The 1976–77

Cleveland Barons The name Cleveland Barons has been used by three professional hockey teams and one junior team. *Cleveland Barons (NHL), the National Hockey League team that played between 1976 and 1978 *Cleveland Barons (1937–1973), the original American Hockey ...

season was the first

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

for this franchise in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, after nine seasons in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

as the Oakland Seals/California Golden Seals. The Barons displaced the

World Hockey Association The World Hockey Association (french: Association mondiale de hockey) was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) ...

Cleveland Crusaders The Cleveland Crusaders were a professional ice hockey team from Cleveland. They played in the World Hockey Association from 1972 to 1976. Their home ice was the Cleveland Arena from 1972 to 1974, and the Richfield Coliseum from 1974 to 1976. T ...

, who elected to relocate to Minnesota and become the

Minnesota Fighting Saints The Minnesota Fighting Saints was the name of two professional ice hockey teams based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, that played in the World Hockey Association. The first team was one of the WHA's original twelve franchises, playing from 1972 to 19 ...

. The Barons played in the tough

Adams Division The NHL's Adams Division was formed in 1974 as part of the Prince of Wales Conference. The division existed for 19 seasons until 1993. It was named in honour of Charles Francis Adams, the founder of the Boston Bruins. It is the forerunner of the ...

and spent most of the season in last place. Midway through the season, majority owner

Melvin Swig Melvin Morse Swig (July 31, 1917 – May 14, 1993)

announced the team might have trouble finishing the season. The club missed payroll twice in February, and only a loan from the league and NHLPA kept the team afloat. Following the season, minority owner George Gund III purchased a controlling interest in the club.

Offseason

Amateur Draft

The franchise participated in the 1976 Amateur Draft as the California Golden Seals, the move to Cleveland not being approved until mid-July.

Regular season

Schedule and results

Regular season

;Detailed records

Player stats

Skaters

''Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalties in minutes'' ^†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Barons. Stats reflect time with the Barons only. ^‡Traded/released mid-season

Goaltenders

''Note: GP = Games played; TOI = Time on ice (minutes); W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; GAA = Goals against average'' ^†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Seals. Stats reflect time with the Seals only. ^‡Traded mid-season

Transactions

The Barons were involved in the following transactions during the 1976–77 season:

Trades

Additions and subtractions

References

External links

Barons on Hockey Database

{{DEFAULTSORT:1976-77 Cleveland Barons season Cleve Cleve Cleveland Barons (NHL)