As the old saying goes, to err is human. Regardless of how well you prepare for any given situation, sometimes you’ll make mistakes. The same thing goes for the Calgary Flames at the NHL Draft.

Historically, they have made two picks that weren’t what they intended. One of them involved them selecting a different Swedish forward than they intended in 1975 – we’ll get to that one later. But in 1990, the Flames selected the Swedish forward that they wanted.

The only problem is that another team had already drafted him. Five years earlier.

In 1984-85, 18-year-old Swedish winger Thomas Bjuhr split his season between AIK’s junior team in the Juniorserien and their senior team in the Elitserien (the precursor to the Swedish Hockey League). He ended up being selected by the Detroit Red wings in the seventh round of the 1985 NHL Draft. He spent the following season with AIK before joining the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winter Hawks for his 20-year-old season – he posted 28 goals and 54 points in 39 games.

On Apr. 19, 1987, Eric Duhatschek had the following mention in his Calgary Herald column: “Detroit Red Wings have come to terms with Thomas Bjuhr on a three-year contract. Bjuhr played with Portland Winter Hawks as an overage player last season.” Bjuhr spent the 1987-88 season with the Red Wings’ American Hockey League affiliate in Adirondack before returning to Sweden on loan for the following two seasons, and his contract with the Red Wings expired after the 1989-90 season.

Now, let’s provide some disclaimers: In 1990, there was no Hockey DB. There was no Elite Prospects. There was no digital NHL repository of which teams held which players’ rights. Even with the introduction of the NHL’s Central Scouting Service in mid 1970s, information about player eligibility for the draft was spotty.

But it was still a bit weird when, at 230th overall in the 1990 NHL Draft, the Flames selected Bjuhr. Or attempted to, anyway. Their selection was deemed invalid by the league since his rights were still owned by Detroit. It was obviously an accidental error, and it seems likely that the Flames weren’t aware that Bjuhr wasn’t eligible for selection. 11th-round picks are generally enough of a crapshoot that the invalid pick wasn’t really considered all that newsworthy at the time – if you rummage through newspaper archives online, it’s only mentioned off-hand in a Canadian Press recap of the proceedings.

Only four players selected after the Flames’ disallowed 11th-round pick ever played any NHL games: Todd Hlushko, Nick Vachon, Todd Reirden and Sergei Nemchinov. Heck, Hlushko even played games with the Flames. Bjuhr remained in Europe for the remainder of his playing career.

The 230th overall pick in 1990 amounted to nothing for the Flames. But so did plenty of valid selections they made over the years, too. The attempted Bjuhr pick amounted to just a blip on their drafting radar, and an interesting historical curiosity decades later.