The 1979 NHL expansion was the culmination of several years of negotiations between the
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
(NHL) and 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) ...
(WHA) that resulted in the WHA and its six surviving franchises folding in return for the owners of four of those teams (the
Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. They play their home games at Rogers Place, which ...
,
New England Whalers
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
,
Quebec Nordiques
The Quebec Nordiques (french: Nordiques de Québec, pronounced in Quebec French, in Canadian English; translated "Quebec City Northmen" or "Northerners") were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The Nordiques played in the W ...
, and
Winnipeg Jets
The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and is owned by True North Sports & Entertainment, pl ...
) being granted expansion franchises that commenced play in the NHL for the
1979–80 season. The agreement officially took effect on June 22, 1979. The agreement ended the seven-year existence of the WHA and re-established the NHL as the lone major league in North American professional
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
.
The two leagues had discussed the possibility of some sort of amalgamation for numerous years, despite the acrimonious relationship between the two after the WHA aggressively recruited NHL players upon the former's founding in 1971. The two sides came close to an agreement in 1977, but the proposed merger was defeated by a group of hard-line NHL owners. The NHL also initially rejected the 1979 expansion agreement by one vote. However, a massive boycott of
Molson
The Molson Brewery is a Canadian based brewery company based in Montreal which was established in 1786 by the Molson family. In 2005, Molson merged with the Adolph Coors Company to become Molson Coors.
Molson Coors maintains some of its Can ...
products in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
led the
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...
, who were owned by the Molson family, to reverse their position in a second vote along with the
Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, and play their home games at Rogers Arena. Bruce B ...
, allowing the plan to pass.
Although popularly called the NHL–WHA merger, the NHL refused to recognize the WHA's records or history as being any part of its own, and explicitly treated the WHA teams' arrival ''not'' as a merger but rather as an expansion consisting of four ''new'' teams which happened to have identical or similar names to some of the former WHA teams. The existing NHL teams were given the right to reclaim players from the WHA clubs without compensation, although each of the new NHL franchises were permitted to keep two goaltenders and two skaters from their WHA rosters. An
expansion draft
An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansion ...
was then held to stock the four new NHL teams. The expansion teams were also placed at the end of the draft order for the
1979 NHL Entry Draft
The 1979 NHL Entry Draft was the 17th NHL Entry Draft. It took place on August 9, 1979, at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. The National Hockey League (NHL) teams selected 126 players eligible for entry into professional ranks, in ...
, as opposed to typical expansion teams in North American sports leagues which are usually placed at or very near the front of the draft order.
Background
Since the demise of the
Western Canada Hockey League
The Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925 and disbanded in 1926.
The WCHL's Victoria C ...
in 1926, the NHL had existed as the only major professional North American ice hockey league. After dwindling from ten teams to the so-called
Original Six
The Original Six () are the teams that comprised the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1942 and 1967. The six teams are the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs ...
in 1942, the NHL stabilized. In the years following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the league became immensely profitable. Similar to other professional leagues of the era, the NHL enforced a
reserve clause
The reserve clause, in North American professional sports, was part of a player contract which stated that the rights to players were retained by the team upon the contract's expiration. Players under these contracts were not free to enter into ano ...
to prevent players from signing with other NHL teams after their contracts expired.
Through to the end of the 1950s, the NHL refused to seriously consider expansion. However, following speculation that the
Western Hockey League
The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a major junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior h ...
intended to declare itself a major league, the NHL was entertaining expansion discussions by 1963,
culminating four years later with the
addition of six new teams for the
1967–68 NHL season; this sparked the first significant expansion period for the league that continued until it had tripled in size to 18 teams in 1974.
The WHA was founded in 1971 with ten teams, and intended to operate as a direct competitor to the NHL. By its
inaugural season, 67 NHL players had defected to the new league.
Former
Chicago Black Hawks
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
star
Bobby Hull
Robert Marvin Hull OC (born January 3, 1939) is a Canadian former ice hockey player who is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. His blonde hair, skating speed, end-to-end rushes, and ability to shoot the puck at very high veloc ...
lent immediate credibility to the fledgling circuit when he signed a 10-year contract with the
Winnipeg Jets
The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and is owned by True North Sports & Entertainment, pl ...
for $2.7 million, the largest in hockey history at the time.
The NHL attempted in court to block the defections, earning an injunction against the Jets that initially prevented several players, including Hull, from playing in the WHA. The new league challenged the orders, stating that the NHL's
reserve clause
The reserve clause, in North American professional sports, was part of a player contract which stated that the rights to players were retained by the team upon the contract's expiration. Players under these contracts were not free to enter into ano ...
, which tied players' rights to their NHL team for life, was illegal.
A
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
district court sided with the WHA in November 1972, ruling that the reserve clause violated the
Sherman Antitrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author.
Th ...
, freeing all players to play in the WHA. The ruling ended the NHL's monopoly on talent.
Since hockey salaries were among the lowest in professional sports at the time, a key part of the WHA's business plan was to place franchises in midsized Canadian
markets, including the
Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. They play their home games at Rogers Place, which ...
,
Winnipeg Jets
The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and is owned by True North Sports & Entertainment, pl ...
,
Ottawa Nationals
The Ottawa Nationals were a professional men's ice hockey team out of Ottawa that played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) during the 1972–73 WHA season.
The WHA had originally granted a franchise to Doug Michel for "Ontario." Original p ...
and
Quebec Nordiques
The Quebec Nordiques (french: Nordiques de Québec, pronounced in Quebec French, in Canadian English; translated "Quebec City Northmen" or "Northerners") were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The Nordiques played in the W ...
who played in cities the NHL had repeatedly rejected for expansion franchises but which the WHA thought could sustain major professional hockey teams. The WHA also challenged the older league more directly by placing teams in NHL markets, including the
Philadelphia Blazers
The Philadelphia Blazers were an ice hockey franchise in the World Hockey Association (WHA) for the 1972–73 WHA season based in Philadelphia. The team's home ice was the Philadelphia Convention Hall and Civic Center.
The franchise was origina ...
(
Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games in Wells ...
), Vancouver Blazers (
Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, and play their home games at Rogers Arena. Bruce B ...
),
Toronto Toros
The Toronto Toros were an ice hockey team based in Toronto that played in the World Hockey Association from 1973 to 1976.
History
The franchise was awarded to Doug Michel in 1971 for $25,000 to play in the WHA's inaugural 1972–73 season. Haro ...
(
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...
), and
Chicago Cougars
The Chicago Cougars were a franchise in the World Hockey Association from 1972 to 1975. The Cougars played their home games in the International Amphitheatre. During the 1974 Avco Cup Finals against Gordie Howe and the Houston Aeros, the team's ...
(Chicago Black Hawks), among others. The WHA's existence prompted the NHL to hastily expand to
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
and
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
in 1972 to keep the rival loop out of the newly completed
Omni Coliseum
Omni Coliseum (often called The Omni) was an indoor arena in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. Completed in 1972, the arena seated 16,378 for basketball and 15,278 for ice hockey, hockey. It was part of the CNN Center, Omni ...
and
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (or simply the Nassau Coliseum) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Uniondale, New York, east of New York City. The Long Island venue is approximately east of the eastern limits of the New York City Borough of ...
; the teams were christened as the
Flames
A flame (from Latin ''flamma'') is the visible, gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic chemical reaction taking place in a thin zone. When flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density they ...
and
New York Islanders
The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference ( ...
, respectively.
Merger talks
Merger talks between the two leagues had been ongoing since 1973, when NHL governors
Bill Jennings of the
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...
and
Ed Snider
Edward Malcolm Snider (January 6, 1933 – April 11, 2016) was an American business executive. He was the chairman of Comcast Spectacor, a Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment company that owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hock ...
of the
Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games in Wells ...
unsuccessfully approached the WHA and offered to have all 12 of its franchises join the NHL for $4 million each.
Attempts at reconciliation were frequently blocked by Toronto's
Harold Ballard
Harold Edwin Ballard (born Edwin Harold Ballard, July 30, 1903 – April 11, 1990) was a Canadian businessman and sportsman. Ballard was an owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL) as well as their home arena, Maple ...
, Chicago's
Bill Wirtz
William Wadsworth Wirtz (October 5, 1929 – September 26, 2007) was the chief executive officer and controlling shareholder of the family-owned Wirtz Corporation. He was best known as the owner of the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hoc ...
, and Boston's
Paul A. Mooney, owners of the three NHL teams most affected by the WHA's player raids.
By 1976, however, both leagues were struggling under the financial pressures of competing against each other on the ice and in the courtroom.
Bobby Hull had become an outspoken proponent of a merger between the two leagues,
though
Gordie Howe
Gordon Howe (March 31, 1928 – June 10, 2016) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. From 1946 to 1980, he played 26 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) and six seasons in the World Hockey Association (WHA); his first 25 seaso ...
(the NHL's all-time scoring leader-turned-WHA player) and WHA president
Bill MacFarland
William H. MacFarland (April 4, 1932 – August 12, 2011) was an ice hockey player who played in college for the University of Michigan and professionally for the Seattle Totems of the Western Hockey League. He was inducted into the University of M ...
disagreed, arguing that the WHA was sustainable indefinitely.
Long-time NHL President
Clarence Campbell
Clarence Sutherland Campbell, (July 9, 1905 – June 24, 1984) was a Canadian ice hockey executive, referee, and soldier. He refereed in the National Hockey League (NHL) during the 1930s, served in the Canadian Army during World War II, then s ...
was fiercely opposed to any union between the two leagues, saying, "They're our rivals. They were people that did their best to destroy us. Why would we salvage them now? To hell with them." Despite this animosity, some NHL teams agreed to play preseason exhibition games against WHA opponents prior to the 1974–75 season. Campbell ordered this interleague play halted in 1975, but the following year, the NHL president (who by this time was facing both declining health and personal scandal) relented and interleague exhibition games resumed, although a few NHL clubs, including Montreal and Toronto, continued to boycott them.
Campbell retired in 1977, and his successor,
John Ziegler (the NHL's first American chief executive), was more open to unification. Under Ziegler's presidency, interleague exhibition games became more common, eventually involving every NHL team except Los Angeles, Buffalo, Toronto, and Montreal. Merger negotiations also intensified, and continued to be conducted openly. The American teams were far less hostile to the idea of a merger than their Canadian counterparts. There were a number of reasons for this, but probably the most compelling was the
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...
' dominance of the NHL during the years of the WHA's existence. The Canadiens won five Stanley Cups during this time, including four in a row from 1976 through 1979. The
1976–77 Canadiens in particular are widely considered to be the most dominant team in NHL history. Montreal owed this success in large part to its ability to better resist WHA efforts to lure away its players, a notable exception being
J.C. Tremblay, who left the Canadiens to play for the WHA's
Quebec Nordiques
The Quebec Nordiques (french: Nordiques de Québec, pronounced in Quebec French, in Canadian English; translated "Quebec City Northmen" or "Northerners") were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The Nordiques played in the W ...
. While this may have been in part because Canadian ''
Hockey Night in Canada
CBC Television has aired National Hockey League (NHL) broadcasts under the ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') brand that is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts throughout its hi ...
'' television revenues were mostly distributed among the three Canadian teams instead of across the league, an additional factor was that star Quebecois players were long accustomed to playing in their home province, and even with the draft in effect these players (in particular,
Guy Lafleur
Guy Damien Lafleur (September 20, 1951 – April 22, 2022), nicknamed "the Flower" and "Le Démon Blond", was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He was the first player in National Hockey League (NHL) history to score 50 goals in six c ...
) successfully leveraged the threat of signing with the Nordiques to ensure the Canadiens were able to acquire their NHL rights. Hence, adding Canadian teams and in particular absorbing or eliminating the Nordiques had the potential of blunting that advantage. Also, both NHL and WHA owners realized that the Canadian markets were a vital economic base, both to the WHA and any future rival league that might take its place. Absorbing the Canadian markets would therefore preclude the possibility of the NHL having to fight off another rival league.
However, American support for a merger was based on the assumption that all existing NHL teams would share the expansion fees equally; this did not go over well with the league's Canadian owners. The objection was not without precedent; in 1970, Montreal and Toronto had only agreed to support Vancouver's addition to the NHL after they were paid indemnities for the inclusion of the Canucks in the ''Hockey Night in Canada'' television deal. Although the three Canadian teams could not block any agreement on their own, the fact that any deal needed three-quarters support among the NHL owners meant that the Canadian teams only needed two American clubs to side with them to block any agreement.
In June 1977, Ziegler announced that the NHL had created a committee to investigate the possibility of a merger, while
Bill DeWitt, Jr., owner of the WHA's
Cincinnati Stingers
The Cincinnati Stingers were an ice hockey team based in Cincinnati that played in the World Hockey Association from 1975 to 1979 and in the Central Hockey League during the 1979–80 season. Their home arena was Riverfront Coliseum. They are ...
, stated that Ziegler had invited six WHA teams to join the NHL for the
1977–78 season if various conditions could be met. This proposal would have seen the six teams become full NHL members, but play in their own division with a separate schedule for the first year.
Led by Toronto's
Harold Ballard
Harold Edwin Ballard (born Edwin Harold Ballard, July 30, 1903 – April 11, 1990) was a Canadian businessman and sportsman. Ballard was an owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL) as well as their home arena, Maple ...
, the owners voted down Ziegler's proposal.
The
Calgary Cowboys
The Calgary Cowboys were an ice hockey team that played two seasons in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1975–1977. The Cowboys played at the Stampede Corral in Calgary. The franchise was founded in 1972 as the Miami Screaming Eagles, t ...
, who had hoped to be one of the six teams to join the NHL, subsequently folded, as did the
Phoenix Roadrunners,
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 ...
, and
San Diego Mariners
The San Diego Mariners were an ice hockey team based in San Diego that played in the World Hockey Association from 1974 to 1977 at the San Diego Sports Arena. Previous to being in San Diego, the team was known as the New York Raiders, New York ...
. This reduced the WHA to eight teams for the
1977–78 WHA season
The 1977–78 WHA season was the sixth season of the World Hockey Association (WHA). Eight teams played 80 games each. The Avco World Trophy winner was the Winnipeg Jets.
League business
With a reduction of three teams from the end of the previo ...
, and left its long-term future in doubt.
1978 revised agreement
![NHLWHAmerger](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/NHLWHAmerger.png)
The intense competition between the leagues did not leave the NHL unscathed. The
Pittsburgh Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference, and have playe ...
filed for
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
in 1975 and nearly moved to
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
before they found stable ownership with
shopping mall
A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...
magnate
Edward J. DeBartolo Sr., a native of nearby
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County, Ohio, Mahoning County. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of ...
who decided to keep the team in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
(DeBartolo would later go on to own the
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...
of the
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
). The
California Golden Seals
The California Golden Seals were a professional ice hockey club that competed in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1967 to 1976. Based in Oakland, California, they played their home games at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena. The S ...
and
Kansas City Scouts
The Kansas City Scouts were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1974 to 1976. In 1976, the franchise relocated to Denver, and became the Colorado Rockies. In 1982, the Rockies relocated to New Jersey where t ...
were not as lucky, as both teams would move for 1976, with the Golden Seals becoming the
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 ...
and the Scouts the
Colorado Rockies
The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...
after only two years in Kansas City. By 1978 the NHL faced the possibility of two of its teams (the
Minnesota North Stars
The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the team's colors for ...
and Barons) folding. Ziegler was able to mitigate the damage by arranging a merger between the two clubs; the Barons remain the most recent example of an American professional sports team in an established major league ceasing operations.
Negotiations resumed in 1978, and it again appeared that the
Houston Aeros, as one of the league's strongest teams, were an obvious candidate to join the NHL. Unfortunately for Houston, by this time Ziegler realized NHL owners would never vote to admit six teams, and floated a proposal that would admit four WHA franchises. The WHA responded by insisting that all three of its Canadian teams be admitted to the NHL. This left room for only one American team, with the only serious contenders for that spot being the Aeros and Whalers. Aeros owner Kenneth Schnitzer attempted to persuade
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...
owner
Jeremy Jacobs
Jeremy Maurice Jacobs Sr. (born January 21, 1940) is an American billionaire businessman, the owner of the Boston Bruins and chairman of Delaware North. ''Forbes'' magazine ranks him as 481st richest person in the world.
Early life and education ...
to support the agreement that included the Aeros and not the Bruins' neighbors based in Hartford, only to find that Jacobs, as one of the older league's most hard-line owners, was opposed to any sort of merger with the WHA and that Ziegler was cool to the idea of adding another
Sun Belt
The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel. Several climates can be found in the region — des ...
NHL team. Of the three Sun Belt teams that had joined the league since 1967, one (the Golden Seals) had already relocated and two (the
Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference and was founded on June 5, 1967, after Jack Kent ...
and
Atlanta Flames
The Atlanta Flames were a professional ice hockey team based in Atlanta from 1972 until 1980. They played home games in the Omni Coliseum and were members of the West and later Patrick divisions of the National Hockey League (NHL). Along with t ...
) were struggling financially.
During the final series of talks, it soon became evident that no merger of any sort would take place in time for the
1978–79 NHL season
The 1978–79 NHL season was the 62nd season of the National Hockey League. The Montreal Canadiens beat the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup finals four games to one for their fourth consecutive Cup. The Cleveland Barons merged with the Minneso ...
. It was also apparent that when there was a merger, the Aeros were not likely to be included. Schnitzer announced that the Aeros would not take part in the
1978–79 WHA season
The 1978–79 WHA season was the seventh and final season of the World Hockey Association (WHA). Prior to the start of the season, the Houston Aeros folded leaving seven teams to start the season. Only six would finish however, as the Indianapoli ...
, bringing the league down to seven teams. He first applied for direct admission to the NHL, only to find the older league uninterested in such an expansion with so many of its existing franchises struggling. Finally, Schnitzer campaigned to be allowed to purchase an existing club and relocate it to Houston. The obvious candidate to move was the Barons (the former Golden Seals), who were on the verge of folding. Schnitzer believed the older league would accept almost any other proposal as an alternative to the perceived embarrassment of having to disband a franchise, and did come close to a deal to relocate the moribund Barons franchise to Houston. However, the NHL instead opted to approve a proposal from
George
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
and
Gordon Gund
Gordon Gund (born October 15, 1939) is an American businessman and professional sports owner. He is the CEO of Gund Investment Corporation. He is the former co-owner of the San Jose Sharks (National Hockey League) from 1992–2002, former princip ...
(the owners of the Barons) to buy the North Stars franchise and "merge" it with their own. Having run out of options, Schnitzer folded the Aeros on July 9, 1978. In doing so, the Aeros became the only WHA playoff champion that did not eventually join the NHL.
Discussion between the two leagues intensified into the 1978–79 season, when the WHA made an offer to have five teams join the NHL the following year, paying $5 million each for the right to join. Although the WHA offer was not accepted, Ziegler was encouraged, stating that owners were beginning to view the negotiations from a business standpoint rather than an emotional one.
The WHA saw the
Indianapolis Racers
The Indianapolis Racers were a major league hockey team in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1974 to 1978. They competed in four full seasons before folding 25 games into the 1978–79 season. They played at Market Square Arena. They are o ...
fold after only 25 games, reducing the league further to six teams, the lowest in league history.
Final agreement
Six teams was widely seen as the absolute minimum to maintain a viable and credible league, and with the WHA facing financial difficulty and struggling to meet payrolls, the Racers' demise left the floundering league's players and fans in doubt as to whether the league would even finish the season. However, the Racers left the league with a key piece of leverage when flamboyant owner
Nelson Skalbania
Nelson Mathew Skalbania (born February 12, 1938) is an engineer and businessman from Vancouver, British Columbia who is best known for signing a then 17-year-old Wayne Gretzky to the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association, and for his ...
signed 17-year-old superstar
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...
to a lucrative personal services contract. At the time, the NHL did not permit the signing of players under 20, nor did it allow its owners to sign players to anything except standard NHL contracts, but the WHA had no rules barring such signings. Skalbania signed Gretzky to a personal services contract so that he would retain the rights to the teenaged superstar even if the WHA folded outright, as he believed that anyone who owned the highly touted Gretzky's rights would at the very least be able to secure an NHL franchise for himself in exchange.
Gretzky only played eight games for the Racers. Skalbania ultimately could not meet his obligations (thus leading to his team's demise) and opted to sell Gretzky's contract to Oilers owner
Peter Pocklington
Peter Hugh Pocklington (born November 18, 1941) is a Canadian entrepreneur and vocal advocate of free-market capitalism.
Peter Pocklington was known among North American hockey fans as "Peter Puck", the maverick entrepreneur from oil-rich Albert ...
. Unlike Skalbania, Pocklington was better financed at the time and owned a team that was much better supported and thus reasonably stable by WHA standards, and certain to be included in any expansion or merger.
The two leagues reached an agreement in March 1979 to grant expansion franchises in four WHA cities, pending ratification by the NHL's owners. The NHL originally wanted to take in the
New England Whalers
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
,
Winnipeg Jets
The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and is owned by True North Sports & Entertainment, pl ...
, and
Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. They play their home games at Rogers Place, which ...
. The owners of the
Cincinnati Stingers
The Cincinnati Stingers were an ice hockey team based in Cincinnati that played in the World Hockey Association from 1975 to 1979 and in the Central Hockey League during the 1979–80 season. Their home arena was Riverfront Coliseum. They are ...
and
Birmingham Bulls were resigned to their exclusion from the NHL, but the
Quebec Nordiques
The Quebec Nordiques (french: Nordiques de Québec, pronounced in Quebec French, in Canadian English; translated "Quebec City Northmen" or "Northerners") were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The Nordiques played in the W ...
fought the proposal. The NHL's American teams were less enthusiastic about including Quebec than they were about Edmonton and Winnipeg, and Ziegler thought that the Canadiens might be persuaded to support an agreement that excluded the Nordiques.
Nevertheless, the WHA insisted on NHL franchises for all three of its surviving Canadian markets and Ziegler finally agreed to put the matter to a vote of the NHL's Board of Governors.
At a March 8, 1979 meeting in
Key Largo, Florida
Key Largo is a census-designated place in Monroe County, Florida, United States, located on the island of Key Largo in the upper Florida Keys. The population was 12,447 at the 2020 census. The name comes from the Spanish ''Cayo Largo'', or "lon ...
, 12 of the 17 owners supported the proposal – one short of the required three-fourths majority (13 teams out of 17 would have represented 76.5% of the league, just past the threshold stipulated in the NHL constitution to grant expansion franchises. As the initial vote stood, it only represented 70.6%).
The five teams that voted against the agreement were the Canadiens,
Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, and play their home games at Rogers Arena. Bruce B ...
,
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...
,
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...
, and
Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference and was founded on June 5, 1967, after Jack Kent ...
.
The five teams that cast a "no" ballot did so for different reasons. The Bruins were not pleased with the prospect of sharing
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
with the Whalers, while the Canadiens were even less enamored with having to share the province of
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
with the Nordiques. The Canadiens, Canucks, and Maple Leafs disliked the idea of having to split ''Hockey Night in Canada'' revenues six ways rather than three, while the Canucks and Kings feared the loss of dates with NHL teams from the east.
Maple Leafs' owner Ballard had a personal grudge as well; he had never forgiven the WHA for plundering his roster in the early 1970s.
The Canadiens were owned by
Molson Brewery
The Molson Brewery is a Canadian based brewery company based in Montreal which was established in 1786 by the Molson family. In 2005, Molson merged with the Adolph Coors Company to become Molson Coors.
Molson Coors maintains some of its Can ...
, and when news emerged that the Canadiens had voted against the deal, fans in Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Quebec City organized a boycott of Molson products, believing that Molson was standing in the way of their cities remaining big-league hockey towns.
The boycott quickly spread nationwide. It caused a drain on the Canucks' revenue as well, since
Pacific Coliseum
Pacific Coliseum, known to locals as "The Coliseum" or the "Rink on Renfrew," is an indoor arena located at Hastings Park in Vancouver, British Columbia. Its main use has been for ice hockey and the arena has been the home for several ice hocke ...
sold Molson products. The
House of Commons of Canada
The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada.
The House of Common ...
weighed in as well, unanimously passing a motion urging the NHL to reconsider. A second vote was held in
Chicago
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on March 22, 1979, which passed by a 14–3 margin as both Montreal and Vancouver reversed their positions.
Both teams' hands were forced by the boycott, and the Canucks were also won over by the promise of a balanced schedule, with each team playing the others twice at home and twice on the road.
The agreement resulted in the Oilers, Whalers, Nordiques, and Jets joining the NHL for the
1979–80 NHL season
The 1979–80 NHL season was the 63rd season of the National Hockey League. This season saw the addition of four teams from the disbanded World Hockey Association as expansion franchises. The Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, New England Whalers (l ...
, increasing the league's membership to 21 teams. However, the NHL insisted on treating the WHA teams' arrival as an expansion, not a merger. The WHA teams each had to pay a $6 million franchise fee for the right to enter the NHL
– however, since this was nominally the same fee paid by all of the other teams that joined the NHL in the 1970s (a decade of high inflation), the financial terms of the agreement were nominally quite favorable to the WHA although some of the teams that joined earlier in the decade received concessions on their fees. The two remaining WHA teams, the Stingers and Bulls, were paid $1.5 million apiece in
parachute payment The Premier League distributes a formulaically derived financial payment to each English Football League (EFL) club every season. There are two mechanisms with which funds are calculated and distributed; these are known as "Parachute Payments" and " ...
s and joined the
Central Hockey League
The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...
, the league-owned minor league, for one season each.
The Stingers folded after 33 games; the Bulls played two full seasons before folding. Major pro hockey has yet to return to Cincinnati or Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham, though the NHL did place teams in the nearby markets of Columbus Blue Jackets, Columbus and Nashville Predators, Nashville in the late 1990s.
The rest of the agreement was slanted heavily in the NHL's favour. The NHL held a reclamation draft for the established clubs, in which nearly all of the players who had bolted from the NHL and were still active in the WHA saw their rights revert to their NHL clubs without compensation. The WHA clubs were thus stripped of nearly all of their players; for all intents and purposes, they were effectively dissolved and had to rebuild their rosters from scratch. However, in one of the few concessions to the WHA teams, they were allowed to protect two goalies and two skaters. Some less formal exceptions were also made, in particular for aging players: hockey legends
Gordie Howe
Gordon Howe (March 31, 1928 – June 10, 2016) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. From 1946 to 1980, he played 26 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) and six seasons in the World Hockey Association (WHA); his first 25 seaso ...
and Dave Keon of the Whalers were allowed to remain with the Whalers rather than report to the Detroit Red Wings, Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs, Maple Leafs respectively while
Bobby Hull
Robert Marvin Hull OC (born January 3, 1939) is a Canadian former ice hockey player who is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. His blonde hair, skating speed, end-to-end rushes, and ability to shoot the puck at very high veloc ...
was allowed to remain with the Jets rather than report to the Chicago Blackhawks, Black Hawks - Hull would later be traded from the Jets to the Whalers and play on the same line as Howe and Keon during the 1979–80 season.
Even more controversial was the NHL's insistence that the four new teams be placed at the bottom of the order for the
1979 NHL Entry Draft
The 1979 NHL Entry Draft was the 17th NHL Entry Draft. It took place on August 9, 1979, at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. The National Hockey League (NHL) teams selected 126 players eligible for entry into professional ranks, in ...
. Historically, the NHL slots expansion teams at or near the top in an entry draft. In what was not a complete coincidence, the NHL also lowered the draft age to nineteen, effectively doubling the size and depth of the talent pool in the 1979 draft. Ostensibly, this was done in exchange for the Oilers being allowed to retain Gretzky as a priority selection, which unexpectedly became an issue after Gretzky made it clear he was not interested in voiding his personal services contract only to return the junior ranks or join the floundering
Colorado Rockies
The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...
(who would have presumably drafted Gretzky with the first overall pick had they been given the opportunity). Gretzky was still only eighteen years old at the time but was allowed to join the NHL with the Oilers on account of his professional experience. As a player joining from another professional league, Gretzky was deemed ineligible for the league's Calder Memorial Trophy awarded each year to the league's top rookie.
The former WHA teams were restocked via the 1979 NHL Expansion Draft with the established NHL teams receiving $125,000 per player taken in that draft. However, this compensation formed part of the former WHA teams' $6 million franchise fees.
Additionally, a good number of players on the list were either retired or of little value; years later Oilers general manager/coach Glen Sather said that the WHA teams knew this, but went along only because they had to participate.
As the league considered the agreement to be an expansion as opposed to a merger, it refused to recognize WHA records. The four new NHL franchises were regarded as new entities, not as continuations of the former WHA franchises. The Canadian teams were permitted to operate under their established names, colors, logos and front office personnel, however, to appease and satisfy the Bruins, the NHL insisted that the Whalers drop "New England" from their name and they entered the league as the "Hartford Whalers" instead. The NHL continues to recognize all four franchises as having been founded on June 22, 1979, which is also the date the WHA and its six remaining teams are reckoned to have formally ceased to exist.
Aftermath
The NHL had originally intended to place its four newest franchises in each of its four divisions (then called the Adams, Norris, Patrick and Smythe), but the Oilers and Jets lobbied to be placed in the same division as the Canucks. The league agreed, although its decision to play a balanced league-wide schedule rendered the divisional alignment irrelevant for the next two seasons. Nevertheless, the divisions were formally retained.
Although the WHA clubs had performed quite well against their NHL rivals in inter-league exhibition games (of 63 such games played, the WHA won 34, lost 22 and tied 7) as expansion teams were nevertheless expected to struggle on the ice after joining the NHL due to the purging of their rosters. However, the NHL also expanded the Stanley Cup playoffs from 12 teams to 16. This allowed the Whalers and Oilers to qualify for the playoffs in their respective first NHL seasons although both teams were swept in the first round. The following year, the Oilers stunned NHL loyalists when they swept the heavily favoured Canadiens in the first round.
The addition of three new NHL teams in Canada led the league to reconsider other Canadian cities it had previously rejected placing franchises in. One year after the 1979 expansion, the
Atlanta Flames
The Atlanta Flames were a professional ice hockey team based in Atlanta from 1972 until 1980. They played home games in the Omni Coliseum and were members of the West and later Patrick divisions of the National Hockey League (NHL). Along with t ...
Calgary Flames, relocated to Calgary, becoming Battle of Alberta, archrivals of the Oilers in the process.
The final chapter of the 1979 expansion arguably took place in 1983 when Bill Hunter (ice hockey), Bill Hunter (the original owner of the WHA Oilers) reached an agreement with St. Louis Blues owners Ralston Purina to purchase the Blues and relocate the team to his hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Despite obtaining more than 18,000 commitments for season tickets, this bid met with universal hostility from NHL owners. Although Hunter insisted such a franchise would be viable on the basis of being supported by the whole province (similar to the Saskatchewan Roughriders football team) Saskatoon itself was only a fraction of the size of any other NHL city. The owners of the Oilers, Flames and Jets were particularly opposed since Saskatchewan had become an important secondary market for all of them in terms of television revenues, merchandise sales and even gate receipts, although they were more reluctant than other owners to say so publicly so as not to alienate those same fans. The Nordiques were still owned by Carling O'Keefe (which at the time owned Great Western Brewery, a brewery in Saskatoon) and also kept silent to avoid triggering a 1979-like boycott. As this was occurring, the final installments of the 1979 expansion fees were coming due. To minimize public support for the bid, Ziegler arranged to defer receipt of the fees from the Canadian teams until after the Board of Governors vote, ostensibly making the Oilers, Jets and Nordiques "ineligible" to vote on Hunter's bid so that they did not have to make their position officially known on a bid they privately opposed. The Canadiens, seeing no point in provoking another boycott by opposing a doomed bid, voted in favour, as did the Flames for a total of three votes in favour (including the Blues) against 15 opposed (including the Whalers). Eventually, Harry Ornest, a bidder willing to keep the team in St. Louis and save them from contraction took over the team.
In 1992, the NHL added Ottawa Senators, an expansion franchise in Ottawa. However, the league rejected a bid to expand to Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton. A bid from Saskatoon during this round of expansion was withdrawn before the final decision was made.
Legacy
In its seven seasons, the WHA paid its players $120 million, and lost over $50 million.
The competition for talent introduced by the WHA, and accelerated by the signing of Bobby Hull, led to a rapid escalation of salaries for players in both leagues. For the first time, hockey players had meaningful leverage in contract negotiations.
In its search for talent, the WHA turned to the previously overlooked European market, signing players from Finland and Sweden. Anders Hedberg, Lars-Erik Sjöberg, Lars-Erik Sjoberg, and Ulf Nilsson (ice hockey), Ulf Nilsson signed with the Jets in 1974 and thrived in North America, both in the WHA and later the NHL.
The Jets won three of the six remaining WHA playoff championships after signing European players, and their success sparked similar signings league-wide. Many of these players went on to NHL careers.
Of the teams that joined the NHL in 1979, only the Edmonton Oilers remain in their original city today. The other three franchises all moved and acquired new names within a three-year period in the 1990s: the Nordiques became the Colorado Avalanche in 1995, and won the Stanley Cup in their first season in Denver. The Jets became the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996, a move which remains the only occasion since 1979 the NHL has placed a team in a formerly active WHA city that did not previously host an NHL team. The Whalers (renamed the Hartford Whalers upon admission to the NHL in 1979) became the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997. The Oilers nearly followed the other three teams south the following year after financially strapped owner
Peter Pocklington
Peter Hugh Pocklington (born November 18, 1941) is a Canadian entrepreneur and vocal advocate of free-market capitalism.
Peter Pocklington was known among North American hockey fans as "Peter Puck", the maverick entrepreneur from oil-rich Albert ...
received an offer from a buyer in Houston - itself not only a former WHA city, but one which unlike the previous three relocations was widely expected to keep the team's established nickname due to History of the Houston Oilers, its prospective new city's well-established history of using it. However, a local ownership group was able to assemble the financing needed to keep the team in Edmonton. The Oilers were eventually acquired by Edmonton-based billionaire Daryl Katz, who became sole owner of the franchise in 2008. In 2016, the Oilers opened their new arena, Rogers Place, replacing Northlands Coliseum, which had been their home since 1974.
Of the three cities to have lost their WHA/NHL teams, only Winnipeg has received one back when the Atlanta Thrashers relocated there in 2011–12 NHL season, 2011. The Oilers are the only WHA team to win the Stanley Cup while in their WHA city, which they have done on five occasions (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, and 1990). The Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 1996, their first season after leaving Quebec City, and have since won Cups in 2001 and 2022. The Hurricanes won their only Stanley Cup in 2006, their ninth season after leaving Hartford. The Jets/Coyotes franchise has never appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals, and has advanced to the second playoff round only three times (1985, 1987, 2012) and the conference final once (2012).
Notwithstanding the NHL's non-recognition of WHA records, all four surviving WHA teams subsequently retired at least one jersey number in recognition of on-ice endeavors achieved exclusively or primarily in the WHA. The three teams that re-located in the 1990s took different approaches with respect to the retired numbers - both Colorado and Carolina disclaimed their teams' pre-relocation histories in both the WHA and NHL and re-entered all previously retired numbers into circulation, regardless of league (although notably, the Hurricanes have never issued the #9 worn by
Gordie Howe
Gordon Howe (March 31, 1928 – June 10, 2016) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. From 1946 to 1980, he played 26 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) and six seasons in the World Hockey Association (WHA); his first 25 seaso ...
and retired by the Whalers). The Coyotes previously decided to hang all previously retired Jets' numbers in the rafters including, notably, the #9 of
Bobby Hull
Robert Marvin Hull OC (born January 3, 1939) is a Canadian former ice hockey player who is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. His blonde hair, skating speed, end-to-end rushes, and ability to shoot the puck at very high veloc ...
notwithstanding the fact Hull only played 18 games for the Jets in their first NHL season (the last of his career). In doing so, the Coyotes implicitly recognized the Winnipeg Jets' entire history from 1972 to 1996 as their own. The Coyotes later temporarily un-retired #9 so Hull's son Brett Hull, Brett could wear it for the final five games of his NHL career. By the time the NHL returned to Winnipeg, the league had taken over the Coyotes Phoenix Coyotes bankruptcy, following bankruptcy and had even entertained an offer from the eventual Thrashers' purchasers to return the Coyotes to Manitoba. The league therefore had to decide whether to allow the former Thrashers to reclaim the Jets' name and history. In the end, the NHL decided to allow Winnipeg to reclaim its former name, but not its pre-1996 history. The pre-1996 Jets history therefore remained with the Arizona franchise while the Winnipeg franchise retained the Thrashers' history; aside from Gretzky's number 99 that was retired league-wide in 2000, the Thrashers did not officially retire any numbers while in Atlanta, though they did remove #37 from circulation following the death of Dan Snyder (ice hockey), Dan Snyder. (The number, with Snyder's family's blessing, returned to circulation in 2016 with Connor Hellebuyck currently wearing the number.) The "new" Jets immediately and controversially recognized the league's decision by issuing #9 to Evander Kane, who had worn the same number with the Thrashers. In 2014, after the Coyotes changed their geographical identifier from Phoenix to Arizona, they returned all of the numbers retired from the original Jets era to circulation, reclassifying them as "honoured numbers" on the Arizona Coyotes Ring of Honor. As for the modern-day Jets, they likewise honoured players from the original Jets via the Winnipeg Jets Hall of Fame, despite the latter's history belonging to the Coyotes.
See also
*History of the National Hockey League
*History of the National Hockey League (1967–1992)
*History of organizational changes in the NHL
*ABA–NBA merger
*AFL–NFL merger
References
Further reading
*
External links
Troubled WHA folds and its teams join the NHLat the CBC Digital Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nhl-Wha Merger
1979–80 NHL season, Merger
National Hockey League history
World Hockey Association
History of the Edmonton Oilers
Hartford Whalers
Quebec Nordiques
History of the Winnipeg Jets
National Hockey League expansion
Sports-related mergers
Winnipeg Jets (1972–1996)
June 1979 sports events in North America