Gord Kluzak was the first player taken in the 1982 NHL draft, a Saskatchewan defenceman the Boston Bruins chose ahead of Brian Bellows, Scott Stevens and Phil Housley. Bad knees held him to 299 NHL games, and his name turns up on almost every list of the biggest draft busts. What he did next took him across the Charles River, and it has lasted far longer than his playing career.
What happened to Gord Kluzak?
Gord Kluzak went to Harvard, earned two degrees and built a career in finance at Goldman Sachs in Boston, where he has been registered since October 1998, according to his FINRA BrokerCheck record as of October 2026. In July 2021, Boston Hockey Now described him as a managing director at Goldman Sachs & Co.
| Gord Kluzak: then and now | |
|---|---|
| Known for | First overall pick in 1982, Masterton Trophy 1989-90 |
| Position | Defence, shoots left |
| Born | 4 March 1964, Climax, Saskatchewan |
| Drafted | 1982, first round, first overall, Boston Bruins |
| NHL career | Seven seasons, 299 games, all with Boston |
| Last NHL season | 1990-91, Boston Bruins |
| Education | Harvard, economics degree 1994 and MBA 1998 |
| Current role | Goldman Sachs & Co. in Boston, as of October 2026 |
His path began almost as soon as he stopped playing. According to his NESN biography, he graduated from Harvard in 1994 with a degree in economics, spent two years as chief of staff at the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission, and finished his Harvard MBA in June 1998. The FINRA record shows him at Goldman Sachs from August 1998. By 2004, when he spoke about leadership at a financial conference, Credit Union Times described him as an investment professional in private wealth management.
He has talked openly about that second start. “There is life after hockey,” he told Boston Hockey Now, adding that he had worked very hard to make his new career happen. He also passed the idea on: former Bruin Ken Baumgartner has said Kluzak was the one who suggested Harvard Business School, a story told in where Ken Baumgartner is now.
Gord Kluzak’s draft: picked first, ahead of Bellows, Stevens and Housley
Boston made Gord Kluzak the first pick of the 1982 NHL Entry Draft out of the Billings Bighorns of the WHL. Minnesota took Brian Bellows second, Washington took Scott Stevens fifth, and Buffalo took Phil Housley sixth. Stevens and Housley were both later inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Bellows has his own story in what happened to Brian Bellows.
The pick was not a reach at the time. Kluzak won world junior gold with Canada in 1982 and was named the country’s amateur junior male athlete of the year, the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame notes. The province inducted him in 1996. For how every franchise has fared at the top of the draft, see NHL first overall picks by team.
| Pick | Team | Player | Position | NHL games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boston | Gord Kluzak | D | 299 |
| 2 | Minnesota | Brian Bellows | LW | 1,188 |
| 3 | Toronto | Gary Nylund | D | 608 |
| 4 | Philadelphia | Ron Sutter | C | 1,093 |
| 5 | Washington | Scott Stevens | D | 1,635 |
| 6 | Buffalo | Phil Housley | D | 1,495 |
| 7 | Chicago | Ken Yaremchuk | C | 235 |
| 8 | New Jersey | Rocky Trottier | RW | 38 |
| 9 | Buffalo | Paul Cyr | LW | 471 |
| 10 | Pittsburgh | Rich Sutter | RW | 874 |
Four of the first six picks were defencemen, and Kluzak was the only one of them who did not reach 600 NHL games.
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Why did Gord Kluzak retire?
Gord Kluzak retired because of chronic knee problems, the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame says, and he played his last NHL game in the 1990-91 season. The injuries cost him all of 1984-85 and all of 1986-87.
He kept coming back anyway. That persistence earned him the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for 1989-90, the award for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey, as listed on his Hockey-Reference page.
Gord Kluzak’s NHL career in numbers
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | P | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982-83 | Boston | 70 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 105 |
| 1983-84 | Boston | 80 | 10 | 27 | 37 | 135 |
| 1985-86 | Boston | 70 | 8 | 31 | 39 | 153 |
| 1987-88 | Boston | 66 | 6 | 31 | 37 | 135 |
| 1988-89 | Boston | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 1989-90 | Boston | 8 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 11 |
| 1990-91 | Boston | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 299 | 25 | 98 | 123 | 541 |
He added 46 playoff games, with 6 goals and 19 points, 23 of those games coming in the spring of 1988.
The nine players picked right after Gord Kluzak in 1982 played 7,637 NHL games between them. Kluzak played 299, and only two of those nine played fewer. Scott Stevens alone played 1,635, more than five times as many. Of Kluzak’s own total, 286 games came in his four full seasons.
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Gord Kluzak never left hockey entirely: years on Bruins TV
Gord Kluzak kept a hand in the game through television. The FINRA record lists work as a sports commentator for NESN, the Bruins’ regional network, starting in September 1995, and in September 2011 Sports Video Group reported that he would join the NESN studio as a veteran analyst alongside Barry Pederson.
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