1979 NHL Expansion Draft

The 1979 NHL Expansion Draft was held on June 13, 1979. The draft took place to fill the rosters of the league's new teams for the 1979–80 season: the Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets. These four teams had joined the NHL after a merger agreement was reached with the World Hockey Association.

As many WHA players also had their rights held by NHL teams, those NHL teams were allowed to reclaim their players. In order to keep the NHL teams from plundering all the talent from the WHA-turned-NHL teams, each incoming franchise was allowed to protect up to two goaltenders and two skaters. These were designated as "priority selections" in the Expansion Draft.

Rules

Reclaiming of players: The 17 existing NHL teams were allowed to reclaim any rights to former WHA players they held. The four incoming franchises, however, were allowed to protect up to two goaltenders and two skaters, voiding their NHL rights. These players were considered "priority selections" in the expansion draft. Numerous deals were cut by the incoming teams to retain some of their players. For instance, Quebec retained star forward Real Cloutier by trading a first-round draft choice to the Chicago Black Hawks, which held Cloutier's rights; that pick was used to select perennial superstar Denis Savard.

Wayne Gretzky was a special case - although no team held his NHL rights, under existing rules he would have been removed from the Oilers and placed into the NHL Entry Draft. However, Gretzky had been signed by Oilers owner Peter Pocklington to a personal services contract instead of a standard player contract. Confronted with the probability of being drafted first overall by the last place Colorado Rockies, Gretzky refused to void his contract with Pocklington. After deliberation, the Oilers were allowed to keep Gretzky as one of their priority selections, and agreed to choose last in each round of the 1979 NHL Entry Draft as further compensation.

Gordie Howe was a second special case - as a gentlemen's agreement between the Hartford Whalers and the Detroit Red Wings, which held his NHL rights, the Red Wings declined to reclaim the 51-year-old Howe.

Expansion draft: Each of the 17 existing NHL teams were allowed to protect 15 skaters and two veteran goalies.

Compensation: The 17 existing NHL teams received $125,000 for each player drafted, these payments being funded by the $6 million in franchise fees each of the former WHA teams paid to join the NHL.

Reclaimed players

These are players whose NHL rights were reclaimed when the WHA merged with the NHL.^[1]

• Twelve additional players were reclaimed, but were chosen as 'Priority Selections' by the four merging franchises

Expansion draft results

See also

• 1978–79 WHA season
• 1979 NHL Entry Draft
• 1979–80 NHL season

Citations

References

• Hartford/New England Whalers All-Time Roster
• WHA Oilers Page - 1979 Expansion Draft (webarchive.org 29 November 2003)
• Washington Capitals History 1979-1980
• St. Louis Blues Team Records
• Foundation Begins with Goaltending by Al Morganti @ ESPN.com
• Greig, Murray (1997). Big Bucks and Blue Pucks. Macmillan Canada. pp. 216–7. ISBN 978-0771574238.
• Duplacey, James (1998). Total Hockey: The official encyclopedia of the National Hockey League. Total Sports. pp. 498–528. ISBN 0-8362-7114-9.