Clarke thought he had the following deal all wrapped up, until Arthur Griffiths pulled out at the last minute and went with the Bruins late offer.
Brian Propp, Rich Sutter, Dave Richter and a 1986 #1
for
Cam Neely, J.J. Daigneault and a 1986 #1
Vancouver media later disputed that deal saying that the flyers were not offering all of that--but through time more got added.
Propp was coming off of a 90pt 40 goal season and Pederson a 76pts 29 goal season
I am an oiler fan--so I do not have a dog in the fight
I call BS on this one, probably revisionist history made up once Neely became an impact player for the Bruins. But this one doesn't pass the smell test:
(1) Neely was never traded & was probably never on the trading block. The Canucks signed Barry Pederson as an RFA, & Neely was awarded as part of the compensation package by the arbitrator because the Canucks left him unprotected. Once Neely broke, the media retroactively rebranded the signing as a trade to paint Neely as basically the steal of the century, an everlasting symbol of the incompetence of Canucks management. Rolling into the 86-87 season, Vancouver media was still playing it as a high impact free agent signing, with Neely little more than an afterthought.
(2) The deal, on its face, makes little sense: while it is possible that Clarke was interested in Neely, I can't imagine him dangling Propp, a perrenial 40 goal guy, Selke & All-Star Team candidate & the team's leading scorer, including leading the team in their run to the 85 Cup Final. Propp would have had very high value, arguably even higher than Pederson, but Neely's own worth at the time would've been considerably less, & Clarke would not have had to offer up Propp to wrest Neely from Jack Gordon, who wasn't exactly known as a shrewd trader. Further, Neely never had the big hype in Vancouver other top prospects had, & was already on the hotseat for poor defensive play & was starting to be considered a bit of a bust of sorts, at least by coach Tom Watt. Heck, they were projecting Jim Sandlak higher than Neely. This was the 80s: if a young player had three years in the NHL & hadn't broken out yet, he was generally considered a bust, because most guys in this era who became elite players usually showed it in their first season.
(3) The Daigneault for Sutter-Richter trade happened the same day Neely was awarded to the Bruins. It's easy to sell an urban legend based off this years later because they can say "there was this last minute feeding frenzy for Neely & Clarke had a deal almost closed before Neely was traded!" giving some sort of illusion that Neely was a hot property on the trading block & there was some kind of race to get him, with bonafide NHL stars like Pederson & Propp offered up for the hot young talent. Nonsense: Neely was likely not on the radar of many GMs at that point.