Swedish forward Thomas Bjuhr holds a unique place in Flames draft history

In the annals of Calgary Flames franchise history, longtime general manager Cliff Fletcher cemented himself as probably the organization’s best executive. How did he do that? Among other things, Fletcher was amazing at finding value in the NHL Draft, especially in the late rounds.

On occasion, though, these gambles didn’t quite pan out. In 1975, Fletcher and his scouts thought they were being extremely clever when they selected Torbjorn Nilsson from Sweden, thinking they were drafting Kent Nilsson. Turns out Kent Nilsson wasn’t old enough to be drafted yet and so when the Flames tried to draft a forward named Nilsson from the Swedish national team… they got Torbjorn Nilsson instead. (The Flames ended up drafting the Nilsson they really wanted in 1976.)

16 years later, a late-round gamble by Fletcher also didn’t pan out, and resulted in the only disallowed selection in Flames franchise history: Thomas Bjuhr.

A left wing from Stockholm, Sweden, Bjuhr came up through the AIK system in Sweden, and was selected by the Flames in the 11th round, 230th overall, in the 1990 NHL Draft.

One problem, though… Bjuhr was already property of the Detroit Red Wings.

Bjuhr was selected in the seventh round, 134th overall, by the Red Wings in the 1985 NHL Draft. After spending his Draft+1 (1985-86) season with AIK, primarily playing in the Elitserien, he played his Draft+2 (1986-87) season with the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks. The Detroit Free Press reported that he signed a pro contract with the Red Wings and he spent the 1987-88 season playing with their minor league affiliate, the American Hockey League’s Adirondack Red Wings.

Evidently Bjuhr didn’t fall in love with the North American game, as he returned to Sweden and AIK for the 1988-89 season and ended up playing the final 10 seasons of his pro career back in his home country.

Looking to take a flyer on Bjuhr and perhaps thinking they could lure him back over to play in their system – as they have been since forever, the Flames’ system was chock full of Swedes – the Flames decided to take him with their second-last selection of the 1990 draft. At the time, the Flames were presumably aware that Bjuhr had been drafted by Detroit but unaware that they had signed him to a contract in 1987 and still held his North American rights – it’s not like HockeyDB or Elite Prospects existed in 1990, so teams had to rely on yearly NHL publications and their own diligent notes to keep track of such things – and so the league declared the pick invalid and went on with the draft.

Coincidentally, the Edmonton Oilers also made an invalid 11th round pick in 1990, attempting to select Russian blueliner Vladimir Malakhov at 227th overall, three spots ahead of the Flames’ own invalid selection. Malakhov had been drafted by the New York Islanders the year before. (Whoops.)

Anyway, when we discuss the 490 players the Flames have selected over their long, illustrious drafting history… let’s not forget the one that got away.

Because he had already been drafted and signed by another team several years earlier.

(We love obscure weird stuff here at the site, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t give a shout-out to The Leader-Post out of Regina, as they were one of the few outlets that picked up a Canadian Press wrap-up of the 1990 NHL Draft and actually covered the Flames’ and Oilers’ disallowed picks.)