ON THE MARK.

THE GREATEST TRADE (N)EVER MADE.

Only once in NHL history has an Art Ross Trophy winner (leading scorer) been traded even-up for a James Norris Trophy winner (best defenseman)..   I should know.   I made the deal.  With a little help from a big tall guy with a shock of red hair.
      The year was 1980.   The Montreal Canadiens had just finished winning four straight Stanley Cups under coach Scotty Bowman and GM Sam Pollock.   I was working for CJFM Radio in Montreal as "Directeur des Sports".   I read sportscasts on the morning show, and, additionally, covered the Habs, Expos and Alouettes.   The Habs were in the midst of a transitional season.  Pollock had retired, and when Bowman didn't get the GMs job, he up and left too.  Ken Dryden retired.  Jacques Lemaire retired.  Yvan Cournoyer retired.  Serge Savard was on his last legs.  Guy Lafleur was beginning to feel the pressure of  being "Le Demon Blonde".   The best Hab that year, by far, was Larry Robinson.   He was also the funniest Hab by a longshot.  You had to have a good sense of humour playing in that environment or else they would eat you alive.
     And so it came to be that Monday, March 31st 1980 would see the creation of a blockbuster trade hitherto unseen in the NHL.   That day, Robinson was scheduled to come into our studios to tape an interview with me.   Since the next day was April Fool's Day, Robinson thought it might be a good idea to have some fun with unsuspecting Habs fans on the radio.  "Hebsy, why don't you announce a trade on the radio tomorrow?  Me to the L.A. Kings straight up for Marcel Dionne."  It took me about two seconds to agree.   We sat down in the studio and got engineer Steve Manet to hit "record" on the tape machine.   "Shocking news" I began, "The Montreal Canadiens have just traded Larry Robinson to the L.A. Kings for scoring leader Marcel Dionne.  Larry joins us here in the studio.  How do you feel?"   Well, from that point on, Robinson gave an Academy Award-winning performance.  He began to well up with tears as he explained that he had just received a phone call telling him he'd be traded. He sniffed.  His voice broke.  He actually looked like he had been traded.  Then he said it was an honour to be traded for such a great player.   Then he wished the Canadiens and their fans good luck and said he was going to hitch the boat to the truck and head to L.A.   By the time the interview as finished, I was convinced that he HAD been traded.
      The next morning, April Fool's Day at 6 oclock, myself and morning show host Mark Burns played the tape as if it were "live".   The phones in the newsroom began ringing off the hook.   Downstairs, at CJAD (the powerful AM affiliate, and number one among English listeners) they were scrambling around, trying to get Habs coach Claude Ruel to confirm the deal.  At this point, nobody was aware that it was early on April Fool's Day, and that the NHL trade deadline had already passed.  The talk all morning on CJFM was the trade.   Nobody else had the story but the fans were waking up to the news and freaking out.     Around 7 a.m. Robinson phoned me in the office.  "This is great" he said "Ruel just called me and he's going crazy."  We kept running the clip of Robinson announcing the trade all morning long.   When CFCF Radio finally figured out it was a hoax, they made a lame attempt to say that the Expos had traded Jeff Reardon, but it was too late.     By 9 a.m., we had to let the listeners in on the joke.   "April Fools everybody", I announced.  "Robinson isn't going anywhere.  In fact, it was his idea all along".
      And after we got some good press out of the local papers, that was the end of it.....or so I thought.   What I had failed to anticipate was the reaction from Marcel Dionne.   Not thinking that he would get wind of it, I received a clipping from the Los Angeles Times a few days later in the mail.   The article mentioned the hoax, and quoted Dionne as saying he had been woken up at 3:30 a.m. by a reporter from Quebec, asking for his reaction to the trade.  "What trade?" inquired Dionne "The one that has you going to Montreal for Larry Robinson" said the reporter.  Dionne said that he was in complete shock, and while he was awaiting a call from someone in the Kings organization, he realized that it was indeed an April Fool's joke.
      Every time I saw Robinson after that day, we exchanged wry smiles and winks.   We had pulled off a terrific hoax and, for a few hours, had hockey-mad Montreal believing that the Robinson-for-Dionne swap was the real deal.    Many years later, I ran into Dionne at a golf tournament.    "You were the S.O.B. that traded me for Larry Robinson weren't you?"   I confessed my sins, fearing that Dionne might punch me in the nose.   Instead he said "Robinson wasn't enough.  You should've thrown in a draft pick as well.  It would've made the trade more believable."   Perhaps, but at the end of the season, Robinson had won the Norris trophy and Dionne had won the Art Ross.    I guess you could call the trade "a push".
Happy April Fool's Day.