WHA impact on NHL

[ellja3]

I've always been interested in WHA and the way it affected NHL. So, I ordered this book.

Before I start to read it, I decided to recap on main things I remember from other NHL books I've read w regards to how WHA impacted NHL. Please, correct me if I am wrong in any of these:

* Surely NHL-WHA expansion, which means the starting point of Oilers, Whalers, Nordiques and Jets wasn't NHL; also Gretzky not eligible for Calder
* NHL lowered draft eligibility age to at least to some extent avoid talent being poached by WHA teams
* NHL creates team in Atlanta and another in NY (Islanders) to take this opportunity away from WHA (this I am not sure of, very vague recall)
* NHL players can bargain for higher salary since they can use WHA opportunity as leverage
* Some quality players (Hull) move to WHA

 

[Fugu]

I've always been interested in WHA and the way it affected NHL. So, I ordered this book.

Before I start to read it, I decided to recap on main things I remember from other NHL books I've read w regards to how WHA impacted NHL. Please, correct me if I am wrong in any of these:

* Surely NHL-WHA expansion, which means the starting point of Oilers, Whalers, Nordiques and Jets wasn't NHL; also Gretzky not eligible for Calder
* NHL lowered draft eligibility age to at least to some extent avoid talent being poached by WHA teams
* NHL creates team in Atlanta and another in NY (Islanders) to take this opportunity away from WHA (this I am not sure of, very vague recall)
* NHL players can bargain for higher salary since they can use WHA opportunity as leverage
* Some quality players (Hull) move to WHA

This is a fairly complicated topic, so hopefully some of the other readers will chime in.

The NHL owners of that era were very reluctant to expand at all, but they were especially resistant to expansion to smaller Canadian cities. Toronto and Montreal did not want to share the money they were receiving from CBC, which was one reason that Vancouver was initially nixed when the league expanded in 1968. Vancouver and Buffalo did end up joining a couple years later. There was probably a feeling that they should have a presence in California as well.

Because of the Reserve Clause, which had been challenged by Curt Flood in MLB (and lost), iirc, salaries were starting to loosen up around this time. MLB did come up with something that allowed players with ten years of service to decline trades. The fledgling league wasn't trying to work to get players more money, but felt that if they could entice some of the bigger stars away, they would stand a chance at surviving. Perhaps some of the 'generous' pay was why they didn't end up doing too well for very long! The NHL tried to enforce its Reserve Clause on the defecting players, but that was nixed by a court-- essentially at that time the anti-trust nature of the clauses was not yet challenged in spite of the lack of a CBA. They couldn't prevent players from going to other leagues to play.

Gretzky did not want to wait until he was 20 to play, but yes, there was pressure on the NHL to lower it because the WHA was willing to draft earlier. There's an entire sidebar that could be written on Gretzky and the use of private services contracts-- something he ended up having for a very long time, even when he moved back to the NHL.


I'll just comment on Hull, as I don't recall the motivation for the Isles and Flames et al. When he was asked to go to the Jets, he initially declined, but they persisted and told him to name a figure. He thought he'd ask for something ludicrous and that they'd just go away, so he said $1 million. The rest is history.

 

[Fugu]

I will add that one thing that is indisputable is that it affected the NHL's expansions and relocations for decades to come, even today! Three of the four teams admitted into the NHL relocated within a couple of decades (Jets, Nordiques, Whalers). The Jets became the Coyotes, and well, that just went from bad to bad. The Nordiques fared much better as the Avalanche. Whalers moving to Carolina is still an ongoing experiment in the minds of some.

 

[cbcwpg]

- NHL creates team in Atlanta and another in NY (Islanders) to take this opportunity away from WHA (this I am not sure of, very vague recall)

IIRC...The WHA was looking to expand into NY and specifically the Island in the newly constructed Nassau Coliseum, so the NHL expanded there first to keep the WHA out. The NHL also liked even numbers so they wanted to add another team at the same time, and as it turned out, the Omni in Atlanta had just been built.

 

[Killion]

This is a fairly complicated topic, so hopefully some of the other readers will chime in.

Yes, its fairly complex but really pretty straightforward. The WHA was conceived to essentially force an eventual amalgamation with the NHL, its charters & tenets created by the same legal team that had been involved with the ABA which as you know merged with NBA; earlier, the American/NFL merger. The founders of the WHA (most notably Ben Hatskin of Winnipeg, like a character out of a Mickey Spillane novel) wanted in, the NHL wanting no part of places like Winnipeg, Edmonton or Quebec City, told to basically dont even bother when the first NHL Expansion was announced for 67/68.

So.... they hatched a plan, based on the previous & ongoing forced Amalgamations in Football & Basketball. The NHL didnt take them seriously, but the laughter soon turned to anger when the WHA not only got their act together with 10 teams, but unlike the former NFL & NBA competitors, the WHA had the temerity to set up shop in pre-existing NHL markets like Philadelphia, Chicago & elsewhere. Whats more, in addition to signing Bobby Hull, they'd "stolen" another 67 players from NHL Rosters in their first year alone including Stars like Derek Sanderson. Suddenly, the players had some serious leverage on their NHL Masters, guys like Ballard & Wirtz, beyond incensed. Boston in particular was hit hard. Losing Cheevers, McKenzie, Sanderson as mentioned & several others. Wheels falling right off what should have been a 3-4 Cup Dynasty minimum. Theres more, much more to this story but I'll leave it there for now. Let others have the opportunity to wade in....

 

[GarbageGoal]

Just want to say I've read the book and enjoyed it. Anyone looking for a deep analysis of the business impact of the WHA on NHL will probably be disappointed though. Not to say it isn't discussed, but for the most part it's a hilarious collection of anecdotes and stories you'd hear over a brew with the old timers.

 

[Killion]

Just want to say I've read the book and enjoyed it. Anyone looking for a deep analysis of the business impact of the WHA on NHL will probably be disappointed though. Not to say it isn't discussed, but for the most part it's a hilarious collection of anecdotes and stories you'd hear over a brew with the old timers.

Pretty much this, yes. Fun read. Stories. Kind you hear at one of those annual Rhode Island Reds Booster Club BBQ's huh?. Different league, defunct, franchise with a much longer history than those of the WHA, league itself but same type of dealeo..... As for the op's question, in addition to the aforementioned impact the WHA had on the NHL with respect to locations & expansions/relocations... the signings of Hull, Sanderson & others drove NHL players salaries right through the roof & pretty much overnight. And this just a few years after the NHL's first major expansion, Buffalo & Vancouver in 70, suddenly became very very expensive to sign players who just 2yrs earlier while playing at the NHL level mightve been barely making $20,000 a year or if in the minors, say a top tier vet AHL type, around $14,500 per annum. 71/72/73, that same player was now going to cost you $50,000++.... The Draft was mentioned up-page... the WHA in having to compete for talent lowering the Draft Age & throwing big $$$ at unproven kids while also going to Europe to secure top tier players. They were really the ones, Winnipeg in particular for heralding in the new era & influence of the European game (that truly caught fire early 80's in the NHL with the Oilers) with the extremely dynamic & exciting Hedberg-Nilsson-Hull line.... Its also worth noting that in Exhibition Games played between the NHL & WHA, the WHA actually has the winning record....other major influences as well..

 

[BadgerBruce]

From the perspective of the BoH, this is a small impact, but one worth mentioning. Beginning more or less around 1985, I began to notice a distinct uptick in the number of coaching applicants for youth hockey positions where "pro experience" was on the resume. True, lots of guys with pro experience had always got into the bench game after hanging them up, but what I saw happening was very different.

Clinics. Hockey schools. Learn to stickhandle in 6 months for $2,000. A real explosion of private training programs. Today, that explosion has become mainstream normal across North America and large parts of cold weather Europe.

The WHA's contribution was the creation of so many brand new hockey jobs that didn't replace too many of the existing jobs that already existed way down the food chain. By '85 or so, we had a glut of ex-pros from leagues few people today have even heard of returning to the "real world" and using their semi-celebrity to establish "hockey training businesses."

When I was a very young boy, former members of the 1959 world champion Belleville McFarlands would run a 4-5 evening camp in September for youth hockey players. They did this for free and to give something back to the community. Today, those guys would be rejected -- gotta have the guy who played 27 games in the Southern Professional League once upon a time.

The emergence of the WHA has more to do with that than most people realize.

 

[Killion]

The emergence of the WHA has more to do with that than most people realize.

True enough, though that was sort of on the way anyway Badger. I was lucky enough to attend one of the first summer hockey camps in the early 60's. Muskoka, overnighter of course. Goalie Coach was Ed Chadwick who was I think then playing for the old Buffalo Bisons. Those hockey camps & similar proliferating, costs ever increasing as the decade wore on for the 7 day sessions culminating in the most expensive of them all; the Orr-Walton Sports Camp (which I also attended) on Lake Couchiching near Orillia Ontario. With the very generous Orr Rookie Contract, rise of the Players Association & Eagleson, Agents; Expansion... a pro hockey career was quickly potentially becoming a rather lucrative affair depending on where you went in the Draft & so on. With further planned NHL Expansion, a lot more jobs including at the various higher level minor pro levels. When the WHA did hit, the situation on the ground if you were playing Junior as I was around that time & you were a cut above, you could pretty much name your terms between whichever NHL or WHA team Drafted you playing one off the other. And most of my generation of players had been attending various summer camps since at least the mid-60's. Through the 70's, with the advent of Power Skating (Laura Stamm in particular) there was a huge explosion of summer camps, clinics & programs. Into the 80's, even more. Mandatory training really & extremely pricey if Johnny or Bobby ever hopes to make that AAA club, go on to Junior, get Drafted. So yes, Specialty Training & the rise of Agents, the WHA certainly accelerated that entire structure, the industry itself. Re-structured it really.

 

[Digital Kid]

I have always had a soft spot for the WHA and its four teams that came over to the NHL.

I am in Calgary, so the first major league hockey team I cheered for was the Calgary Cowboys when I was 7,8 years old. I remember going to games and buying merchandise. I bought pucks with logos for Minnesota Fighting Saints, etc, but my dog chewed them. I still have a Cowboys hockey stick (the miniature with logo).

Because of the Cowboys, WHA coverage was on TV and in the newspaper and so I could follow the teams and league in the late 1970s. It was my league.

I also remember going with relatives in Edmonton to Oilers games against Indianapolis Racers and... I think maybe the Stingers.

I loved that book and also Harold Baldwin's autobiography as well. He mentions that the taking of 18 year olds, and ultimately even 17 year olds, was revenge against the NHL for voting down the merger in 1976 that had been agreed to.

My impression is that the WHA was talent-level equal to the NHL in its final three seasons. If you look at the Top 10 scorers in the 1979-80 NHL season, four were from the WHA...

If the WHA teams had been allowed to remain intact, I have no doubt they would have been in the top half of the NHL standings. Easily.

 

[Hoser]

I am in Calgary, so the first major league hockey team I cheered for was the Calgary Cowboys when I was 7,8 years old. I remember going to games and buying merchandise. I bought pucks with logos for Minnesota Fighting Saints, etc, but my dog chewed them. I still have a Cowboys hockey stick (the miniature with logo).

Heh, I still have a Cowboys mini-stick kicking around too.

 

[BadgerBruce]

The Ken Linseman v World Hockey Association (1977) court case in Connecticut had a profound impact on professional hockey in the future.

I hadn't read the ruling, which grants Linseman a temporary injunction, in a very long time. You can find it here:

http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/439/1315/1578130/

Two points: first, the Connecticut court did not formally rule on the entire case. Rather, an injunction was granted to provide Linseman with immediate relief, and the strong words in the injunction ruling "encouraged" the WHA to accommodate what we're once called "underagers."

2) Bye-bye "20 and older" professional hockey forevermore.

 

[Shawa666]

One thing that wasn't mentionned, the WHA was the first league to open it's rosters to european players, most notably, the Winnipeg Jets.

 

[rojac]

One thing that wasn't mentionned, the WHA was the first league to open it's rosters to european players, most notably, the Winnipeg Jets.

Hedberg and Nilsson joined the Jets in 1974. Salming and Hammarstrom joined the Leafs in 1973.

 

[93LEAFS]

Been debating picking that up, for people that have read Loose Balls about the ABA, is this book even close to that good? I heard Simmons mention it in the foreword to The Game and the story about Hull losing his toupee would of been right at home in Loose Balls.

 

[crobro]

How many HHOF members started in the WHA?

 

[Shawa666]

How many HHOF members started in the WHA?

Wayne Gretzky
Mark Messier
Michel Goulet

Glen Sather

 

[Fenway]

I went to the first WHA game in Boston in 1972 when the Whalers hosted Philadelphia.

The game was televised in Boston but with all the hype there were still 3,000 empty seats.

Most of the players who jumped to the WHA didn't really want to leave the NHL but the money being tossed around could not be ignored.

In Boston the only thing the Whalers accomplished was driving the AHL Braves out of business. That first year the Whalers were hampered by playing many games at the Boston Arena and in 1972 that was not in a nice part of town ( it has since gentrified) The Whalers were the best team in the WHA that season but they never really caught on with fans.

I do remember being surprised at how popular the Nords became instantly in Montreal. They televised home games in French on Sunday nights and people were watching.

 

[He Lied to Mario]

Wayne Gretzky
Mark Messier
Michel Goulet

Glen Sather

Sather didn't start in the WHA. He was a player in the NHL.

Mike Gartner
Mark Howe

 

[Killion]

Sather didn't start in the WHA. He was a player in the NHL.

Right, but he was inducted into the HHOF in the Builders Category for excellence as a Coach, GM & Executive... that portion of his career beginning in the WHA which is what the poster was responding to & why he included him so "technically" yes..... Sather began his career behind the Bench in the WHA.

 

[Digital Kid]

I believe Sather was the last player/coach in major league hockey history?

 

[Tyrolean]

WHA could have sued and broke the NHL but chose not to.

 

[Fourier]

One thing that wasn't mentionned, the WHA was the first league to open it's rosters to european players, most notably, the Winnipeg Jets.

And this really begat the 80's version of the Edmonton Oilers. Sather makes no bones about the fact that he was emulating the Jets with his vision for the Oilers. In fact, I think the WHA had a profound impact on not only the business of hockey but also in how it was actually played through the decade of the 80's.

It was also a really fun league to watch by the way.

 

[Killion]

WHA could have sued and broke the NHL but chose not to.

..... not following you here Tyrol.... sued the NHL for what exactly?

In fact, I think the WHA had a profound impact on not only the business of hockey but also in how it was actually played through the decade of the 80's.

.... oh absolutely, yes. and while change was coming the creation & existence, model
of the WHA & how they presented & played the game hastened the changes considerably.

 

[Andy6]

Hedberg and Nilsson joined the Jets in 1974. Salming and Hammarstrom joined the Leafs in 1973.

True, but it was Hedberg, Nilsson, Larsson, Sjoberg, Riihiranta and Ketola, with Lindh, Lindstrom, K. Nilsson and Mattsson following and Thommie Bergman (who preceded Salming and Hammarstrom in the NHL) jumping to the WHA to join them as well. What the Jets did was truly transformative: the game was never the same afterward.