3. Garry Unger
I kid about the hair in the teaser, but by today’s standards Garry Unger stands out about as about as 1970’s as you can get.
While it is always hard to get over the shock and resentment in the moment, the Blues actually have a very good history of trading away some good players and getting some very good to great ones in return. Shanahan for Pronger, Housley for MacInnis, Ramage for Hull, Federko for Oates, etc. The same happened with Unger.
Unger had the misfortune of having to pick up where the legend of the Red Baron had left off. He wasted little time showing the St. Louis crowd what he could do.
He finished with a point per game average, with 29 points in 28 games with St. Louis after the trade. He then rattled off 70-plus point seasons in four of his next five years. That season he failed to get 70 points, he finished with 68.
While Unger’s point totals hit a sharp decline in the mid-to-late 70’s, oddly enough his goal totals did not. Unger never failed to score 30 goals with the Blues outside of that short portion when he was traded here from Detroit.
Unger was also the league’s Iron Man, never missing a game between February 24, 1968, and December 21, 1979. The only reason he missed a game to end the streak was because Atlanta’s genius coach decided to bench him.
Unger is still in fourth place for the Blues in all-time scoring. He will remain there for quite some time as Vladimir Tarasenko is still over 200 points behind Unger’s 575 Blues points.