The WHA Entry Draft was the
entry draft for 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) ...
. The professional league operated from
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...
to
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
, but only held its annual draft from 1973 through 1978.
The fledgling WHA had some trouble stocking their teams, with many of the players drafted by WHA teams never reporting, preferring instead to play in the long established
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 ...
. In 1975, only three of the fifteen first-round picks played a game in the new league. Other players would only be lured with extravagant salaries, such as the $1.3 million ($ million today) contract
Pat Price signed with the
Vancouver Blazers
The Vancouver Blazers were a professional ice hockey team that played in the World Hockey Association from 1973 to 1975. The Blazers played at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, sharing the facility with the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hocke ...
in 1974.
The WHA held a secretive, short draft in February of 1978 without releasing the names of the drafted players with the expectation of having their regular amateur draft in June of that year. The June draft was never held.
First overall picks
List of first overall picks:
Of the five first overall draft picks selected in the WHA Amateur Draft, Bob Neely and Blair Chapman never reported to the league. Pat Price, drafted after a 95-point season as a defenceman in junior hockey, was considered an expensive flop, though he was drafted by the
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 ( ...
after only one year in Vancouver and went on to a 13-year career in the NHL. Only Scott Campbell and Claude Larose had reasonably active and prosperous WHA careers.
The WHA draft was abandoned in 1978 when merger talks with the NHL broke down. The league instead encouraged teams to negotiate with junior players as free agents, including underage players.
[Greig p. 215]
See also
*
WHA General Player Draft The World Hockey Association General Player Draft was held over the course of two days, February 12 and February 13, 1972, in Anaheim, California. The purpose of the draft was to establish an orderly process through which WHA teams would stock their ...
*
NHL Entry Draft
The NHL Entry Draft (french: Repêchage d'entrée dans la LNH) is an annual meeting in which every franchise of the National Hockey League (NHL) systematically select the rights to available ice hockey players who meet draft eligibility requirem ...
References
*
Draft1111
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