1984 NHL Entry Draft

The 1984 NHL Entry Draft took place on June 9, 1984, at the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec.

The 1984 Entry Draft was noted for the unusually high number of future Hall of Famers picked, particularly in lower rounds. In addition to Mario Lemieux being taken first overall, Patrick Roy was chosen in the third round, Brett Hull in the sixth, and Luc Robitaille in the ninth. In addition, Lemieux, Gary Suter and Robitaille would all go on to win the Calder Trophy, making this a rare draft in which multiple Rookie of the Year winners were produced.

The surprise at the time of the draft was Montreal's selection of Petr Svoboda at 5th overall, instead of Shayne Corson (who ended up selected by the same Canadians 3 picks later following a trade). As a player trained behind the Iron Curtain, very few people expected him to be available for selection in the draft, let alone be actually be attending the draft and coming to the podium when his name was announced, as he had only recently defected to West Germany following the 1984 WJHC (only Serge Savard, the then-GM of the Canadiens, had been aware of Svoboda's defection).

In addition to Svoboda, of note is that Tom Glavine, playing centre in high school, who later became a star Major League Baseball pitcher with more than 300 career wins, was chosen in the fourth round (69th overall) by the Los Angeles Kings, ahead of notable players such as future Hall of Famer Hull (117th overall), and Robitaille (171st overall).

A controversy...
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