Olympic Legends: Andy Moog

In 1988 Andy Moog sat out the NHL season while trying to land either a new contract with the Edmonton Oilers or, perhaps his first choice, a trade to a team where he would get to be the number one goalie.

Of course Moog did eventually get his trade, to the Boston Bruins. After the Olympics he led the Bruins to the Stanley Cup finals, losing to the Edmonton Oilers.

It seemed quite noble at the time. Moog would play for his country while waiting for a NHL pay check. What I never realized at the time was that Moog actually made more money playing with the Canadian national team than he would have made with the Oilers that season.

Canwest News Services has more:

It didn’t hurt Moog’s Olympic motivation to be in a contract dispute with Oilers general manager Glen Sather at the time. Sather was proposing a $150,000, one-year deal for Moog, as Grant Fuhr’s backup. Moog knew he could do better.

The IGA company was willing to provide him $175,000 in a “personal services” contract for the hockey season (Moog had done some work for IGA during the previous couple of years). He picked up another $50,000 in carding money for Canada’s Olympic hockey players.

In other words, Moog made $75,000 more playing for Canada in 1987-88 than he would have with the Oilers.

Here's the full story, including Moog's memories of the Calgary Games.