Few people in history have passed on the opportunity to draft Wayne Gretzky.
In 1977, former Oshawa Generals owner Sherry Bassin held the first overall pick in the Ontario Hockey Association Entry Draft. Bassin, who would later go on to win two gold medals as a GM for Team Canada at the World Juniors, had an eye for young talent. Instead of drafting the player who would go onto set untouchable point totals in the NHL, the Saskatchewan native took future Minnesota North Stars forward Tom McCarthy. Gretzky was later taken by Sault Ste. Marie with the third overall pick.
Both players enjoyed success in junior, but the Great One easily totaled the best single-season. We had an opportunity to speak one-on-one with Bassin and uncover the reason why he passed on Gretzky 40 years ago.
Jesse Pollock: You held the first pick as the general manager of the Oshawa Generals and had the opportunity to draft Wayne Gretzky. Instead, you went with forward Tom McCarthy. Why?
Sherry Bassin: First of all, it was a different kind of draft. It was a full midget draft. It’s a minor midget draft today. It was a full midget draft. It didn’t become a minor midget draft until many years later. In that draft you were allowed one minor midget. Gretzky was a minor midget and was a hell of a player. Everybody knew he was going to be a great player. Our draft used to be like the NHL draft. Now we do it from our own team offices, but we used to get together to do the draft.
About a month before the draft, Wayne Gretzky has a press conference from Indianapolis and he announces that he’s only going to play one year of junior and then go to the World Hockey Association (WHA). I was driving down the 401 towards Oshawa, I was at Kennedy road at 401 and remember distinctly that I just about drove into the concrete barrier. We were drafting, obviously building a team here. We weren’t very good. The year before we lost 16 players and could only dress 19, so we only had three guys back. I got home and called John Humphreys, who owned the team. I said, “John. What do you think if we don’t take Gretzky?” He said, “you’re the hockey guy.” So Frank really liked Rick Lanz as a minor midget, too. He was a defenceman and his family had left Czechoslovakia. Their family crossed the border and left everything. They weren’t sure they were going to let him play junior because they didn’t have much. The week before the draft his father called us and said he would come to Oshawa. So, the fact that Gretzky was going to go to the WHA and we were trying to build a team, and Frank J. had a lot of faith in Tom McCarthy impacted the decision. So we took Tom McCarthy, and then we took Rick Lanz in the third round as a minor midget. Both of them became All-Stars. But, you had to see the feedback. I mean, Oshawa was outraged we didn’t take Gretzky.
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JP: Were people coming after you with pitchforks?
SB: Oh my God. It was on talk radio and articles were written about it in the paper. My wife Gene was concerned about the kids at school. I remember people writing stuff about “this young general manager”. Anyway, we opened the schedule in the Sault. The people of Oshawa took the Generals very seriously, and oh yeah, people were talking about beating me up. So we opened against the Sault and got beat 6-1, and Gretzky gets three goals and three assists. Talk about haunting! Man, you should have heard it. A radio announcer called me up and the first question he asked was “what’d you think of Gretzky’s game?” So I sarcastically said to him, “if he got seven points, it would have really been impressive.” I was just trying to be sarcastic.
A week or two later we were playing them in Oshawa, I’ll never forget it. That’s when ties counted. We were ahead 4-3 and Tom McCarthy had a hat-trick. Gretzky was parked in his office behind the net and set up the tying goal with about 30-some seconds to go. Our rink held around 4,000, and 3,900 of them turned and pointed at me. People wanted my head!
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Anyway, because I had Connor McDavid play for me in Erie, I would have loved the fact that I could have said that I worked with Wayne Gretzky, too. I could have had a chance to be with some of the all-time greats for numerous generations. The Sault. had a pretty good year, a matter of fact they got into the playoffs, upset the first round, and got beat out. Ties counted in eight games by Ottawa, so they went a long way. Then Gretzky went to the WHA, and we went to third place overall and never went under .500. for 13 years. Lanz played three years, McCarthy played two before getting drafted eighth overall by Minnesota. Sault. struggled when he [Gretzky] left. Do I regret it? Of, he was a superstar so you regret it from that standpoint. People to this day still say “that’s the guy that didn’t draft Gretzky.”. To think I would have been involved with him and likely created a lifetime relationship like I have with Connor McDavid.
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JP: Have you ever talked to Wayne about passing on him in the draft?
SB: No. Wayne was very respectful of me, bought into the idea of building a team and always called me Mr. Bassin.
JP: Did you win a Memorial Cup with McCarthy?
SB: No he was gone. But he helped lead us from the depths of nowhere, to establish a tradition.
JP: Can you talk about McCarthy as a player?
SB: He had 47 goals as a rookie!
JP: If you could go back to 1977 at the OHA Draft, and you had that first overall pick again, would you do things differently?
SB: I don’t know. It’s easy to say with a Superstar like that. The point is that we were building a team and he was only going to be there for a year. He made a phenomenal impact in one year, though. As a 15-year-old, he was the leader of the Sault. Greyhounds. He took them to the second round of the playoffs. They didn’t have a very good team either obviously because they picked third. You don’t look back and say ifs and buts.
JP: As usual, we always close out our interviews by asking if you can go bar-down. So, what’s the answer?
SB: (Laughs) That’s great. Tat’s how you close out your interviews?
JP: That’s how we do it!
SB: (Laughs) Yes.
