Ridiculous. Many of them were legit NHLers, but at the end of their careers. Kurtenbach, Schmautz, Balon...none of them real stars in their best year, although Schmautz did have one beauty while in Boston. And they never had a truly great draft year, until maybe the Sedins.
Thing of it is, though....I don't care about sports any more, although I'll look in on the NFL once in a while. With rare exceptions, the NHL became "dump it in the corner and chase it," which is boring as hell unless you have guys that can bash the other team into submission while doing it. And even that gets old.
I even remember the moment that tore it for me, back in the very early 80s. The NBA draft was a few weeks in the past - not a sport I ever cared about at all - and whoever had drafted this prima donna #4 overall couldn't sign him. He'd never played a single minute as a pro, but couldn't possibly play for the insulting $13,000,000 they were offering.
Whining, entitled, 20-something multi-millionaires. F 'em.
PS...I'm sure you know the story about Montreal buying an entire league to own the rights to Beliveau? There's no exact parallel, of course, but imagine if, say, Tampa could take part in the draft as always, except that they owned the SEC and had their pick of any and all players that came from it. Plus, they could use it as a development league. I bet the word "dynasty" would take on a whole new meaning.
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