The NHL Draft is usually a time of serious decisions and franchise-defining moments, but not always. In 1974, something truly bizarre happened during the lengthy amateur draft that continues to provoke discussions among the hockey community today.
With teams drafting deep into double-digit rounds and patience wearing thin, Buffalo Sabres General Manager George “Punch” Imlach made a selection that would go down in history, not for the talent he chose, but because the player simply didn’t exist.
Unlike today’s streamlined seven-round format, the 1974 draft stretched across 25 rounds and took three full days to complete.
Punch Imlach’s Legendary NHL Draft Prank Creates Hockey History
The event had become long and painfully dull by the 11th round of the 1974 NHL Draft. With no limit on how many rounds the draft would go, general managers sat through what felt like an endless string of names via conference call. Sabres GM Imlach had had enough.
Frustrated with the slow, tedious draft process conducted entirely over the telephone, he decided to have some fun, and his prank would become one of the most memorable stories in NHL history.
During the 183rd overall pick, Imlach confidently announced the name “Taro Tsujimoto,” a center from the Tokyo Katanas of the Japanese Ice Hockey League. At the time, international scouting was nowhere near what it is today, particularly in Asian markets.
The 1st Japanese born hockey player to be drafted in the NHL was named Taro Tsujimoto.
One problem. He never existed.
This is the story of how the Buffalo Sabres pranked the league at the 1974 NHL Draft.🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/PeqZDrrVEZ
— Hockey Of Tomorrow (@HockeyTomorrow) January 24, 2023
There was no internet, no databases to cross-reference, and certainly no quick way to verify a player’s existence in pre-digital 1974. So the league accepted the pick, assuming Tsujimoto was a real, if obscure, prospect. But here’s the twist: neither the Tokyo Katanas nor Taro Tsujimoto existed.
Imlach completely fabricated the name, the team, and the entire story as a protest against how the draft was being run. Working with Sabres communications director Paul Wieland, they crafted the hoax carefully.
“Tokyo Katanas” was even a clever play on words, “katana” being a Japanese sword, much like the “Sabres.” The first name “Taro” roughly translates to “sabre” in Japanese. Imlach had gone all in on the prank, and no official realized it then.
The Hoax Unfolds and Becomes Sabres Legend
Taro Tsujimoto’s name was added to the draft records, and the hoax continued until training camp approached. Media members became increasingly curious about this mysterious Japanese prospect who would have been the first player from Japan ever drafted by an NHL team. When pressed about Tsujimoto’s arrival, Imlach would simply state that the player would be coming soon.
It was only when training camp began that Imlach finally revealed Tsujimoto was never real. The NHL later changed the pick to an “invalid claim” in official documents, but by then, the legend of Taro Tsujimoto had already taken hold among Buffalo Sabres fans and hockey enthusiasts worldwide.
The joke resonated so much within the hockey world that decades later, in the 2010-11 Score set, Panini America honored the fictional forward by producing a special “rookie card” of Taro Tsujimoto. The card became a fun collector’s item and a humorous reminder of when one GM decided to outwit the system during hockey’s most tedious draft process.
For years following the draft, Sabres fans at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium would hang banners stating “Taro Says…” followed by witty comments against opposing teams or players, and would chant “We Want Taro” when games became one-sided. The fictional center remains a beloved figure in Sabres history and one of the NHL’s most enduring pranks.
