TOP 100 OILERS: JAROSLAV POUZAR (58)
7 years ago
When the Edmonton Oilers took a flyer on Jaroslav Pouzar in the fourth round of the 1982 Entry Draft, they were hoping his scoring exploits on the international stage with the Czech Republic would translate to finding a permanent left winger for the one-two punch of Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri. It never happened.
Pouzar, who was 30 when he arrived in Edmonton for the 1982-83 season, never did replicate the kind of offensive prowess he’d shown with Motor Ceske Budejovice back home – a stint that included seasons of 29, 42, 39 and 29 goals. Pouzar would instead become a role player, and a key one at that, who’d play a big part in Edmonton’s first Stanley Cup win in 1984 and go on to win three Cups with the Oilers.
Jaroslav Pouzar
Forward
Born Jan 23 1951 — Cakovec, Czech Rep.
Height 6.00 — Weight 200 [183 cm/91 kg]
Drafted by Edmonton Oilers
Round 4 #83 overall 1982 NHL Entry Draft
BY THE NUMBERS
Season | Tm | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | S | S% |
1982-83 | 74 | 15 | 18 | 33 | 17 | 57 | 86 | 17.4 | |
1983-84 | 67 | 13 | 19 | 32 | 17 | 44 | 87 | 14.9 | |
1984-85 | 33 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 3 | 28 | 36 | 11.1 | |
1986-87 | 12 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 18.2 | |
Career | 186 | 34 | 48 | 82 | 40 | 135 | 220 | 15.5 |
PLAYOFFS:
Season | Age | Tm | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | S | S% |
1982-83 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||||
1983-84 | 32 | 14 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 14 | 7.1 | |
1984-85 | 33 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 16.7 | |
1986-87 | 35 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 11.1 | |
Career | 29 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 6 | 16 | 35 | 11.4 |
NOTABLE
Pouzar, a blocky 5-foot-11, 205 pounder who Gretzky once described as “the physically strongest player I ever played with,” had difficulty adapting to the attacking style the talented, young Oilers favored. The Oilers scored 424 goals in 1982-83 and Pouzar had just 15. The Oilers scored 446 times the next season and Pouzar had just 13. It became obvious rather quickly Pouzar wouldn’t be the fit for Gretzky and Kurri they were looking for.
It’s tempting, then, to dismiss Pouzar as a bust, as a bit player who didn’t deliver and rode the coattails of the likes of Gretzky, Kurri and Mark Messier to those three dates with the Stanley Cup engraver. That would be selling Pouzar way, way short. Pouzar would re-invent himself in his second season, finding a home on a line with Ken Linseman and Dave Lumley.
Pouzar would settle in as a reliable two-way player who could fill in higher in the line-up, check opponents to a standstill and navigate the heavy going without blinking. Fact is, the fire hydrant-like Pouzar hit like a freight train. It’s those qualities that would see Pouzar play a significant part in that 1984 Cup win over the New York Islanders, who’d swept Edmonton in 1983.
THE STORY
While many credit Messier with scoring the goal in Game 3 that turned a series that was tied 1-1, a lot of people think a Pouzar hit on Smith – he ran Smith over behind the net while he was trying to play a puck – rattled Battlin’ Billy and played an equal part in sending the Oilers on their way.
Smith had allowed just one goal in Game 1, a 1-0 Oiler win, and one more in Game 2, a 6-1 romp for the Islanders. Then came Messier and Pouzar back at Northlands Coliseum. The Oilers pumped seven pucks past Smith in a 7-2 win that night. They won 7-2 again in Game 4 and closed out the series in five games and claimed their first Cup with a 5-2 decision.
While Pouzar never lived up to his billing as a scorer in Edmonton, he was anything but a passenger. The Oilers reached the Cup final in each of the four seasons Pouzar played in Edmonton and won three of them, the final parade coming in 1987 after he’d taken 1985-86 off to play in Germany.
This series will look at the top 100 Edmonton Oilers from the NHL era 1979-80 to 2014-15, starting with 100 and working up.
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