Toronto Maple Leafs: The Very Real Story About a Completely Fictitious NHL Player

The NHL Entry Draft helps teams get the rights to actual players. This is the story of one exception perpetrated by a former Toronto Maple Leafs GM.

The late great George “Punch” Imlach, one of the best general managers to ever run the Toronto Maple Leafs, went rogue in 1974. He was behind what may have been the greatest practical joke the NHL has ever seen, having a fictitious player be inscribed into the record books.

In order to fully explain the birth of the imaginary man who would now be 65 years old, we need to go back and trace his “father”, Imlach’s, history.(Note: this is an old, well known story. I have filled in facts and numbers with information from Wikipedia).

Imlach was the Toronto Maple Leafs GM from November 22, 1958, to April 6, 1969, and then again from July 4, 1979, to October 1981. After butting heads with Stafford Smythe over Imlach’s refusal to hire John McLellan to coach the Leafs, their relationship was strained.

Though it wasn’t a popular decision with star Toronto Maple Leafs Johnny Bower and Tim Horton, when the team was eliminated from the playoffs that season, Imlach’s fate was determined. Smythe fired him with a year remaining on his contract.

Imlach wouldn’t be kept out of work for long. In 1970 he was offered a job by both expansion teams, the Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres. He accepted the offer from the Sabres, which made him the team’s first coach and general manager.

One of Imlach’s first actions as the team’s GM was to draft Gilbert Perreault with the first overall draft pick in the 1970 NHL Entry Draft. The Maple Leafs took Darryl Sittler that year in the eighth slot.

By 1974 Imlach had already drafted close to five dozen players between Buffalo and Toronto. To say that he had a handle on the process would be an understatement. He understood the rigors of listening over the telephone and making his selections, as was the procedure then for all 25 rounds of the draft.

Imlach decided to break up the monotony of the process by working with the Sabres’ PR Director, Paul Wieland, to concoct a practical joke to play on NHL president Clarence Campbell. They created a fictitious player named Taro Tsujimoto.

Tsujimoto was said to play center on the Tokyo Katanas, a team that was also cooked up as part of the elaborate joke. With nearly no scouting presence in Asia at the time, it was the perfect creation. No one from the NHL would be able to identify that Tsujumoto didn’t exist.

When the 1974 draft hit the eleventh round, Imlach made his move. He chose Tsujimoto with the Sabres’ 183rd overall pick. No one from the league questioned the pick despite the Japan Ice Hockey League (JIHL) having five teams and none of them located in Tokyo. Katanas, which are Japanese swords, was the chosen name for Tsujimoto’s team because it was very similar to the word Sabres.

There were still many more picks that followed Tsujimoto including one that Imlach made in the 12th round for Bob Geoffrion.

The Toronto Maple Leafs took Marty Feschuk two picks later. Decent NHL players were still drafted beyond Tsujimoto as well. Dave Lumley went to the Montreal Canadiens at 199th.

He played just a handful of games for the Habs before having a long career with the Edmonton Oilers. At 214th, the New York Islanders picked Stefan Persson. He spent his entire career with the franchise, tallying 369 points and 574 penalty minutes in 622 games.

It was revealed that Tsujimoto was a figment of Imlach’s imagination just prior to the 1974-75 Sabres training camp. In response, the NHL changed the pick to read “invalid claim” in their record books.

While the league wasn’t amused by Imlach’s shenanigans it must not have bothered the Leafs since they brought him back five years later, just in time for him to dismantle the team.