The NHL Draft’s Greatest Prank: How Buffalo Sabres GM Drafted a Player That Didn’t Exist
If you think today’s NHL drafts can drag on, just imagine what it was like back in 1974. The league was still finding its footing, and the draft process was slow — painfully slow. Every pick was announced carefully, sometimes with long pauses in between. For GMs and league officials stuck in a stuffy room, it felt like an eternity.
Enter Punch Imlach, the Buffalo Sabres’ GM.
He was a hockey lifer with a no-nonsense attitude, but even he had his breaking point. The draft was moving so slowly that patience wasn’t just wearing thin — it was completely gone.
The 1974 NHL Amateur Draft was the kind of event that made you check your watch every five minutes. Round after round, pick after pick, the process dragged on. The slow pace wasn’t just boring, it was frustrating — especially for a guy like Imlach, who probably wanted to get back to doing actual hockey business.
So, when Buffalo’s pick came in the 11th round, Imlach decided to shake things up. Instead of picking a real player, he announced the selection of someone completely made up:
“Taro Tsujimoto, forward, Tokyo Katanas.”
The room went quiet. No one in the NHL had heard of the Tokyo Katanas — because the team didn’t exist. And Japan wasn’t exactly a hotbed for NHL prospects at the time, so Taro Tsujimoto was as real as a hockey-playing samurai.
Did the NHL Catch On?
You’d think this kind of prank would be obvious, right? Nope.
The league accepted the pick without question and recorded Taro Tsujimoto in the official draft records. Weeks went by before anyone in the NHL started to realize the joke.
Imlach’s stunt was less about messing with the league and more about dealing with frustration. The draft was slow, tedious, and dragging on forever. Instead of sitting there grumbling, he made a quiet joke that has outlasted most players drafted that year.
The pick was eventually declared invalid, and Taro Tsujimoto disappeared as quickly as he appeared. But the prank stuck.
Today, Taro Tsujimoto is legendary among hockey fans — a symbol of one of the most creative, low-key pranks in sports history. The Sabres even lean into the joke from time to time, using the name on merchandise and as a nod to hockey’s more playful side.
The Takeaway
The story of Taro Tsujimoto reminds us that sometimes, sports aren’t just about stats and contracts — they’re about moments of levity that humanize the game.
And when things get slow and frustrating, sometimes the best thing you can do is have a little fun.
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