The Kansas City Scouts selected Wilf Paiement second overall in the Amateur Draft in 1974, and he was able to crack the roster instantly of this expansion team.  As the Scouts relocated to Denver to become the Colorado Rockies, Paiement would see his scoring improve, posting a pair of 80 Point seasons, and he would make three straight trips to the All-Star Game (1976 to 1978).  Paiement would was regarded as a good two-way player who was not afraid to get dirty and throw down when needed.  A great example of this was in the 1977 World Hockey Championship, where Paiement and the other Canadians (who were making their first appearance in the tournament after sitting out for eight years) were ruthless with dirty tactics.  He would be suspended 15 Games in the following season for slashing Detroit’s Dennis Polonich in the face, rendering the latter with a concussion and the need for extensive reconstructive facial surgery.

Sweden produces some of the world’s best hockey players but there was a time where it was believed that Scandinavians could not cut the mustard in North America.  Ulf Nilsson helped changed that perception.

Before we begin, here are two interesting (at least we think so) trivia facts about Ivan Boldirev:

The first is that he is the all-time leading scorer who was born in Yugoslavia.  Now, considering that the other three players with that distinction have a combined seven, and that Yugoslavia is no longer a country, we feel confident in anointing this national record that will never be broken.

They say in baseball that you still have to be a good player if you lose 20 Games because that means that they have the confidence in you to go out there, and it is unspoken between the player and coach that the team around him just wasn’t that good.  There is something similar in hockey, as you can argue that Gilles Meloche was a really good netminder, and even though he is fourth all-time in Losses (351) and lost 81 more Games than he won, this was a veteran of 788 Games, and any Goalie who played that many games had to be good.