thestar.com

That was why [Conn Smythe] went to Winnipeg. Some time earlier, Smythe had been trying to sign a player named Jimmy Ward, over the phone. The conversation was interrupted when [Jimmy Strachan] came on the line and said: "Save your voice, Smythe. This boy has just signed with the Maroons." Such things happened in hockey's pioneer days.

Getting the signatures of both Cooks on New York Ranger contracts, Smythe asked them to call Strachan in Montreal. Smythe interrupted the conversation and said: "The Cooks just signed me with. Thanks for the lesson."

The signing of [Frank Boucher] took a humorous twist, too. Smythe and Col. John Hammond, his boss at Madison Square Garden, went to Boston to buy Boucher's contract from the Bruins. Smythe talked to Boston club owner Charles Adams, while Hammond, who didn't know a puck from a flapjack, went to see Art Ross, general manager of the club. Smythe had just concluded a deal with Adams, to get Boucher for $10,000, when Hammond came in with Ross and said: "I have just obtained Boucher's contract for $12,500."