June 28 NHL History
1964: The Montreal Canadiens make a franchise-altering trade with the Boston Bruins, although no one knows it at the time.
Shortly after taking 16-year-old goaltender Ken Dryden with the 14th pick in the NHL Draft, the Bruins trade his rights to the Canadiens with Alex Campbell for Guy Allen and Paul Reid. However, Dryden opts for college instead of the pros and goes 76-4-1 in his final three seasons at Cornell before signing with the Canadiens.
He makes his NHL debut late in the 1970-71 season, goes 6-0-0 and is named as Montreal’s playoff starter. Dryden goes on to win 12 of 20 games to help the Canadiens win the Stanley Cup and is awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs.
Dryden wins the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie in 1971-72, helps the Canadiens win another Cup in 1973 and is the backbone of the team that wins four consecutive championships from 1976-79. He retires after the 1978-79 season at age 31.
1993: The New Jersey Devils name Jacques Lemaire as their new coach, replacing Herb Brooks. In the Devils’ first two seasons under Lemaire, they advance to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final in 1994 and sweep the Detroit Red Wings in the Final to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history in 1995.
1994: The biggest news at the NHL Draft in Hartford isn’t the selection of defenseman Ed Jovanovski by the Florida Panthers with the first pick, it’s a blockbuster trade between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Quebec Nordiques. Toronto sends forward Wendel Clark, defenseman Sylvain Lefebvre, forward Landon Wilson and its first-round pick (No. 12) in the draft to Quebec for defenseman Garth Butcher, forward Todd Warriner, the Nordiques’ first-round pick (No. 16) and 23-year-old center Mats Sundin, who goes on to become the highest-scoring player in franchise history (987 points) and is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2012.
2007: The Hockey Hall of Fame announces the election of four players, all in their first year of eligibility. The quartet includes centers Mark Messier and Ron Francis, as well as defensemen Al MacInnis and Scott Stevens. It’s the first time voters elect four players to the Hall in one year since 2001, when Mike Gartner, Viacheslav Fetisov, Jari Kurri and Dale Hawerchuk are inducted.