Last week I talked about a kid who could be the next Japanese player drafted into the NHL. This week I will be talking about the first Japanese player drafted by an NHL squad.
In 1970, the Buffalo Sabres selected Taro Tsujimoto from the Tokyo Kantanas of the Japanese Ice Hockey League. For a player from a nontraditional hockey country, getting drafted by an NHL team is a huge accomplishment. This feat is even more impressive in Tsujimoto's case, given he never existed.
Buffalo coach/GM Punch Imlach invented Tsujimoto, reportedly picking the name out of a Buffalo phone book, as a joke during the eleventh round of the amateur draft. Because there was no scouting in Asia at the time, no one noticed that the draft selection was a prank.
Tsujimoto was Buffalo's 183rd pick and apparently Imlach didn't think he could get a quality player that low in the draft.
As a Japanese speaker, there are a couple of things about the pick that should have been suspicious. First, there are no plural forms of words in the Japanese language, so it is unlikely a team in Japan would be called the Katanas. Whether there is one katana or 100 katana, the word never changes. Also, katana means sword, which is a huge coincidence given Buffalo's team name is the Sabres.
For years, Sabres fans would chant "We want Taro!" when their team was getting blown out. I have not heard this recently, but given how bad Buffalo are this year, it may be an excellent time to bring back this tradition.
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