50 Forgotten Stories: Charlie Simmer's Regret

Charlie Simmer regrets how he left Los Angeles.
On October 23, 1984, the high-scoring left winger was sent to the Boston Bruins for a 1985 first-round draft pick. The trade was at Simmer's request, after the Kings refused to renegotiate his contract. Over the summer, a contentious back-and-forth had erupted between Simmer, his agent, general manager Rogie Vachon, and owner Jerry Buss.
"Now that I look back on it," concedes Simmer, "I would hope that I would have done things differently. And the Kings too."

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To understand what went wrong, go back to March 2, 1981. That's when Simmer shattered his leg in Toronto.
At the time, the 6'3" winger was the second-leading scorer in the NHL with 56 goals. Even a season-ending injury couldn't prevent the 26-year-old from earning his second straight first-team All-Star selection.
Before this catastrophe at Maple Leaf Gardens, Simmer and Buss had verbally agreed to a six-year contract extension which would pay the best left winger in hockey about $250,000 a season.
"They didn't know - because he broke his leg pretty badly - at that time, they didn't know if he was going to be able to play, if he was going to be the same player," recalls Vachon.
Jeanie Buss, Jerry's daughter, observed in her autobiography Laker Girl, "My dad could have said, 'What contract? I don't remember agreeing to anything.'
"Instead, he signed the contract even though it took Charlie over a year to get back to full strength."
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By 1983-84, Simmer was back to 100 percent, pacing Los Angeles with 44 goals. His agent Jack Childers began calling Vachon to renegotiate.
Simmer's $250,000 annual salary had been surpassed by a number of players, including right winger Mike Bossy's $500,000. Even his Triple Crown linemates made substantially more, as Dave Taylor earned $450,000 and Marcel Dionne about $600,000.
The center got where his big winger was coming from.
"Marcel was good. We all wanted to stick together," Simmer remembered. "But he said, 'At this point, it's a business. You've got to do what's right for you. You're not here for a long time, so you definitely need to earn what you think you deserve.'" (Mahovlich, Ted. Triple Crown: The Marcel Dionne Story.)
Buss, however, was livid. "He thought he did Charlie a favor," recounts Vachon, "even though he wasn't sure if Charlie
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Sheng Peng is a freelance hockey writer based out of Los Angeles, California. He covers the LA Kings and Ontario Reign for HockeyBuzz. His work has also appeared on VICE Sports, The Hockey News, and SB Nation's Jewels from the Crown.