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. These four teams had joined the NHL after the folding of their league, the World Hockey Association.

As many WHA players also had their rights held by NHL teams, those NHL teams were allowed to reclaim their players. In order to keep the NHL teams from plundering all the talent from the WHA-turned-NHL teams, each incoming franchise was allowed to protect up to two goaltenders and two skaters. These were designated as "priority selections" in the Expansion Draft.

Rules

Reclaiming of Players: The 17 existing NHL teams were allowed to reclaim any rights to former WHA players they held. The four incoming franchises, however, were allowed to protect up to two goaltenders and two skaters, voiding their NHL rights. These players were considered "priority selections" in the expansion draft. Numerous deals were cut by the incoming teams to retain some of their players. For instance, Quebec retained star forward Real Cloutier by trading a first round draft choice to the Chicago Black Hawks, which held Cloutier's rights; that pick was used to select perennial superstar Denis Savard.

Wayne Gretzky was a special case as, although no team held his NHL rights, under existing rules he would have been removed from the Oilers and placed into the NHL Entry Draft. After deliberation, the Oilers were allowed to keep Gretzky as one of their priority selections, and were forced to choose last in each round of the 1979 NHL Entry Draft as further compensation. Gordie Howe was a second special case, as a gentlemen's agreement between the Hartford Whalers and the Detroit Red Wings, which held his rights, led to the Wings declining to reclaim Howe.

Expansion Draft: Each of the 17 existing NHL teams were allowed to protect 15 skaters and two veteran goalies.

Reclaimed players

"These are players whose NHL rights were reclaimed when the WHA merged with the NHL. This list is incomplete."

Hartford Whalers selections

ee also

*1978–79 WHA season
*1979 NHL Entry Draft
*1979–80 NHL season

References

* [http://www.whalershockey.com/roster.asp?
]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20031129065009/http://members.hockeyresearch.com/jkasiorek/79expdraft.html WHA Oilers Page - 1979 Expansion Draft (webarchive.org 11/29/2003)]
* [http://www.washingtoncaps.com/history/History19791980.asp Washington Capitals History 1979-1980]
* [http://www.stlouisblues.com/history/alltime/transactions.html St. Louis Blues Team Records]
* [http://espn.go.com/nhl/columns/expansion1/662095.html "Foundation Begins with Goaltending" by Al Morganti @ ESPN.com]