Punch Imlach Tries to Outsmart the NHL and Loses Hall of Fame Goalie
There are moments in Toronto Maple Leafs history where you can almost hear the room get quiet right before someone realizes a rule has been bent a little too far. Punch Imlach lived in that space more than most. He wasn’t just a general manager; he was a strategist who treated the league’s rulebook like something closer to a suggestion than a boundary. And in the mid-1960s, that mindset collided headfirst with one of the most important roster decisions Toronto had to make.
Imlach had a problem and didn’t know how to solve it.
The problem was simple on paper and messy in reality. The NHL’s intra-league draft rules only allowed each team to protect two goaltenders. Toronto already had elite NHL experience in Johnny Bower and Terry Sawchuk, but waiting in the wings was a younger problem the rest of the league was starting to notice. Future Hall of Fame goalie Gerry Cheevers was dominating in the AHL and clearly ready for NHL duty. He wasn’t just depth—he was the future. And Imlach knew it.
So Imlach did what he often did when the system didn’t suit him—he tried to work around it. On draft day, Toronto submitted its protected list with Cheevers listed not as a goaltender, but as a forward. The logic was simple: if he isn’t a goalie on paper, he doesn’t count against the two-goalie protection limit. It was clever, aggressive—and it lasted about as long as it took the league office to read the list.
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NHL president Clarence Campbell quickly nixed Imlach’s ploy.
NHL president Clarence Campbell stepped in almost immediately. The ruling was swift and uncomplicated: Cheevers was a goaltender, not a forward, and would not be protected under any creative interpretation of the rules. Just like that, he was exposed to the draft.
The Boston Bruins wasted no time. With the first pick available, they selected Cheevers and walked away with a goalie who would go on to become a defining part of their rise. For Toronto, the gamble backfired instantly. The loophole didn’t create leverage—it created loss.
What makes the story linger isn’t just the failed workaround, but what it cost in hindsight. Cheevers would go on to become a Stanley Cup champion in Boston and one of the most recognizable goaltenders of his era. Toronto, meanwhile, was left leaning on Bower and Sawchuk—still excellent, still respected, but now without the younger insurance policy that might have bridged eras.
Imlach lost to the system and handed the Bruins their goalie of the future.
In the end, Imlach didn’t really break the system. The system broke his workaround. And in doing so, it quietly handed Boston a franchise goaltender while reminding the rest of the league that even the smartest rule-bending only works until someone decides it doesn’t.