NHL–WHA merger
Encyclopedia
The 1979 merger of the NHL and WHA was the culmination of several years of negotiations between the National Hockey League
(NHL) and the World Hockey Association
(WHA) that resulted in four WHA franchises (the Edmonton Oilers
, New England Whalers
, Quebec Nordiques
, and Winnipeg Jets) joining the NHL as expansion franchises for the 1979–80 season. 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
.
The two leagues had discussed the possibility of merging for numerous years, despite the acrimonious relationship between the two after the WHA raided the NHL for players upon the former's founding in 1971. The two sides came close to an agreement in 1977, but the merger was defeated by a group of hard-line NHL owners. The NHL also initially rejected the 1979 agreement by one vote. However, a massive boycott of Molson
products in Canada
led the Montreal Canadiens
, who were owned by Molson, to reverse their position in a second vote along with the Vancouver Canucks
, allowing the plan to pass.
As part of the agreement, the former WHA clubs were stripped of most of their players and permitted to keep only two goaltenders and two skaters, and NHL teams were given the right to reclaim players from the WHA clubs without compensation. The four former WHA teams were also placed at the end of the draft order for the 1979 NHL Entry Draft
, as opposed to previous NHL expansion teams, which had been placed at the front of the draft order.
in 1926, the NHL had existed as the only major professional North American ice hockey league. After dwindling to six teams
in 1942, the NHL remained stable until the 1960s, when fears arose that the Western Hockey League
intended to declare itself a major league. This prompted the NHL to begin expansion discussions in 1963, culminating four years later with the addition of six new teams
for the 1967–68 NHL season.
The WHA was founded in 1971 with ten teams, and intended to operate as a direct competitor to the NHL. By the time the 1972–73 WHA season began, 67 NHL players had defected to the new league. Former Chicago Black Hawks
star Bobby Hull
lent immediate credibility to the fledgling circuit when he signed a 10-year contract with the Winnipeg Jets for $2.7 million, the largest in hockey history at the time. The NHL attempted to block the defections in court, 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
, which tied players' rights to their NHL team for life, was illegal. A Philadelphia district court sided with the WHA in November 1972, striking down the reserve clause and freeing all players to play in the WHA. The ruling ended the NHL's monopoly on talent.
The WHA also challenged the NHL by placing teams in markets already served by the NHL, including the Philadelphia Blazers
(Philadelphia Flyers
), Vancouver Blazers (Vancouver Canucks
), Toronto Toros
(Toronto Maple Leafs
), and Chicago Cougars
(Chicago Black Hawks), among others. The WHA's existence led the NHL to expand hastily to Atlanta, Georgia
and Long Island, New York in 1972 to keep the rival league out of the newly-completed Omni Coliseum
and Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
.
of the New York Rangers
and Ed Snider
of the Philadelphia Flyers
unsuccessfully approached the WHA and offered to have all 12 franchises join the NHL for $4 million each. Attempts at reconciliation were frequently blocked by Toronto's Harold Ballard
, Chicago's Bill Wirtz
, and Boston's Paul Mooney
, owners of the three NHL teams most affected by the WHA's player raids.
By 1976, 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
(the NHL's all-time scoring leader-turned-WHA player) and WHA president Bill MacFarland
disagreed, arguing that the WHA was sustainable indefinitely. Discussions had intensified by 1977, and were conducted openly. Outgoing NHL president Clarence Campbell
was fiercely opposed to any union between the two leagues: "They're our rivals. They were people that did their best to destroy us. Why would we salvage them now? To hell with them."
Campbell's successor, John Ziegler, was more open to unification. Ziegler was the NHL's first American chief executive, and 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
' dominance of the NHL during the years of the WHA's existence. The Canadiens won five of the seven 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 resist WHA efforts to lure away its players, and many American teams believed they were able to do this because Canadian Hockey Night in Canada
television revenues were mostly distributed among the three Canadian teams instead of across the league. Hence, adding Canadian teams would lessen the financial advantage that teams like the Canadiens had. 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 – back 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 a merger 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 teams 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
, stated that Ziegler had invited six teams to join the league for the 1977–78 season if various conditions could be met. The proposal would have seen the six team become full members of the NHL, but play in their own division with a separate schedule for the first year.
Led by Toronto's Harold Ballard
, the owners voted down Ziegler's proposal. The Calgary Cowboys
, who had hoped to be one of the six teams to join the NHL, subsequently folded, as did the Phoenix Roadrunners
, Minnesota Fighting Saints
, and San Diego Mariners
. This reduced the junior league down to eight teams for the 1977–78 WHA season, and left its long-term future in doubt.
and Cleveland 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.
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. The owners of the Houston Aeros
elected to fold after learning their franchise was not part of this proposed merger. Although the WHA offer was not accepted, Ziegler was encouraged by the offer, stating that owners were beginning to view the negotiations from a business standpoint rather than an emotional one. The WHA then lost the Indianapolis Racers
after only 25 games, reducing the league to six teams, the lowest in league history.
With the WHA facing financial difficulty and unable to meet payrolls, the two leagues reached an agreement to merge in March 1979, pending ratification by the NHL's owners. The NHL originally wanted to take in the New England Whalers
, Winnipeg Jets, and Edmonton Oilers
. The owners of the Cincinnati Stingers
and Birmingham Bulls
were resigned to their exclusion from the merger, but the Quebec Nordiques
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 the merger if the Nordiques were excluded.
Nevertheless, the WHA insisted on including all three of its surviving Canadian teams in the merger and Ziegler finally agreed to put the matter to a vote of the NHL's Board of Governors. At a meeting in Key Largo, Florida
, 12 of the 17 owners supported the proposal – one short of the required three-fourths majority. The five teams that voted against the merger were the Montreal Canadiens
, Vancouver Canucks
, Boston Bruins
, Toronto Maple Leafs
, and Los Angeles Kings
.
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
with the Whalers, while the Canadiens were even less enamored with having to share the province of Quebec
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. The Maple Leafs' owner had a personal grudge as well; Ballard had never forgiven the WHA for plundering his roster in the early 1970s.
The Canadiens were owned by Molson Brewery
, and the Canucks served Molson products at their games. Fans in Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Quebec City, believing that Molson was standing in the way of their cities remaining big-league hockey towns, organized a boycott of Molson products. The boycott quickly spread nationwide. The Canadian House of Commons
weighed in as well, unanimously passing a motion urging the NHL to reconsider. A second vote was held in Chicago
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 was slanted heavily in the NHL's favour. It saw the Oilers, Whalers, Nordiques, and Jets join the NHL for the 1979–80 NHL season, but the NHL insisted on treating the deal as an expansion rather than a merger. As a result, they had to pay a $6 million franchise fee for the right to enter the NHL. The remaining two teams, the Stingers and Bulls, were paid $1.5 million apiece in parachute payments and joined the Central Hockey League
, the league-owned minor league, for one season each. The Stingers folded after 33 games; the Bulls played two full seasons before folding.
The NHL stripped the four teams of virtually all of their players, and nearly all of the players who had left the NHL to join the WHA saw their rights revert back to their NHL clubs without compensation to their WHA teams. However, in one of the few concessions to the WHA teams, they were allowed to protect two goalies and two skaters. The four new teams were placed at the bottom of the order for the 1979 NHL Entry Draft
, as opposed to the top as was typical in previous expansions. In what was not a complete coincidence, the NHL also lowered the draft age by one year, effectively doubling the size and depth of the talent pool in the 1979 draft. The former WHA teams were restocked via the 1979 NHL Expansion Draft
, though the teams had to pay $125,000 per player taken in that draft.
Although the WHA clubs had performed respectably against their NHL rivals in pre-merger exhibition games, winning more games than they lost, they were nevertheless expected to struggle on the ice after the merger 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 first post-merger season although both teams were swept in the first round. Also in 1980, the Atlanta Flames
became the NHL's seventh Canadian team when they were purchased by former WHA owner Nelson Skalbania
, who moved the team to Calgary
. The following year, the Oilers became the first former WHA team to win a playoff series when they swept the heavily-favoured Canadiens.
In 1981, the NHL, hoping to reduce travel costs in the face of a struggling economy and high energy prices, re-aligned its divisions along geographical lines, although the non-geographical names were retained until 1993. The regular season and playoffs were also altered to emphasize divisional match-ups. The Jets successfully lobbied to be placed in the more central Norris Division as opposed to the Smythe. However, the relocation of the Colorado Rockies
to New Jersey
the following year compelled the Jets to return to the Smythe, where they remained for over a decade.
In its search for talent, the WHA turned to the previously overlooked European market, signing players from Finland
and Sweden
. Anders Hedberg
, Lars-Erik Sjoberg
, and 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 championships after signing European players, and their success sparked similar signings league-wide. Many of these players went on to NHL careers.
Of the four WHA teams that joined the NHL, only the Edmonton Oilers remain in their WHA city today. The other three franchises all moved within a three-year period in the 1990s: the Nordiques became the Colorado Avalanche
in 1995, the Jets became the Phoenix Coyotes
in 1996, and the Whalers (renamed the Hartford Whalers
upon admission to the NHL in 1979) became the Carolina Hurricanes
in 1997. Of the three cities to have lost their WHA/NHL teams, only Winnipeg has received one back; a revived Winnipeg Jets
began play in 2011, after the former Atlanta Thrashers
relocated to Winnipeg. The Oilers are also 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 year after leaving Quebec, and the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup in 2006, their ninth year after leaving Hartford. The Jets/Coyotes franchise has not won a playoff series since 1987, and has only won two playoff series since entering the NHL in 1979.
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
(NHL) and the World Hockey Association
World Hockey Association
The World Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major competition for the National Hockey League since the collapse of the Western Hockey League in 1926...
(WHA) that resulted in four WHA franchises (the Edmonton Oilers
Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League ....
, New England Whalers
Hartford Whalers
The Hartford Whalers were a professional ice hockey team based for most of its existence in Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A.. The club played in the World Hockey Association from 1972–79 and in the National Hockey League from 1979–97...
, Quebec Nordiques
Quebec Nordiques
The Quebec Nordiques were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The Nordiques played in the World Hockey Association and the National Hockey League...
, and Winnipeg Jets) joining the NHL as expansion franchises for the 1979–80 season. 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
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
.
The two leagues had discussed the possibility of merging for numerous years, despite the acrimonious relationship between the two after the WHA raided the NHL for players upon the former's founding in 1971. The two sides came close to an agreement in 1977, but the merger was defeated by a group of hard-line NHL owners. The NHL also initially rejected the 1979 agreement by one vote. However, a massive boycott of Molson
Molson
Molson-Coors Canada Inc. is the Canadian division of the world's fifth-largest brewing company, the Molson Coors Brewing Company. It is the second oldest company in Canada after the Hudson's Bay Company. Molson's first brewery was located on the St...
products in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
led the Montreal Canadiens
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...
, who were owned by Molson, to reverse their position in a second vote along with the Vancouver Canucks
Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver, :British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The Canucks play their home games at Rogers Arena, formerly known as General Motors Place,...
, allowing the plan to pass.
As part of the agreement, the former WHA clubs were stripped of most of their players and permitted to keep only two goaltenders and two skaters, and NHL teams were given the right to reclaim players from the WHA clubs without compensation. The four former WHA teams were also placed at the end of the draft order for the 1979 NHL Entry Draft
1979 NHL Entry Draft
The 1979 NHL Entry Draft took place on August 9, 1979, at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. The National Hockey League teams selected 126 players eligible for entry into professional ranks, in the reverse order of the 1978–79 NHL season and playoff standings. This is the list of those...
, as opposed to previous NHL expansion teams, which had been placed at the front of the draft order.
Background
Since the demise of the Western Canada Hockey LeagueWestern Canada Hockey League
The Western Canada Hockey League , founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League in 1925 and disbanded in 1926.-History:...
in 1926, the NHL had existed as the only major professional North American ice hockey league. After dwindling to six teams
Original Six
The Original Six is a term for the group of six teams that composed the National Hockey League for the 25 seasons between the 1942–43 season and the 1967 NHL Expansion. These six teams are the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and the...
in 1942, the NHL remained stable until the 1960s, when fears arose that the Western Hockey League
Western Hockey League (minor pro)
The Western Hockey League was a minor pro ice hockey league that operated from 1952 to 1974. Managed for most of its history by Hockey Hall of Fame member Al Leader, it was created out of the merger of the Pacific Coast Hockey League and the Western Canada Senior Hockey League...
intended to declare itself a major league. This prompted the NHL to begin expansion discussions in 1963, culminating four years later with the addition of six new teams
1967 NHL expansion
The National Hockey League undertook a major expansion for the 1967–68 season, adding six new franchises to double the size of the league. This marked the first change in the composition of the league since 1942, when the Brooklyn Americans folded. Thus, the expansion ended the era of the Original...
for the 1967–68 NHL season.
The WHA was founded in 1971 with ten teams, and intended to operate as a direct competitor to the NHL. By the time the 1972–73 WHA season began, 67 NHL players had defected to the new league. Former Chicago Black Hawks
Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won four Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926, most recently coming in 2009-10...
star Bobby Hull
Bobby Hull
Robert Marvin "Bobby" Hull, OC is a former Canadian ice hockey player. He is regarded as one of the greatest ice hockey players of all time and perhaps the greatest left winger to ever play the game. Hull was famous for his blonde hair, blinding skating speed, and having the hardest shot, earning...
lent immediate credibility to the fledgling circuit when he signed a 10-year contract with the Winnipeg Jets for $2.7 million, the largest in hockey history at the time. The NHL attempted to block the defections in court, 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
Reserve clause
The reserve clause is a term formerly employed in North American professional sports contracts. The reserve clause, contained in all standard player contracts, stated that, upon the contract's expiration the rights to the player were to be retained by the team to which he had been signed...
, which tied players' rights to their NHL team for life, was illegal. A Philadelphia district court sided with the WHA in November 1972, striking down the reserve clause and freeing all players to play in the WHA. The ruling ended the NHL's monopoly on talent.
The WHA also challenged the NHL by placing teams in markets already served by the NHL, including the Philadelphia Blazers
Blazers/Cowboys (WHA)
The Blazers/Cowboys were an ice hockey franchise in the World Hockey Association from 1972–1977. Originally in 1972, the franchise was to be based out of Miami, Florida, called the Miami Screaming Eagles. But due to money problems and a lack of a suitable arena, they never played a game in Miami...
(Philadelphia Flyers
Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
), Vancouver Blazers (Vancouver Canucks
Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver, :British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The Canucks play their home games at Rogers Arena, formerly known as General Motors Place,...
), Toronto Toros
Toronto Toros
The Toronto Toros were an ice hockey team based in Toronto that played in the World Hockey Association from 1973 to 1976.The franchise was awarded to Doug Michel in 1971 to play in the WHA's inaugural 1972–73 season...
(Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
), and Chicago Cougars
Chicago Cougars
The Chicago Cougars were an original franchise in the World Hockey Association from 1972 to 1975. The Cougars played their home games in the dilapidated International Amphitheatre. During the 1974 Avco Cup Finals against Gordie Howe and the Houston Aeros, the team's two home games were played at...
(Chicago Black Hawks), among others. The WHA's existence led the NHL to expand hastily to Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
and Long Island, New York in 1972 to keep the rival league out of the newly-completed Omni Coliseum
Omni Coliseum
The Omni Coliseum, usually called The Omni, from the Latin for "all," or "every," was an indoor arena, located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Completed in 1972, the arena seated 16,378, for basketball and 15,278, for ice hockey...
and Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Uniondale, New York, United States. Home to the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League, the Coliseum is located approximately east of New York City on Long Island...
.
Merger talks
Merger talks between the two leagues had been ongoing since 1973, when NHL owners Bill JenningsWilliam M. Jennings
William M. Jennings was an executive in the National Hockey League.Born in New York, New York, Jennings graduated from Princeton University and then earned a law degree from Yale University...
of the New York Rangers
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
and Ed Snider
Ed Snider
Edward M. Snider is the American Chairman of Comcast Spectacor, a Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment company that owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL, the Wells Fargo Center, the Spectrum, the regional sports network Comcast SportsNet and Global Spectrum, an international facilities...
of the Philadelphia Flyers
Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
unsuccessfully approached the WHA and offered to have all 12 franchises join the NHL for $4 million each. Attempts at reconciliation were frequently blocked by Toronto's Harold Ballard
Harold Ballard
Harold E. Ballard was an owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League as well as their home arena, Maple Leaf Gardens. A member of the Leafs organization from 1940 and a senior executive from 1957, he became part-owner of the team in 1961 and was majority owner from February...
, Chicago's Bill Wirtz
Bill Wirtz
William Wadsworth "Dollar Bill" Wirtz 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 Hockey League, who are part of Wirtz Corp's holdings...
, and Boston's Paul Mooney
Paul Mooney
Paul Mooney is an American comedian, writer, social critic, television and film actor. He was also featured on one of truTV's reality shows, Ma's Roadhouse.-Early life:...
, owners of the three NHL teams most affected by the WHA's player raids.
By 1976, 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
Gordie Howe
Gordon "Gordie" Howe, OC is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey player who played for the Detroit Red Wings and Hartford Whalers of the National Hockey League , and the Houston Aeros and New England Whalers in the World Hockey Association . Howe is often referred to as Mr...
(the NHL's all-time scoring leader-turned-WHA player) and WHA president Bill MacFarland
Bill MacFarland (ice hockey)
Bill MacFarland is a former ice hockey player who played in college for the University of Michigan and professionally for the Seattle Totems of the Western Hockey League...
disagreed, arguing that the WHA was sustainable indefinitely. Discussions had intensified by 1977, and were conducted openly. Outgoing NHL president Clarence Campbell
Clarence Campbell
Clarence Sutherland Campbell OBE, QC was the third president of the National Hockey League from 1946 to 1977.-Early life and career:...
was fiercely opposed to any union between the two leagues: "They're our rivals. They were people that did their best to destroy us. Why would we salvage them now? To hell with them."
Campbell's successor, John Ziegler, was more open to unification. Ziegler was the NHL's first American chief executive, and 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
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...
' dominance of the NHL during the years of the WHA's existence. The Canadiens won five of the seven 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 resist WHA efforts to lure away its players, and many American teams believed they were able to do this because Canadian Hockey Night in Canada
Hockey Night in Canada
Hockey Night in Canada is the branding used for CBC Sports' presentations of the National Hockey League...
television revenues were mostly distributed among the three Canadian teams instead of across the league. Hence, adding Canadian teams would lessen the financial advantage that teams like the Canadiens had. 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 – back 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 a merger 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 teams 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.
William DeWitt, Jr.
William O. DeWitt, Jr. is an American businessman and currently the managing partner and chairman of the St. Louis Cardinals. He served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board during the George W...
, owner of the WHA's Cincinnati Stingers
Cincinnati Stingers
The Cincinnati Stingers was an ice hockey team based in Cincinnati, Ohio, that played in the World Hockey Association from 1975 to 1979. Its home arena was Riverfront Coliseum and it was the only major-league hockey team ever to play in Cincinnati.-History:The Stingers franchise was awarded in...
, stated that Ziegler had invited six teams to join the league for the 1977–78 season if various conditions could be met. The proposal would have seen the six team become full members of the NHL, but play in their own division with a separate schedule for the first year.
Led by Toronto's Harold Ballard
Harold Ballard
Harold E. Ballard was an owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League as well as their home arena, Maple Leaf Gardens. A member of the Leafs organization from 1940 and a senior executive from 1957, he became part-owner of the team in 1961 and was majority owner from February...
, the owners voted down Ziegler's proposal. The Calgary Cowboys
Calgary Cowboys
The Calgary Cowboys were an ice hockey team that played two seasons in the World Hockey Association from 1975–1977. The Cowboys played at the Stampede Corral in Calgary. The franchise was founded in 1972 as the Miami Screaming Eagles, though it never played a game in Miami...
, who had hoped to be one of the six teams to join the NHL, subsequently folded, as did the Phoenix Roadrunners
Phoenix Roadrunners (WHA)
The Phoenix Roadrunners were a team in the now defunct World Hockey Association from 1974 to 1977. They played at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona...
, Minnesota Fighting Saints
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 1972–76. The second team was relocated from Cleveland, Ohio, and...
, and San Diego Mariners
San Diego Mariners
The San Diego Mariners were an ice hockey team based in San Diego that played in the World Hockey Association. They played from 1974 to 1977. Their home ice was San Diego Sports Arena...
. This reduced the junior league down to eight teams for the 1977–78 WHA season, and left its long-term future in doubt.
Final agreement
The intense competition between the leagues did not leave the NHL unscathed, as by 1978 it faced the possibility of two of its clubs (the Minnesota North StarsMinnesota North Stars
The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, and the team's colors for most of its history were green, yellow, gold and white...
and Cleveland Barons
Cleveland Barons (NHL)
The Cleveland Barons were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League from 1976–78. They were a relocation of the California Golden Seals franchise, which had played in Oakland since 1967...
) 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.
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. The owners of the Houston Aeros
Houston Aeros (WHA)
The Houston Aeros were a professional ice hockey team in the World Hockey Association from 1972 to 1978.-Franchise history:The Aeros became one of the original franchises in the World Hockey Association when the Dayton Arrows franchise was moved to Houston in 1972...
elected to fold after learning their franchise was not part of this proposed merger. Although the WHA offer was not accepted, Ziegler was encouraged by the offer, stating that owners were beginning to view the negotiations from a business standpoint rather than an emotional one. The WHA then lost the Indianapolis Racers
Indianapolis Racers
The Indianapolis Racers were a franchise in the former World Hockey Association from 1974 to 1978. They competed in five seasons, folding 25 games into the 1978–79 season. They played at Market Square Arena...
after only 25 games, reducing the league to six teams, the lowest in league history.
With the WHA facing financial difficulty and unable to meet payrolls, the two leagues reached an agreement to merge in March 1979, pending ratification by the NHL's owners. The NHL originally wanted to take in the New England Whalers
Hartford Whalers
The Hartford Whalers were a professional ice hockey team based for most of its existence in Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A.. The club played in the World Hockey Association from 1972–79 and in the National Hockey League from 1979–97...
, Winnipeg Jets, and Edmonton Oilers
Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League ....
. The owners of the Cincinnati Stingers
Cincinnati Stingers
The Cincinnati Stingers was an ice hockey team based in Cincinnati, Ohio, that played in the World Hockey Association from 1975 to 1979. Its home arena was Riverfront Coliseum and it was the only major-league hockey team ever to play in Cincinnati.-History:The Stingers franchise was awarded in...
and Birmingham Bulls
Birmingham Bulls
The Birmingham Bulls were a professional ice hockey team based in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. They played in the World Hockey Association from 1976 to 1979 and the Central Hockey League from 1979 to 1981. The Bulls played their home games at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center.Prior to being...
were resigned to their exclusion from the merger, but the Quebec Nordiques
Quebec Nordiques
The Quebec Nordiques were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The Nordiques played in the World Hockey Association and the National Hockey League...
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 the merger if the Nordiques were excluded.
Nevertheless, the WHA insisted on including all three of its surviving Canadian teams in the merger and Ziegler finally agreed to put the matter to a vote of the NHL's Board of Governors. At a meeting in Key Largo, Florida
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 11,886 at the 2000 census. The name comes from the Spanish Cayo Largo, or "long key"...
, 12 of the 17 owners supported the proposal – one short of the required three-fourths majority. The five teams that voted against the merger were the Montreal Canadiens
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...
, Vancouver Canucks
Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver, :British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The Canucks play their home games at Rogers Arena, formerly known as General Motors Place,...
, Boston Bruins
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The team has been in existence since 1924, and is the league's third-oldest team and its oldest in the...
, Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
, and Los Angeles Kings
Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles, California. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...
.
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
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
with the Whalers, while the Canadiens were even less enamored with having to share the province of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
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. The Maple Leafs' owner had a personal grudge as well; Ballard had never forgiven the WHA for plundering his roster in the early 1970s.
The Canadiens were owned by Molson Brewery
Molson
Molson-Coors Canada Inc. is the Canadian division of the world's fifth-largest brewing company, the Molson Coors Brewing Company. It is the second oldest company in Canada after the Hudson's Bay Company. Molson's first brewery was located on the St...
, and the Canucks served Molson products at their games. Fans in Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Quebec City, believing that Molson was standing in the way of their cities remaining big-league hockey towns, organized a boycott of Molson products. The boycott quickly spread nationwide. The Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
weighed in as well, unanimously passing a motion urging the NHL to reconsider. A second vote was held in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
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 was slanted heavily in the NHL's favour. It saw the Oilers, Whalers, Nordiques, and Jets join the NHL for the 1979–80 NHL season, but the NHL insisted on treating the deal as an expansion rather than a merger. As a result, they had to pay a $6 million franchise fee for the right to enter the NHL. The remaining two teams, the Stingers and Bulls, were paid $1.5 million apiece in parachute payments and joined the Central Hockey League
Central Professional Hockey League
The Central Hockey League was a minor professional ice hockey league that operated in the United States from 1963 to 1984. Initially named the Central Professional Hockey League, it was owned and operated by the National Hockey League and served as a successor to the Eastern Professional Hockey...
, the league-owned minor league, for one season each. The Stingers folded after 33 games; the Bulls played two full seasons before folding.
The NHL stripped the four teams of virtually all of their players, and nearly all of the players who had left the NHL to join the WHA saw their rights revert back to their NHL clubs without compensation to their WHA teams. However, in one of the few concessions to the WHA teams, they were allowed to protect two goalies and two skaters. The four new teams were placed at the bottom of the order for the 1979 NHL Entry Draft
1979 NHL Entry Draft
The 1979 NHL Entry Draft took place on August 9, 1979, at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. The National Hockey League teams selected 126 players eligible for entry into professional ranks, in the reverse order of the 1978–79 NHL season and playoff standings. This is the list of those...
, as opposed to the top as was typical in previous expansions. In what was not a complete coincidence, the NHL also lowered the draft age by one year, effectively doubling the size and depth of the talent pool in the 1979 draft. The former WHA teams were restocked via the 1979 NHL Expansion Draft
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...
, though the teams had to pay $125,000 per player taken in that draft.
Aftermath
The NHL had originally intended to place one of the former WHA teams 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 first two seasons following the merger. Nevertheless, the divisions were formally retained.Although the WHA clubs had performed respectably against their NHL rivals in pre-merger exhibition games, winning more games than they lost, they were nevertheless expected to struggle on the ice after the merger 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 first post-merger season although both teams were swept in the first round. Also in 1980, the Atlanta Flames
Atlanta Flames
The Atlanta Flames were a professional ice hockey team based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA from 1972 to 1980. The team, a member of the National Hockey League , was relocated to Calgary, Alberta, Canada for the start of the 1980–81 NHL season and were re-named the Calgary Flames. The NHL returned to the...
became the NHL's seventh Canadian team when they were purchased by former WHA owner Nelson Skalbania
Nelson Skalbania
Nelson M. Skalbania is a Canadian businessman from Vancouver, British Columbia best known for signing a 17-year-old Wayne Gretzky to the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association....
, who moved the team to Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
. The following year, the Oilers became the first former WHA team to win a playoff series when they swept the heavily-favoured Canadiens.
In 1981, the NHL, hoping to reduce travel costs in the face of a struggling economy and high energy prices, re-aligned its divisions along geographical lines, although the non-geographical names were retained until 1993. The regular season and playoffs were also altered to emphasize divisional match-ups. The Jets successfully lobbied to be placed in the more central Norris Division as opposed to the Smythe. However, the relocation of the Colorado Rockies
Colorado Rockies (NHL)
The Colorado Rockies were an American professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League that played in Denver, Colorado, from 1976 to 1982. They were a relocation of the Kansas City Scouts, a 1974 expansion team. The franchise moved to East Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1982 and was...
to New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
the following year compelled the Jets to return to the Smythe, where they remained for over a decade.
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. Hockey players had leverage in contract negotiations for the first time.In its search for talent, the WHA turned to the previously overlooked European market, signing players from Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. Anders Hedberg
Anders Hedberg
Anders Hedberg is a retired former professional ice hockey player who was one of the first European-born players to make an impact in North America...
, Lars-Erik Sjoberg
Lars-Erik Sjoberg
Lars-Erik "Taxen" Sjöberg was a Swedish ice hockey defenceman. He played in Sweden from 1962 to 1974 ; and in North America for the Winnipeg Jets in the WHA and NHL from 1974–80.Sjöberg won the Golden Puck as the Swedish player...
, and 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 championships after signing European players, and their success sparked similar signings league-wide. Many of these players went on to NHL careers.
Of the four WHA teams that joined the NHL, only the Edmonton Oilers remain in their WHA city today. The other three franchises all moved within a three-year period in the 1990s: the Nordiques became the Colorado Avalanche
Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver, Colorado, United States. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The Avalanche have won the Stanley Cup twice, in 1995–96 and 2000–01. The franchise...
in 1995, the Jets became the Phoenix Coyotes
Phoenix Coyotes
The Phoenix Coyotes are a professional ice hockey team based in Glendale, Arizona. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They play their home games at Jobing.com Arena....
in 1996, and the Whalers (renamed the Hartford Whalers
Hartford Whalers
The Hartford Whalers were a professional ice hockey team based for most of its existence in Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A.. The club played in the World Hockey Association from 1972–79 and in the National Hockey League from 1979–97...
upon admission to the NHL in 1979) became the Carolina Hurricanes
Carolina Hurricanes
The Carolina Hurricanes are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League , and play their home games at the 18,680-seat RBC Center...
in 1997. Of the three cities to have lost their WHA/NHL teams, only Winnipeg has received one back; a revived Winnipeg Jets
Winnipeg Jets
The Winnipeg Jets were a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. They began play in the World Hockey Association in 1972, moving to the National Hockey League in 1979 following the collapse of the WHA...
began play in 2011, after the former Atlanta Thrashers
Atlanta Thrashers
The Atlanta Thrashers were a professional ice hockey team based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Atlanta was granted a franchise in the National Hockey League on June 25, 1997, and became the league's 28th franchise when it began play in the 1999–2000 NHL season...
relocated to Winnipeg. The Oilers are also the only WHA team to win the Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
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 year after leaving Quebec, and the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup in 2006, their ninth year after leaving Hartford. The Jets/Coyotes franchise has not won a playoff series since 1987, and has only won two playoff series since entering the NHL in 1979.
External links
- Troubled WHA folds and its teams join the NHL at the CBC Digital Archives