BY: PAT KOSTER
The NHL tweeted recently, asking, “What’s the greatest hockey name of all time?”
I started racking my brain for the best of the best.
There’s my personal favorite, Johnny Oduya. There’s the longest-ever full name for an NHLer in Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond. Then there’s some other fun ones to say: Boone Jenner, Jordin Tootoo, Tie Domi, Radek Bonk, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Cal Clutterbuck – the list goes on.
I got to thinking about some names I grew up with. Former Sabres like Alexei Zhitnik, Richard Smehlik, Maxim Afinogenov and Ales Kotalik can still be heard in my head, called out in Rick Jeanneret’s signature play-by-play. There was that time in second grade I wore a Miroslav Satan jersey to school and my teacher thought I worshipped the Devil.
While all of those names are great, it still felt like one was better than all the rest. I just couldn’t remember his name. Maybe the reason I forgot his name was because he never existed in the first place.
I’m talking, of course, about former Buffalo Sabres center Taro Tsujimoto.
Tsujimoto was the Sabres’ 183rd overall in the 1974 NHL Draft. He was the first player drafted from the Japan Ice Hockey League (JIHL). While he had a bright career ahead of him, Tsujimoto never made his NHL debut because he wasn’t a real person.
Unfortunately, fictional hockey players like Taro can’t skate, pass or shoot, but their legend can live on in a weird piece of Sabres history.
As the story goes, the early NHL Drafts weren’t open to the public. They were allowed to go beyond nine rounds if teams were still drafting players.
During the 11th round of the 1974 Draft, Sabres General Manager and Coach George “Punch” Imlach was getting fed up. Imlach thought the late rounds were a waste of time, as many of the players selected later on had little to no shot at making the team.
An NHL.com article by Erin Pollina describes what Imlach did, making for one of the best pranks in Sabres history:
“Sending a secretary to find some common Japanese names, Imlach soon came up with the imaginary Taro Tsujimoto of the Tokyo Katanas – literally translating to the Tokyo Sabres (Katana is a type of Japanese samurai sword).”
Apparently, when asked for the draft choice, Imlach was met with laughter from around the NHL. International scouting wasn’t a big thing back then, let alone selecting a player from Tokyo. While the JIHL did exist, Tokyo didn’t even have a team at the time.
As ridiculous as it was, people seemed to buy it. Tsujimoto’s name was printed in every NHL record book and media guide that season. Reporters even asked Imlach when Tsujimoto would arrive in Buffalo, to which Imlach would say he would be coming soon.
Imlach finally gave up the gag prior to the start of training camp, but Tsujimoto is still listed in some publications to this day.
So, Sabres fans, whenever you’re talking about good hockey names, the Draft, or reminiscing on the glory days, remember Taro Tsujimoto.
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