Pens beat Barons in Sanderson's last NHL game

Derek Sanderson as a Pittsburgh Penguin in 1978.

Derek Sanderson's colourful NHL career came to an end at the Richfield Coliseum just outside Cleveland on April 9, 1978. He was wearing the uniform of the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team playing its last game of the 1977-78 campaign, a meaningless meeting in a lost season. The Pens won 3-2, but there was little to celebrate. When Sanderson had joined the team less than a month earlier, they were tied for the NHL's final playoff spot. The team faded down the stretch, however, and ended up five points short.

Sanderson scored three goals and one assist in 13 games during his time with Pittsburgh. After a solid start, by his own admission his body "broke down" on him. He even missed a team curfew one night and was held out of a game because of it. As this article about the final game in Cleveland details, Sanderson's status for the following season was up in the air, but the centreman claimed to have "very substantial offers" from five other clubs.

Derek Sanderson today.

In the end, none of them panned out and the Pens decided to part ways. After his playing days, Sanderson cleaned up his act and has spoken to thousands of school kids about his experiences and how to avoid the mistakes he made. He served as a commentator on Bruins broadcasts and has also worked as an investment professional, serving as a financial advisor for athletes.

Sanderson nets 200th goal in Pens loss

Derek Sanderson enjoyed his finest moment in a Penguins uniform during his second game with the team in Vancouver. He was granted a significant amount of ice time by coach Johnny Wilson and responded with a goal and an assist. "I had no idea I'd be playing this much," Sanderson told the Pittsburgh Press in this article. "It makes me feel welcome."

The tally was the 200th of his career. "I really wanted that goal," he wrote years later in his autobiography Crossing the Line. "I didn't want to end my career with 199. I kept the puck as a souvenir."

Unfortunately, Sanderson's spark wasn't enough to help the fading Pens lose to the Canucks 7-4 and fall further behind in the race for the NHL's final playoff spot.

Ted Lindsay rips Pens for aleged tampering

Detroit Red Wings legend "Terrible" Ted Lindsay was a tough customer on the ice during his Hall of Fame career, and he was no different while serving as the team's General Manager in the late 1970s. His temper was on full display in March 1978 when the Penguins signed Derek Sanderson, who had been playing with the Wings' Kansas City team in the Central Hockey League after the Wings had decided to give the broken down former star player a look. Without any signed contract, however, Sanderson was officially a free agent, free to sign with any team he wished.

When Sanderson's agent contacted Pens GM Baz Bastien about his client's availability, Bastien jumped at the opportunity. That did not sit well with Terrible Ted, as this article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette shows. Lindsay took his grievance to the NHL's head office, but there was no evidence of any kind of contract that could have been used as evidence to void the Penguins move.

"It was a verbal thing," admitted Lindsay.

This brief piece includes Bastien speaking in his own defense.

Derek Sanderson, Pittsburgh Penguin: Part 1

I was surprised to learn a little while ago that Derek Sanderson at one point in his colourful career played for the Penguins. I'll be looking at his brief stop in the Steel City over the next few posts.

In a desperate attempt to push his team into a playoff spot in the waning weeks of the 1977-78 season, Penguins General Manager Baz Bastien decided to sign aging centre Derek Sanderson as a free agent. Sanderson had been on a wild ride throughout the 70s, reaching the summit of the hockey world when he hoisted the Stanley Cup as a Boston Bruin, only to end up battling the bottle and landing on skid row a few years later. His tale is chronicled nicely in his autobiography Crossing the Line.

After winning his second Cup with Boston in 1972, Sanderson became the highest paid athlete in the world by signing with the World Hockey Association's Philadelphia Blazers for a contract worth $2.65 million. He played only eight games for the Blazers before coming back to Boston and then bouncing around the NHL with stops in New York with the Rangers in 1974, and later St. Louis and Vancouver. Having hit rock bottom in his personal life by 1978, "The Turk" was attempting a comeback in the Detroit organization, playing with the Wings' Central Hockey League affiliate in Kansas City. That's when the Pens entered the picture.

"All I can tell you about Derek is that he's cleaned up his act," said Bastien.

Coach Johnny Wilson welcomed the idea of having another veteran centreman. "I need to be able to spell Peter Mahovlich. "I hate using Pete as much as I do, but when you don't have anybody else you don't have much choice."

The Red Wings weren't happy about the move, appealing to NHL President John Ziegler, who refused to interfere.

Read the full report of Sanderson's signing in this March 15, 1978 report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.