Blair MacDonald (NHL / WHA 1973-1983, Canucks 1980-1983) | 14 | RW

[Kevin Biestra]

I'm not sure how many people are aware that the early part of Canucks history includes Wayne Gretzky's first full time NHL linemate and his wingman en route to tying Marcel Dionne for the NHL scoring race in his first season in 1979-80.  Blair MacDonald wasn't just part of Gretzky's story but also a modest part of the Canucks' first run to the Stanley Cup Final in 1982.

 

MacDonald was good in the WHA, scoring 64, 68 and 71 points.  When he lined up with Gretzky in the NHL, he scored 46 goals and 94 points and played in the All Star Game.  People might say he was entirely a product of Gretzky but nobody else on the Oilers including the other wing on the same line fared nearly as well.  Gretzky had 137 points, MacDonald 94, and then third place on the team was 66 points.  MacDonald was 4th for the Lady Byng Trophy with only 6 PIMs in his 80 games to go with the scoring achievements.

 

MacDonald was traded to the Canucks with 12 games left in the 1980-81 season and scored 14 points in those 12 games...with no Gretzky.

 

He played three games for the Canucks in the 1982 run to the Cup Final, playing the Jimmy Carson 1994 role more or less.

 

Then finished his career up with a few seasons in Austria.

 

His 171 career WHA goals are 18th all time in the league's history.  He is 30th in points.  All or virtually all of that was accomplished, of course, without Wayne Gretzky anywhere nearby.

 

Also, his hockey reference page is kind of funny and shows how things weren't exactly recorded in stone and under a microscope back in the old days...

 

February 12, 1972: Drafted by Edmonton (WHA) from ??? in the 1972 first-year draft.

December, 1976: Traded by Edmonton (WHA) to Indianapolis (WHA) for unknown compensation.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 24 by Kevin Biestra

[Reg]

I look at that trade as a miss for the good guys. MacDonald never was as effective with the Canucks. Now if he had been traded along with his Oilers centreman that would be a different story.

[Kevin Biestra]

28 minutes ago, Reg said:

I look at that trade as a miss for the good guys. MacDonald never was as effective with the Canucks. Now if he had been traded along with his Oilers centreman that would be a different story.

 

One could say, but in Ken Berry and Garry Larievere (the players we gave up in the trade to get MacDonald) they didn't have much hockey after that in their careers.  In fact, we reacquired Berry a few years later as a free agent anyway.  So in MacDonald we were basically taking a flyer that a skill guy might do big things and even if it didn't pay off huge, it didn't cost as a whole lot to find out.

[Wilbur]

Blair MacDonald's 96 regular season + playoff games puts him on page 28 of my Canucks binder.  Everyone on that page has 94 to 98 meaningful Canucks games played (regular season + playoff games).  It's always interesting to see who is in that games played cohort.

 

Spoiler

 

...I think Ab DeMarco could be Quinn Hughes' father 

 

Some interesting stat comparables around him too.

 

146	Mike Corrigan	RW	95	24	32	56
147	Anson Carter	RW	81	33	22	55
148	Peter McNab	C	89	24	31	55
...
152	Blair MacDonald	RW	88	26	28	54
...
158	Dave Capuano	C	88	16	36	52

Edited November 25 by Wilbur

[fanfor42]

Hey OP can you help me understand what you are doing?

 

There are several hundred Canuck alumni.  Are you making a topic for every one of them?  What is the context?

 

Not trying to discourage you as much as just wondering why all these are popping up right now?

 

If you have explained this already somewhere  my apologies. 

 

Please let me know.

 

 

[CaptainCanuck12]

I was a Canucks fan during this era and remember MacDonald (whom my grandpa sarcastically referred to as "Brown Jug MacDonald"), as well as both of the players we traded for him. The interesting thing about Larivierre though, is that while I remember him and being somewhat enthused about us acquiring him, I have no recollection as to how we did this or why/when we traded him.  In fact, his HockeyDb page makes no mention of him ever having belonged to us.  Maybe you could make him the topic of your next thread and answer some of these burning questions!

[Kevin Biestra]

17 hours ago, fanfor42 said:

Hey OP can you help me understand what you are doing?

 

There are several hundred Canuck alumni.  Are you making a topic for every one of them?  What is the context?

 

Not trying to discourage you as much as just wondering why all these are popping up right now?

 

If you have explained this already somewhere  my apologies. 

 

Please let me know.

 

 

It mostly struck me to make one about Glen Cochrane when I learned he had died this year and I thought (a) there wouldn't likely be another chance or stimulus for us to talk about him, and (b) lots of fans probably don't know this significant NHL player was one of our alumni.  No, I'm not making a thread for everyone that ever played for the Canucks.  I have chosen ones so far that were significant NHL players that people ought to know about where, by and large, today's Canucks fans might not know the jersey was honored by being worn by that player.  The question you ask sort of makes the point a little bit...the players I have made threads about aren't nobodies and certainly back in their day, nobody would have thought the threads would mean that everybody who ever played for the Canucks might get one.