WHA Dispersal, Reclaimation, and Expansion Drafts

[30ranfordfan]

It's something we'll never see happen again. The idea that an upstart league could come into North American Professional Hockey, take legit talent away from the NHL, and try to compete? With how much the business of sport has grown over 40 years, it simply won't happen again.


Of course we all know that it did happen in the 1970s, with the WHA.


That entire era is filled with awesome bits of information. The lineage of teams, where they moved, etc - That alone could be its own book.


The Dispersal, Reclaimation, and Expansion drafts are what I want to post about today. It was a truly unique, will only ever happen the one time, moment in hockey history.


The WHA started in 1972, with 12 teams. By 1974 it had expanded to 14 teams. Then it shrunk back to 12, then to 8. In it's final season (1978-79) there were only 7 teams left. One of those (the Indianapolis Racers) didn't last the season. When the merger happened, four teams joined the NHL: Edmonton, Winnipeg, Hartford, and Quebec. The remaining two teams folded (the Cincinnati Stingers & the Birmingham Bulls). My understanding is that those two clubs were paid to fold.


The WHA was filled with talent that was "owned" by NHL clubs. Part of the merger deal involved giving NHL clubs the chance to have their players returned to them. To help the four merging teams compete, and withstand their rosters being picked over, the first part of the expansion draft was a dispersal draft. The four merging clubs (EDM, WIN, QUE, HAR) were allowed to select players from the folded WHA teams (Cincinnati, Birmingham, and Indianapolis).


One kink in this: The WHA had opted to not hold a draft in 1978, and instead encouraged clubs to sign underage players. Players that were still 20 years old (or younger) and had NOT been drafted by an NHL club, were not eligible for this part of the draft. They would go into the pool of players of the NHL's 1979 Entry Draft instead. Some of the names included here were Mark Messier, Mike Gartner, Michel Goulet, and the eventual 1979 1st overall pick, Rob Ramage.


Here's the results:


Edmonton Selected: Bryon Baltimore (D), Kelly Davis (D), Dave Forbes (LW), Mike Liut (G), Michel Parizeau (C), Reg Thomas (LW), Bryan Watson (D) from the Cincinnati Stingers, and Dave Fortier (D) Bruce Greig (LW) from the Indianapolis Racers.


Hartford Selected: Byron Shutt (LW) from the Cincinnati Stingers, Al McLeod (D) from the Indianapolis Racers, and Steve Alley (LW), Tony Cassolato (RW), Paul Henderson (LW), Bob Stephenson (C) from the Birmingham Bulls


Quebec Selected: Peter Marrin (C), John Stewart (C), Greg Tebbutt (D) from the Birmingham Bulls, and Michel Dion (G), Dave Dornseif (D), Robbie Ftorek (C), Bill Gilligan (C), Barry Melrose (D), Paul Stewart (LW) from the Cincinnati Stingers


Winnipeg Selected: Jamie Hislop (RW), Barry Legge (D), Peter Marsh (LW), Craig Norwich (D) all from the Cincinnati Stingers.


One interesting name in there that jumped out at me was Bryan Watson, for the Edmonton Oilers. He was a vet of nearly 900 NHL games, that jumped to the WHA mid-season in 1978-79. Started the year with Washington, ended it with Cincinnati. He never played a game for the Oilers, but he`d be made head-coach for the 1980-81 season (a job he didn`t hold very long). He was named head coach to start the season, but Glen Sather (who had coached the team in 79-80) took over again, after 18 games. Watson finished the year as an Associate coach.




This inflated the sizes of the WHA teams merging into the NHL, but they needed it. There was no limit on how many players could be reclaimed by the existing teams (or if there was, I can`t find it). If they owned the player`s NHL rights, they could take them back.


Prior to the "reclaimation" draft, the four ex-WHA clubs were allow to make four "Priority Selections". They were limited to a max of two goalies, and two skaters.


These were players they were protecting from NHL clubs reclaiming them, with the Club added as a second column.

Edmonton Oilers	NHL Club
Dave Dryden (G)	Buffalo Sabres
Wayne Gretzky (C)
Bengt-Ake Gustafsson (RW)	Washington Capitals
Eddie Mio (G)	Minnesota North Stars
Hartford Whalers
Jordy Douglas (F)	Toronto Maple Leafs
John Garrett (G)	St. Louis Blues
Mark Howe (D)	Boston Bruins
Quebec Nordiques
Paul Baxter (D)	Pittsburgh Penguins
Richard Brodeur (G)	New York Islanders
Garry Lariviere (D)	Buffalo Sabres
Winnipeg Jets
Scott Campbell (D)	St. Louis Blues
Morris Lukowich (LW)	Pittsburgh Penguins
Markus Mattsson (G)	New York Islanders

Of course this was not without controversy. Gretzky was not owned by any NHL club, but his age should have pushed him into the NHL Entry Draft, like the other underage WHAers. The genius of Peter Pocklington (Oilers`s owner) comes into play here though.


Gretzky was not signed to a standard player contract, and was in fact signed to a personal services contract to Pocklington. The Oilers insisted they be allowed to use one of their priority selections on Gretzky. Gretzky was also refusing to void the contract, preferring to remain in Edmonton, instead of joining the Colorado Rockies (who had the first pick).


The NHL allowed it, but dropped Edmonton`s spot in the draft to 21st. (The WHA teams picked at the end of each round. I`m not sure how the order was determined for the other three).


Bengt-Ake Gustafsson also caused a problem. The Oilers had only signed him in the 1979 Playoffs. The NHL ruled that he was ineligible to be one of their selection, so the Oilers effectivly lost that slot. They didn`t get to replace him with anyone else.


The Oilers were the only one of the four clubs to protect two goalies.


There was also a series of trades that revolved around Priority selections:


1. The North Stars sent Edmonton a 4th round pick in 1979, and the Oilers promised to not make Paul Shmyr a priority selection.


2. Quebec traded a 3rd round pick in 1980, and a 2nd round pick in 1981 to Montreal. In exchange Montreal promises to take Danny Geoffrion and Alain Cote, rather than Mark Tardif or Richard David in the reclaimation draft. The Nordiques also promise to take Cote back in the expansion draft.


3. Quebec traded a 1st round pick in 1979 to Chicago, and Chicago agreed not to select Real Cloutier in the reclamation draft.


4. Winnpeg got a 1980 7th round pick from Pittsburgh, for agreeing not to select Kim Clackson as a priority selection.

5. There was also an agreement that Detroit would not take Gordie Howe from Hartford, as Howe wanted to remain there.




The next stage was the reclamation draft. 30 players were returned to the NHL clubs that previously held their rights:

Player	WHA Club	Reclaiming NHL Club
Cal Sandbeck (D)	Edmonton Oilers	Minnesota North Stars
Dave Langevin (D)	Edmonton Oilers	New York Islanders
Dave Semenko (LW)	Edmonton Oilers	Minnesota North Stars
Dennis Sobchuk (LW)	Edmonton Oilers	Philadelphia Flyers
Doug Berry (C)	Edmonton Oilers	Colorado Rockies
Jim Mayer (C)	Edmonton Oilers	New York Rangers
John Hughes (D)	Edmonton Oilers	Vancouver Canucks
Kelly Davis (D)	Edmonton Oilers	New York Islanders
Mike Liut (G)	Edmonton Oilers	St. Louis Blues
Paul Shmyr (D)	Edmonton Oilers	Minnesota North Stars
Risto Siltanen (D)	Edmonton Oilers	St. Louis Blues
Stan Weir (D)	Edmonton Oilers	Toronto Maple Leafs
Steve Carlson (RW)	Edmonton Oilers	Los Angeles Kings
Wes George (LW)	Edmonton Oilers	Detroit Red Wings
Alan Hangsleben (D)	Hartford Whalers	Montreal Canadiens
George Lyle (LW)	Hartford Whalers	Detroit Red Wings
Rick Ley (D)	Hartford Whalers	Toronto Maple Leafs
Warren Miller (RW)	Hartford Whalers	New York Rangers
Alain Cote (LW)	Quebec Nordiques	Montreal Canadiens
Christian Bordeleau (C)	Quebec Nordiques	St. Louis Blues
Dan Geoffrion (RW)	Quebec Nordiques	Montreal Canadiens
Greg Tebbutt (D)	Quebec Nordiques	Edmonton Oilers
Barry Long (D)	Winnipeg Jets	Detroit Red Wings
Bobby Hull (LW)	Winnipeg Jets	Chicago Black Hawks
Glenn Hicks (LW)	Winnipeg Jets	Detroit Red Wings
Kent Nilsson (LW)	Winnipeg Jets	Atlanta Flames
Kim Clackson (D)	Winnipeg Jets	Pittsburgh Penguins
Paul MacKinnon (D)	Winnipeg Jets	Washington Capitals
Peter Marsh (RW)	Winnipeg Jets	Montreal Canadiens
Terry Ruskowski (RW)	Winnipeg Jets	Chicago Black Hawks

You can see that Edmonton in particular was picked over pretty heavy, losing 14 players. Hartford lost 4, Quebec just 3, and Winnipeg (who had just won the final AVCO Cup) lost 8.


Interesting to note: None of the players taken by the WHA clubs in the dispersal draft, wound up as players they made priority selections for the reclamation draft. Perhaps they weren`t allowed to (I`m not sure).


Of the players taken in the dispersal draft, Edmonton lost two in the reclaimation draft (Mike Liut, Kelly Davis) while Quebec (Greg Tebbutt) and Winnipeg (Peter Marsh) each lost one.


So this far, we`ve had three phases to the drafting. The four ex-WHA teams selected players in a dispersal draft. They they made priority selections to protect their own players from the reclaimation draft, which established NHL teams then took part in, taking players from their rosters.


The final phase was the expansion draft. This is a process we`re all familiar with. The specifics change from one expansion to the next, but the new teams get to take unprotected players from the established ones.


The existing 17 NHL teams protected a list of 15 skaters, and 2 goalies. The WHA teams then got to draft for 17 rounds.

Edmonton Oilers selections
	Player	Drafted from
1	Cam Connor (RW)	Montreal Canadiens
2	Lee Fogolin (D)	Buffalo Sabres
3	Pat Price (D)	New York Islanders
4	Colin Campbell (D)	Pittsburgh Penguins
5	Larry Brown (D)	Los Angeles Kings
6	Pete LoPresti (G)	Minnesota North Stars
7	Ron Areshenkoff (C)	Buffalo Sabres
8	Inge Hammarstrom (D)	St. Louis Blues
9	John Gould (RW)	Atlanta Flames
10	Doug Hicks (D)	Chicago Black Hawks
11	Tom Edur (D)	Pittsburgh Penguins
12	Wayne Bianchin (LW)	Pittsburgh Penguins
13	Mike Forbes (D)	Boston Bruins
14	Doug Favell (G)	Colorado Rockies
15	Doug Patey (RW)	Washington Capitals
16	Bob Kelly (LW)	Chicago Black Hawks
Hartford Whalers selections
	Player	Drafted from
1	Alan Hangsleben (D)	Montreal Canadiens
2	Nick Fotiu (LW)	New York Rangers
3	Rick Ley (D)	Toronto Maple Leafs
4	Al Sims (D)	Boston Bruins
5	Jean Savard (C)	Chicago Black Hawks
6	Ralph Klassen (F)	Colorado Rockies
7	Rick Hodgson (D)	Atlanta Flames
8	Kevin Kemp (D)	Toronto Maple Leafs
9	Bill Bennett (LW)	Boston Bruins
10	Bernie Johnston (C/LW)	Philadelphia Flyers
11	Brian Hill (RW)	Atlanta Flames
12	Dave Given (F)	Buffalo Sabres
13	M. F. Schurman (LW)	Philadelphia Flyers
14	Nick Beverley (D)	Colorado Rockies
15	Norm Lapointe (G)	Vancouver Canucks
16	Don Kozak (LW)	Vancouver Canucks
Quebec Nordiques selections
	Player	Drafted from
1	Dave Farrish (D)	New York Rangers
2	Gerry Hart (D)	New York Islanders
3	Ron Low (G)	Detroit Red Wings
4	Pierre Plante (RW)	New York Rangers
5	Blair Stewart (F)	Washington Capitals
6	John Baby (D)	Minnesota North Stars
7	John Smrke (LW)	St. Louis Blues
8	Dave Parro (G)	Boston Bruins
9	Ken Kuzyk (RW)	Minnesota North Stars
10	Roland Cloutier (C)	Detroit Red Wings
11	Terry Martin (F)	Buffalo Sabres
12	Jamie Masters (D)	St. Louis Blues
13	Hartland Monahan (F)	Los Angeles Kings
14	Ron Andruff (C)	Colorado Rockies
15	Alain Cote (LW)	Montreal Canadiens
16	Lars Zetterstrom (D)	Vancouver Canucks
Winnipeg Jets selections
	Player	Drafted from
1	Peter Marsh (LW)	Montreal Canadiens
2	Lindsay Middlebrook (G)	New York Rangers
3	Bobby Hull (LW)	Chicago Black Hawks
4	Al Cameron (D)	Detroit Red Wings
5	Dave Hoyda (LW)	Philadelphia Flyers
6	Jim Roberts (LW)	Minnesota North Stars
7	Lorne Stamler (LW)	Toronto Maple Leafs
8	Mark Heaslip (RW)	Los Angeles Kings
9	Pierre Hamel (G)	Toronto Maple Leafs
10	Gord McTavish (F)	St. Louis Blues
11	Gord Smith (D)	Washington Capitals
12	Clark Hamilton (C)	Detroit Red Wings
13	Jim Cunningham (LW)	Philadelphia Flyers
14	Dennis Abgrall (RW)	Los Angeles Kings
15	Bill Riley (W)	Washington Capitals
16	Gene Carr (C)	Atlanta Flames
17	Hilliard Graves (RW)	Vancouver Canucks

There's a few interesting things to see here.

First, Winnipeg was the only club to use all 17 picks. The other three teams stopped after the 16th round.

I believe NHL teams could only lose a maximum of 4 players. That would be "one per team" - however that's not how it worked. The Oilers took three Penguins, for example. Once a 4th Penguin was taken, nobody else could select one (though, if you're checking, Pittsburgh only lost the three players).

In addition to Pittsburgh only losing 3 players, the New York Islanders only lost two. It seems hard to believe that a team that was about to go on a run of four straight Stanley Cups, was the team with the fewest number of expansion eligible players, that anyone wanted.

Alan Hangsleben and Rick Ley were both players that Hartford lost to reclaimation, but were able to take back during the expansion draft. Alain Cote for Quebec fits this pattern too, but as mentioned before: That was part of a pre-arranged trade between Montreal and Quebec. Bobby Hull also fell into this group. He was reclaimed by Chicago, and then selected by Winnipeg in the expansion draft.

Peter Marsh was the most popular guy on this draft day. He was first selected by the Winnipeg Jets, from the Cincinnati Stingers, during the dispersal draft. He was not made a priority selection, and was reclaimed by the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs didn't protect him, so Winnipeg selected him again, with their 2nd pick in the expansion draft.

There were a few other trades made that day, but didn't involve extra protection for players, like the ones I mentioned earlier:

Edmonton traded a 1980 2nd round pick to Montreal, for Dan Newman & Dave Lumley.

The next day, Hartford traded Ralph Klassen to the New York Islanders, for Terry Richardson

Quebec had selected Hartland Monahan, but sold him to the St. Louis Blues. Two days after the draft, they dealt Dave Parro to Washington for Nelson Burton.

In a swap of ex-Stingers, about two weeks after the draft, The Nordiques sent Barry Melrose to the Jets in exchange for Jamie Hislop & Barry Legge.

The Oilers would end up trading 2nd and 3rd round picks, in 1979, to Minnesota. They got back a 3rd round pick (higher than theirs) in the same draft, along with Dave Semenko.

The Oilers lost Risto Siltanen to the St. Louis Blues, but would reacquire him later that summer (along with Tom Roulson) in a trade for Joe Micheletti. That's a curious use of asset management by the Blues, as I see no reason they couldn't have simply selected Micheletti instead of Siltanen.

There were not a ton of huge names that moved around on this day. Bobby Hull was the biggest, but he was well past his prime. As mentioned before, he was reclaimed by Chicago, and then selected by Winnipeg. He only played 18 games for the Jets the following season, before being traded to the Hartford Whalers, where he played the final 9 games of his career.

Paul Henderson was drafted by Hartford, from Birmingham, but he never played for them. He didn't actually come back to the NHL after the merger, and stayed in Birmingham instead. He played for the new Bulls, in the CHL. At some point he joined the Atlanta Flames for 30 games, but whet back to Birmingham for his final season in 80-81.

Kent Nilsson (Winnipeg, to Atlanta) and Mike Luit (Cincinnati, to Edmonton, to St. Louis) were probably the two biggest impact players that moved around on that day. Luit was the #1 goalie in St. Louis for five and a half seasons, before being dealt to Hartford... and Nilsson would score buckets of goals for the Flames, breaking the 40 goals mark in three seasons.


So there you have it. The "merger" came complete with three rounds of drafting, along with "priority" selections.

How different would things be today, if Edmonton had been forced to give up Gretzky, and he'd been taken #1 in the draft by Colorado ?

[Savard18]

It's kinda funny, and most people may not know but the Paul Stewart selected by the Nords from the Bulls was the same legendary Paul Stewart the referee...

Also, I think the Hawks reclaimed Bobby Hull just so they could expose him hence protect another player on the roster, I wonder which player the Hawks had in mind protecting just so they could expose Hull.... I mean Hull was never coming back to Chicago - Hull and Bill Wirtz had a huge falling out when he left for the WHA and Bill Wirtz held a grudge against Hull until Wirtz death in 2008. So I find it fascinating that Bobby Hull's 1979-80 Topps card has him with the Blackhawks, and of course his OPC card has him correctly listed as a Jet..

Also, could you imagine what would have happened if the Oilers stuck with Liut?? obviously both Fuhr and Moog were fantastic but would have the Oilers have drafted Fuhr had they had Liut?... IMO, the outcome would have been the same the same in the 80's, I mean Liut backing the OIlers instead of Fuhr wouldn't change much considering BOTH were on the same level, and I may be in the minority but I would give the edge to Liut over Fuhr.... Imagine if Fuhr originally gets drafted by St. Louis, and Liut sticks with the Oilers..

Of course that's when the draft age was dropped from 20 to 18 as well so that NHL Amateur Draft was really three drafts in one because; 18,19 & 20-year-olds were eligible - which is why it was so deep... The 20-year-olds under the older rules were eligible, but the 19 and 18-year olds were not under prior to the rule change...

I'll say this much tho, I really wish there was a Hartford Topps/OPC Bobby Hull card... In speaking of Hartford - that team was pretty loaded with "over the hill" former stars and superstars, I mean 10 years prior that team would have essentially been an All-Star Team.