30 Years Ago, Red Wings' First Foray Into Free Agency Was Free From Success

As adept and cunning as the Red Wings are today with money and navigating their way around the rules of free agency and salary caps -- no team does it better, in any sport, in my opinion -- it wasn't always that way, of course. The money has been tossed out the window carelessly, never to show any return on the investment. This was particularly true in the mid-1980s, when a haphazard foray into free agency, both pro and college, failed miserably in the form of a 40-point season in '85-'86.

But that was hardly the first instance of tomfoolery when it came to money.

30 years ago this week, the Red Wings dove into expensive free agency for the first time in their history, and its utter lack of success and legal drama that ensued perfectly befitted their Keystone Kops-like escapades of the 1970s and early-1980s.

The ironic thing is that the Wings looked like they were onto something in the summer of 1978. They had emerged from the muck of a 41-point season in '77 and, behind new GM Ted Lindsay and new coach Bobby Kromm, the Red Wings improved to 78 points and made the playoffs. They upended the Atlanta Flames in the 2-of-3 mini-series, and split the first two games in Montreal before losing that series in five games. The team appeared to finally be leaving the horrors of the Ned Harkness Era behind them.

But goaltender Rogatien Vachon, once a crown jewel for the Los Angeles Kings (pun intended), became a free agent after the '77-'78 season. Despite the fact that the Red Wings' weakness was their offense, and not so much their goalies (they had Jimmy Rutherford, Eddie Giacomin, and Ron Low -- who weren't great but very serviceable), Lindsay saw Vachon and got some ideas.

It should be mentioned here that the NHL didn't really have "free" free agency back in 1978. No one was truly unrestricted, as they can be today. In Vachon's case, any team that signed him would be indebted to the Kings, and would have to provide them with compensation. Despite that caveat, Lindsay plunged ahead, signing Vachon, who was 32 and had his best years behind him, to a fat contract in August, 1978. Today, a 32-year-old goalie isn't that off-putting. But back then, before the intense conditioning and supreme physical shape that players engage in today, that was a little on the old side for a netminder who began his career in the 1960s.

Almost immediately, in the wake of the media frenzy surrounding Vachon's signing by the Red Wings, trouble ensued.

The league deemed that, as compensation to the Kings, the Red Wings would send second-year center Dale McCourt to LA. Quite a price to pay for a goalie in his 30s, but that's what the NHL mandated. Lindsay's smile, which ran from ear-to-ear as the cameras snapped Vachon signing his contract, vanished. The Red Wings were getting rooked, as usual.

McCourt, in his rookie season, had scored 33 goals. He was only 21 years old. The Red Wings looked at him as a cornerstone around which to build the franchise. Now he was gone, headed to the Kings. Just like that.

But true to his last name, Dale McCourt fought the move, legally. He didn't want to go to Los Angeles. The Red Wings certainly didn't want him to go. So McCourt filed for an injunction with the U.S. Federal Court. His reasoning was that the compensation rule was illegal.

Training camp approached. Vachon reported, and so did McCourt. The Red Wings had both players in uniform, while the legal drama played out. The Kings were appalled that someone would actually NOT want to play for them under the Southern California sunshine. McCourt dug himself in for a long legal fight.

The ruling came down, finally: McCourt wouldn't have to go to the Kings. Other compensation would have to be worked out.

Once again, smiles in Red Wings Land.

Then the regular season began, and everyone saw what Rogie Vachon had left in the tank. It wasn't much.

On opening night, at Olympia, against the St. Louis Blues, Vachon was awful. After the game, he admitted to having a bad case of nerves. He let in six goals on less than 20 shots. The Red Wings lost. The season went on, McCourt and Vachon both wearing the winged wheel. But both Vachon and the team underachieved. The new goalie, wearing a new number (40 instead of 30), was hardly an upgrade from what they had previously. The more Vachon struggled, the more the fans howled. And the more they howled, the more he struggled. He played an occasional brilliant game, but mostly he was horse feathers.

The team nosedived in '79, missing the playoffs. They weren't able to carry over the momentum from the previous season.

Eventually, the Red Wings and Kings came up with a plan: McCourt signed a new contract with LA, who then "traded" him back to Detroit immediately, for center Andre St. Laurent and some draft picks. This time the Kings were rooked.

Vachon played one more season in Detroit, then was traded to Boston, even up, for goalie Gilles Gilbert. Around the same time Vachon was traded, in the summer of 1980, Lindsay was relieved of his GM duties, demoted to coach. And Terrible Ted would be let go entirely after a 3-14-3 start. The Red Wings didn't return to the playoffs until 1984. The Vachon experiment was an utter failure.

Next time I see Ted, I'll ask him about Rogie Vachon. Then I'll duck.