Gord Kluzak
Gord Glen Kluzak ( born March 4, 1964 in Climax, Saskatchewan ) is a retired Canadian ice hockey player (defender) who played from 1982 to 1990 for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League.
Career
As a junior he played for the Billings Bighorns of the Western Hockey League. In 1982, he also played for the junior national team of Canada, which first took to the motherland of hockey gold at the Junior World Cup. Kluzak was the dominant defender in the tournament, where he stood out as a tower in the battle and was awarded as the best defender. Gord Kluzak selected at the NHL Entry Draft in 1982 as the first overall draft pick of the Boston Bruins. But already at that time he had his first serious knee injury that should overshadow his career.
In his rookie season 1982/83 he played properly, but he could not retrieve his potential properly. This should change in the second season. He played much stronger than the year before and was able to convince both on the defensive as offensive. In the final preseason game for the season 1984/85 he was injured again on the knee and an operation was inevitable. He missed the entire season. For the 1985/86 season he returned to the ice and was able to convince with strong performances again. But his knee injury broke out again. That's why he missed an entire season due to injury. 1987/88 Gord was back and played the entire season. It was to be his last full season. Together with rookie Glen Wesley, he supported Ray Bourque, the head of the Bruins defense, so this was still fresh enough in the playoffs to lead the team into the finals for the Stanley Cup. There, however, they failed to the Edmonton Oilers with Wayne Gretzky.
The next three years he tried his comeback, but he could not bring on more than 13 games in the three years before moving to eleven knee surgeries his skates had to hang up in 1990.
Looking at the NHL Entry Drafts since 1969, so no player, who has won at first, fewer games than Kluzak disputed with 299. In Boston they turned again and again the question of whether one could not have foresee the problems with Kluzaks knee. The draft would have offered many alternatives, in addition to well-known strikers and defenders like Scott Stevens and Phil Housley.
After the end of his career Kluzak made in 1994 graduated from Harvard University. Later he worked for Goldman Sachs, but also the hockey he stayed connected. He worked from 1995 to 2004 as a television reporter for the Bruins. He is now an analyst for the New England Sports Network ( NESN ).