The NHL Draft's weirdest moments are better than fiction

The NHL Draft is one of the most exciting moments of the offseason as the league's prospective young talent is put on display, generating plenty of excitement for the future.

But throughout history, there have been some downright bizarre moments to take place on draft day -- ones that would be deemed unbelievable had they not actually been documented. Here are three of the most memorable events to take place at the NHL Draft.

Panthers try to find a loophole to draft Alex Ovechkin a year early

The 2003 draft class is known as one of the most talented groups of players in modern history, with Marc-Andre Fleury, Eric Staal, and Ryan Getzlaf among those selected. But Alex Ovechkin was almost one of them, if it weren't for the cutoff date.

There was already buzz about Ovechkin's talent leading up to the 2003 NHL Draft, even though he wasn't eligible to be selected until the following year. That didn't stop the Florida Panthers from trying to bend the rules to get him.

Ovechkin was born just two days after the cutoff for the 2003 draft. Panthers GM Rick Dudley argued that, if you take leap years into account, then the Russian superstar was actually old enough to meet the birthdate requirement.

Florida attempted to select Ovechkin four different times during the draft, which included a formal writing submission in the ninth round. That way, there was a paper trail for legal reasons.

Of course, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman didn't buy into the nonsense, and Ovechkin was famously selected first overall by the Washington Capitals in his actual draft-eligible year. But it would have made an eternal impact on NHL history had the scheme worked as Dudley intended it to.

Canucks pull strings to get Pavel Bure in 1989

Exploiting a similar loophole, the Vancouver Canucks successfully drafted Pavel Bure in 1989 despite the rule that would have held him back until the following year's draft.

Because he was 18 years old at the time, the Soviet-born star was eligible to be selected in the first three rounds in 1989. But teams continually passed up on him due to fears that he might not want to come to North America.

When it came time for the fourth round and beyond, Bure technically was not allowed to be drafted because he hadn't met the minimum qualifications: he woud have needed to play at least 11 games in two separate seasons with his club, the Central Red Army.

But Canucks head scout Mike Penny and GM Pat Quinn discovered something that would change the course of NHL history. Bure had skated in some exhibition games internationally that would push him past the 11-game threshold, making him eligible to be selected.

"Everybody would have taken him earlier. We assumed he was not eligible... you've got to give the Canucks credit for doing their homework."

Capitals executive Jack Button

Several other teams caught wind of this fact, including the Detroit Red Wings, who had planned to take Bure in the sixth round. In fact, the Red Wings actually inquired with the league president about the legality of the pick, and were told Bure still could not be drafted. But the Canucks beat everyone to the punch, selecting Bure 116th overall.

The selection was initially deemed illegal by the NHL, but Vancouver appealed the decision and supplied proof of the exhibition games. The day before the 1990 NHL Draft, NHL president John Ziegler announced that Bure was indeed a Vancouver Canuck. It took a full year to settle the debacle, but the risk paid off and Bure went on to have a stellar Hall of Fame career in Vancouver and beyond.

Sabres select a made-up player in 1974

Back in the early days of the expansion era, the draft was 25 rounds long and took three days to complete. Not everyone was thrilled with this development, especially Buffalo Sabres GM Punch Imlach.

The former NHLer decided to stick it to the man in the strangest way possible: inventing a player who didn't exist and selecting him in the 11th round. This player's name was Taro Tsujimoto, and Imlach even created a backstory for the made-up skater.

Tsujimoto supposedly hailed from Osaka, Japan and played for the fictional Tokyo Katanas, which Imlach humorously chose because a katana was the closest Japanese equivalent to a sabre he could think of.

Nobody noticed the discrepancy at the time, least of all NHL president Clarence Campbell. Imlach had kept the hijinks secret from Sabres staff, leading everyone to believe that Tsujimoto was a real player who just hadn't been scouted much due to the fact he supposedly came from Japan where scouting was limited.

When the ruse was finally revealed, Campbell was not amused. But Sabres fans loved the stunt, and Tsujimoto is somewhat of a franchise legend to this day. People made hockey cards for him, and some even sport jerseys with his name on the back.