1983 NHL Waiver Draft

The 1983 NHL Waiver Draft was held on Monday, October 3. The rules were the same as they were in 1982.

Player	Picked by	Picked from	Player dropped from protected list	Cash or claim?
Round 1
Grant Mulvey	Pittsburgh Penguins	Chicago Black Hawks	Paul Gardner	cash
Mike Crombeen	Hartford Whalers	St. Louis Blues	Mark Renaud	cash
Don Nachbaur	Los Angeles Kings	Edmonton Oilers	Mark Lofthouse	cash
Terry Johnson	St. Louis Blues	Quebec Nordiques	Jack Carlson	cash
Mark Renaud	Buffalo Sabres	Hartford Whalers	John Van Boxmeer	cash
Jean Hamel	Montreal Canadiens	Quebec Nordiques	Jeff Brubaker	cash
Round 2
Mike Zuke	Hartford Whalers	St. Louis Blues	Ross Yates	cash
Dwight Schofield	St. Louis Blues	Montreal Canadiens	Bobby Crawford	cash
Jeff Brubaker	Calgary Flames	Montreal Canadiens	Greg Meredith	cash
John Van Boxmeer	Quebec Nordiques	Buffalo Sabres	Pat Price	cash
Round 3
Bobby Crawford	Hartford Whalers	St. Louis Blues	Doug Sulliman	cash

As you can see many of the choices in the last couple rounds were players who had been dropped by their respective teams when the teams made earlier choices. E.g. when the Whalers selected Mike Crombeen from the Blues they dropped Mark Renaud from their protected list, and Renaud was later claimed by the Sabres. When the Sabres selected Renaud they dropped John Van Boxmeer from their protected list; Van Boxmeer was selected in the second round by the Nordiques.

Grant Mulvey, selected with the first pick by the Penguins, was also coveted by the New Jersey Devils, who held the third overall pick. The Devils passed on that third overall pick, and all subsequent picks. The only player they were interested in was Mulvey, who had scored 30 goals in his last full season ('81-'82) but had missed almost the entire '82-'83 season with a serious knee injury. The Hawks left him exposed because they doubted that he could ever play at a high level again. After the draft the Devils' GM Billy MacMillan and Penguins' GM Eddie Johnston made a deal: the Penguins would trade Mulvey to the Devils for future considerations.

Only one problem: that was against the rules! The NHL vetoed the deal. The Penguins weren't allowed to trade Mulvey unless he had been offered on waivers first, similar to what happened between the Capitals and Canadiens with respect to Pierre Bouchard at the 1978 Waiver Draft. In the case of Grant Mulvey, the Penguins and the Devils, the only team that held waiver priority before the Devils was the Whalers and the Whalers weren't particularly interested in Mulvey. The Penguins put Mulvey on waivers on October 6 and the Devils' claim for him was successful. It took a few extra days but Grant Mulvey was a New Jersey Devil. He ended up playing 12 games for the Devils and the rest of the season with the Maine Mariners of the AHL. At the end of the '83-'84 season, having won the Calder Cup with the Mariners, Grant Mulvey retired.

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1984 Waiver Draft→

NHL Draft Results