The 1967 NHL Expansion Draft

The NHL's expansion in 1967 was the first expansion of the league since 1926 when the Chicago Black Hawks (that's "Black Hawks", not Blackhawks; the spelling wasn't changed until 1986!) and Detroit Cougars (later renamed the Red Wings) joined the NHL and pushed the number of teams up to 10. Slowly over the course of the 1930s the NHL dwindled to six teams. In 1930 the Pittsburgh Pirates moved to Philly and played a season as the Quakers before folding. The Ottawa Senators suspended operations in 1931, resumed operations in 1932, moved to St. Louis in 1934 and folded in 1935. The Montreal Maroons (original tenants of the famed Forum) withdrew from the league in 1938. Finally in 1942 the Brooklyn Americans (née New York Americans; they played in Madison Square Garden in Manhattan) folded. From 1942 to the end of the 1967 season the NHL consisted of only six teams: the Canadiens, Maple Leafs, Bruins, Rangers, Black Hawks and Red Wings.

In the mid–1960s the NHL, following the lead of the pro football and baseball leagues, decided to expand. The NHL was tempted by the potential for revenue from a U.S. national television deal to plunk new teams down west and south of the Original Six sites. The six new franchises were conditionally awarded on February 9, 1966 with new teams in St. Louis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, the Twin Cities of Minnesota, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The price for each new franchise to enter the league was $2,000,000. Nominally this fee would go to the owners of the existing franchises as consideration for purchasing the contracts of 20 players; $100,000 per player. How else was an expansion team to stock its roster?

On June 5, 1967 the new teams (the Blues, Flyers, Penguins, North Stars, Kings and Seals) presented cheques for $2,000,000 to the existing NHL owners to officially receive their franchises and the following day, at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, the first NHL Expansion Draft was held.

The problem I had found in researching this event was not that I couldn't find the list of players taken; it's easy enough to work that out by looking at the 1967-68 rosters and working backward to June 5, 1967. The problem was finding the rules of the draft and the draft order. The draft order of, say, an NHL Entry Draft is well known and documented but the order of this expansion draft was not in any source I'd ever seen. The 1967-68 NHL Guide doesn't even have this information, just a summary of the players taken by the new teams and the lists of players protected by the old teams.

The rules of the draft were as follows:

• The new teams would chose 20 players: 2 goaltenders and 18 skaters. The goaltenders would be chosen in the first two rounds.
• The existing teams would file lists of protected players, their best players who would be exempt from being chosen. These lists consisted of 11 skaters (forwards & defencemen) and one goaltender. They were presented to Don Ellis, the Director of the NHL's Central Registry by 5 p.m. on the 5th, and posted at the draft proceedings on the 6th at 9 a.m. Other players exempted from the draft proceedings included junior-eligible players who played on a pro team, any pro team, in the 1966-67 season. This meant players such as Bobby Orr were exempt. Players sold to a minor league team in the 1966-67 season would not be eligible either. Rookies in 1966-67 would not be eligible until their team had protected 18 skaters and 2 goaltenders total (including the goalie and 11 players on the initial protected list; this clause was used to great effect by the Montreal Canadiens, who were able to keep players like Serge Savard, Carol Vadnais and Jacques Lemaire without having to put them on their original protected list).
• NHL President Clarence Campbell would chose the draft order by picking ballots out of the Stanley Cup. The teams would draft in the order of ballots picked out of the Cup in the first round of goaltenders taken. In the second round the draft order was reversed. The draft order for the third round, the first round of skaters, would be chosen at random again and the order of every round that followed would be the same except that the team that picked first in the previous round was bumped to last in the following round and all the others moved up one position (i.e. if the first round of players was A-B-C-D-E-F the second would be B-C-D-E-F-A, third would be C-D-E-F-A-B, and so on).
• New teams had three minutes to pick a player or would forfeit their pick (as far as I can tell this did not happen to any team).
• After the first goalie was taken from a team that existing team would add another goalie to its 'protected' list. Existing teams would "fill in" their protected lists after the first, second, fifth and all subsequent skaters chosen. An existing team could lose only 18 players.

Special thanks to Paul Shallenberger for helping suss it all out.

Overall	Player Chosen	By	From	Fill-In
Round 1
1	Terry Sawchuk	Los Angeles Kings	Toronto Maple Leafs	Al Smith
2	Bernie Parent	Philadelphia Flyers	Boston Bruins	Eddie Johnston
3	Glenn Hall	St. Louis Blues	Chicago Black Hawks	Dave Dryden
4	Cesare Maniago	Minnesota North Stars	New York Rangers	Gilles Villemure
5	Joe Daley	Pittsburgh Penguins	Detroit Red Wings	George Gardner
6	Charlie Hodge	California Seals	Montreal Canadiens	Rogie Vachon
Round 2
7	Gary Smith	California Seals	Toronto Maple Leafs
8	Roy Edwards	Pittsburgh Penguins	Chicago Black Hawks
9	Gary Bauman	Minnesota North Stars	Montreal Canadiens
10	Don Caley	St. Louis Blues	Detroit Red Wings
11	Doug Favell	Philadelphia Flyers	Boston Bruins
12	Wayne Rutledge	Los Angeles Kings	New York Rangers
Round 3
13	Dave Balon	Minnesota North Stars	Montreal Canadiens	Claude Larose
14	Bobby Baun	California Seals	Toronto Maple Leafs	Murray Oliver
15	Earl Ingarfield	Pittsburgh Penguins	New York Rangers	Reg Fleming
16	Gord Labossiere	Los Angeles Kings	Montreal Canadiens	Claude Provost
17	Ed Van Impe	Philadelphia Flyers	Chicago Black Hawks	Eric Nesterenko
18	Jim Roberts	St. Louis Blues	Montreal Canadiens
Round 4
19	Kent Douglas	California Seals	Toronto Maple Leafs	Allan Stanley
20	Al MacNeil	Pittsburgh Penguins	New York Rangers	Red Berenson
21	Bob Wall	Los Angeles Kings	Detroit Red Wings	Howie Young
22	Joe Watson	Philadelphia Flyers	Boston Bruins	Dallas Smith
23	Noel Picard	St. Louis Blues	Montreal Canadiens
24	Ray Cullen	Minnesota North Stars	Detroit Red Wings	Floyd Smith
Round 5
25	Larry Jeffrey	Pittsburgh Penguins	Toronto Maple Leafs
26	Eddie Joyal	Los Angeles Kings	Toronto Maple Leafs
27	Brit Selby	Philadelphia Flyers	Toronto Maple Leafs	George Armstrong
28	Al Arbour	St. Louis Blues	Toronto Maple Leafs	Duane Rupp
29	Bob Woytowich	Minnesota North Stars	Boston Bruins	Skip Krake
30	Bill Hicke	California Seals	New York Rangers
Round 6
31	Real Lemieux	Los Angeles Kings	Detroit Red Wings
32	Lou Angotti	Philadelphia Flyers	Chicago Black Hawks	Wayne Maki
33	Rod Seiling	St. Louis Blues	New York Rangers
34	Jean-Guy Talbot	Minnesota North Stars	Montreal Canadiens	Dick Duff
35	Billy Harris	California Seals	Detroit Red Wings
36	Ab McDonald	Pittsburgh Penguins	Detroit Red Wings	Gary Jarrett
Round 7
37	Leon Rochefort	Philadelphia Flyers	Montreal Canadiens	Carol Vadnais
38	Ron Schock	St. Louis Blues	Boston Bruins
39	Wayne Connelly	Minnesota North Stars	Boston Bruins
40	Larry Cahan	California Seals	New York Rangers	Larry Mickey
41	Leo Boivin	Pittsburgh Penguins	Detroit Red Wings	Bob Falkenberg
42	Poul Popeil	Los Angeles Kings	Boston Bruins	Ron Buchanan
Round 8
43	Terry Crisp	St. Louis Blues	Boston Bruins	Wayne Cashman
44	Ted Taylor	Minnesota North Stars	Detroit Red Wings	Nick Libett
45	Wally Boyer	California Seals	Chicago Black Hawks
46	Noel Price	Pittsburgh Penguins	Montreal Canadiens	Serge Savard
47	Terry Gray	Los Angeles Kings	Detroit Red Wings	Ron Anderson
48	Don Blackburn	Philadelphia Flyers	Toronto Maple Leafs	Darryl Sly
Round 9
49	Pete Goegan	Minnesota North Stars	Detroit Red Wings	Craig Cameron
50	Joe Szura	California Seals	Montreal Canadiens	Danny Grant
51	Keith McCreary	Pittsburgh Penguins	Montreal Canadiens	Jacques Lemaire
52	Bryan Campbell	Los Angeles Kings	New York Rangers	Bob Plager
53	John Miszuk	Philadelphia Flyers	Chicago Black Hawks
54	Don McKenney	St. Louis Blues	Detroit Red Wings	Jim Watson
Round 10
55	Bob Lemieux	California Seals	Montreal Canadiens	Andre Boudrias
56	Ken Schinkel	Pittsburgh Penguins	New York Rangers	Paul Andrea
57	Ted Irvine	Los Angeles Kings	Boston Bruins	Jean Pronovost
58	Garry Peters	Philadelphia Flyers	Montreal Canadiens	Mike McMahon
59	Wayne Rivers	St. Louis Blues	Boston Bruins	Bob Heaney
60	Len Lunde	Minnesota North Stars	Chicago Black Hawks	Matt Ravlich
Round 11
61	Bob Dillabough	Pittsburgh Penguins	Boston Bruins	Ted Hodgson
62	Howie Hughes	Los Angeles Kings	Montreal Canadiens	Bob Charlebois
63	Dick Cherry	Philadelphia Flyers	Boston Bruins	Ron Murphy
64	Bill Hay	St. Louis Blues	Chicago Black Hawks	Paul Terbenche
65	Bill Goldsworthy	Minnesota North Stars	Boston Bruins	John Arbour
66	Jean-Paul Parise	California Seals	Boston Bruins	Glen Sather
Round 12
67	Bill Inglis	Los Angeles Kings	Montreal Canadiens	Don Johns
68	Jean Gauthier	Philadelphia Flyers	Montreal Canadiens	Bill McCreary
69	Darryl Edestrand	St. Louis Blues	Toronto Maple Leafs	Red Kelly
70	Andre Pronovost	Minnesota North Stars	Detroit Red Wings	George Harris
71	Ron Harris	California Seals	Boston Bruins	Dave Woodley
72	Art Stratton	Pittsburgh Penguins	Chicago Black Hawks	Geoff Powis
Round 13
73	Jim Johnson	Philadelphia Flyers	New York Rangers	George Konik
74	Norm Beaudin	St. Louis Blues	Detroit Red Wings	Irv Spencer
75	Elmer Vasko	Minnesota North Stars	Chicago Black Hawks	Doug Shelton
76	Terry Clancy	California Seals	Toronto Maple Leafs	Gerry Ehman
77	Val Fonteyne	Pittsburgh Penguins	Detroit Red Wings	Jim Peters
78	Doug Robinson	Los Angeles Kings	New York Rangers	Gary Sabourin
Round 14
79	Larry Keenan	St. Louis Blues	Toronto Maple Leafs	Dick Gamble
80	Murray Hall	Minnesota North Stars	Chicago Black Hawks	Wayne Smith
81	Tracy Pratt	California Seals	Chicago Black Hawks	Mike Chernoff
82	Jeannot Gilbert	Pittsburgh Penguins	Boston Bruins	Brian Bradley
83	Mike Corrigan	Los Angeles Kings	Toronto Maple Leafs	Don Cherry
84	Gary Dornhoefer	Philadelphia Flyers	Boston Bruins	Ted Snell
Round 15
85	Bryan Watson	Minnesota North Stars	Detroit Red Wings	Fred Hilts
86	Autry Erickson	California Seals	Toronto Maple Leafs	Norm Armstrong
87	Tom McCarthy	Pittsburgh Penguins	Montreal Canadiens	Bill Plager
88	Jacques Lemieux	Los Angeles Kings	Montreal Canadiens	Leo Thiffault
89	Forbes Kennedy	Philadelphia Flyers	Boston Bruins	Wayne Maxner
90	Ron Stewart	St. Louis Blues	Boston Bruins	Bob Leiter
Round 16
91	Ron Boehm	California Seals	New York Rangers	Dunc McCallum
92	Billy Dea	Pittsburgh Penguins	Chicago Black Hawks	Roger Bellerive
93	Lowell MacDonald	Los Angeles Kings	Toronto Maple Leafs	Bronco Horvath
94	Pat Hannigan	Philadelphia Flyers	Chicago Black Hawks	Al Lebrun
95	Fred Hucul	St. Louis Blues	Toronto Maple Leafs	Les Duff
96	Bill Collins	Minnesota North Stars	New York Rangers	Bob Jones
Round 17
97	Bobby Rivard	Pittsburgh Penguins	Montreal Canadiens	Jim Paterson
98	Ken Block	Los Angeles Kings	New York Rangers	Bob Blackburn
99	Dwight Carruthers	Philadelphia Flyers	Detroit Red Wings	Gary Marsh
100	John Brenneman	St. Louis Blues	Toronto Maple Leafs	Barry Watson
101	Sandy Fitzpatrick	Minnesota North Stars	New York Rangers	Bob Ash
102	Alain Caron	California Seals	Chicago Black Hawks	Oscar Gaudet
Round 18
103	Bill Flett	Los Angeles Kings	Toronto Maple Leafs	Stan Smrke
104	Bob Courcy	Philadelphia Flyers	Montreal Canadiens
105	Gerry Melnyk	St. Louis Blues	Chicago Black Hawks	Jack Stanfield
106	Parker MacDonald	Minnesota North Stars	Detroit Red Wings	Rick McCann
107	Mike Laughton	California Seals	Toronto Maple Leafs	Milan Marcetta
108	Mel Pearson	Pittsburgh Penguins	Chicago Black Hawks	Brian McDonald
Round 19
109	Keith Wright	Philadelphia Flyers	Boston Bruins
110	Gary Veneruzzo	St. Louis Blues	Toronto Maple Leafs
111	Billy Taylor	Minnesota North Stars	Chicago Black Hawks	Dick Meissner
112	Bryan Hextall, Jr.	California Seals	New York Rangers	Bill Knibbs
113	Andy Bathgate	Pittsburgh Penguins	Detroit Red Wings	Larry Billows
114	Brent Hughes	Los Angeles Kings	Detroit Red Wings
Round 20
115	Max Mestinsek	St. Louis Blues	New York Rangers	Ron Ingram
116	Dave Richardson	Minnesota North Stars	Chicago Black Hawks	Ross Eichler
117	Gary Kilpatrick	California Seals	Chicago Black Hawks
118	Les Hunt	Pittsburgh Penguins	New York Rangers	Gord Vejprava
119	Marc Dufour	Los Angeles Kings	New York Rangers	Wayne Hall
120	Terry Ball	Philadelphia Flyers	New York Rangers

The protected lists:

Boston Bruins	Chicago Black Hawks	Detroit Red Wings	Montreal Canadiens	New York Rangers	Toronto Maple Leafs
Gerry Cheevers	Denis DeJordy	Roger Crozier	Gump Worsley	Ed Giacomin	Johnny Bower
Ted Green	Doug Jarrett	Gary Bergman	J.C. Tremblay	Arnie Brown	Tim Horton
Gary Doak	Gilles Marotte	Bert Marshall	Jacques Laperriere	Wayne Hillman	Larry Hillman
John Bucyk	Pierre Pilote	Bob McCord	Terry Harper	Harry Howell	Marcel Pronovost
Ed Westfall	Pat Stapleton	Alex Delvecchio	Ted Harris	Jim Neilson	Mike Walton
Tom Williams	Dennis Hull	Gordie Howe	Jean Beliveau	Rod Gilbert	Jim Pappin
John McKenzie	Bobby Hull	Norm Ullman	Ralph Backstrom	Phil Goyette	Pete Stemkowski
Ken Hodge	Chico Maki	Paul Henderson	Henri Richard	Vic Hadfield	Bob Pulford
Phil Esposito	Pit Martin	Bruce MacGregor	Gilles Tremblay	Orland Kurtenbach	Frank Mahovlich
Eddie Shack	Stan Mikita	Ted Hampson	John Ferguson	Don Marshall	Dave Keon
Fred Stanfield	Doug Mohns	Doug Roberts	Yvan Cournoyer	Bob Nevin	Ron Ellis
Don Awrey	Ken Wharram	Dean Prentice	Bobby Rousseau	Jean Ratelle	Brian Conacher

Junior-age players who were exempt from the draft proceedings included Ross Lonsberry, Bobby Orr, Doug Barrie, Bart Crashley, Pete Mahovlich, David Rochefort, Lucien Grenier, Al Hamilton, Wayne Carleton and Jim McKenny. (This list is not exhaustive; I'll look into who else may have been exempt under this rule later.)

The fill-ins:

Boston Bruins	Chicago Black Hawks	Detroit Red Wings	Montreal Canadiens	New York Rangers	Toronto Maple Leafs
Eddie Johnston	Dave Dryden	George Gardner	Rogie Vachon	Gilles Villemure	Al Smith
Dallas Smith	Eric Nesterenko	Howie Young	Claude Larose	Reg Fleming	Murray Oliver
Skip Krake	Wayne Maki	Floyd Smith	Claude Provost	Red Berenson	Allan Stanley
Ron Buchanan	Matt Ravlich	Gary Jarrett	Dick Duff	Larry Mickey	George Armstrong
Wayne Cashman	Paul Terbenche	Bob Falkenberg	Carol Vadnais	Bob Plager	Duane Rupp
Jean Pronovost	Geoff Powis	Nick Libett	Serge Savard	Paul Andrea	Darryl Sly
Bob Heaney	Doug Shelton	Ron Anderson	Danny Grant	George Konik	Red Kelly
Ted Hodgson	Wayne Smith	Craig Cameron	Jacques Lemaire	Gary Sabourin	Gerry Ehman
Ron Murphy	Mike Chernoff	Jim Watson	Andre Boudrias	Dunc McCallum	Dick Gamble
John Arbour	Roger Bellerive	George Harris	Mike McMahon	Bob Jones	Don Cherry
Glen Sather	Al Lebrun	Irv Spencer	Bob Charlebois	Bob Blackburn	Norm Armstrong
Dave Woodley	Oscar Gaudet	Jim Peters	Don Johns	Bob Ash	Bronco Horvath
Brian Bradley	Jack Stanfield	Fred Hilts	Bill McCreary	Bill Knibbs	Les Duff
Ted Snell	Brian McDonald	Gary Marsh	Bill Plager	Ron Ingram	Barry Watson
Wayne Maxner	Dick Meissner	Rick McCann	Leo Thiffault	Gord Vejprava	Stan Smrke
Bob Leiter	Ross Eichler	Larry Billows	Jim Paterson	Wayne Hall	Milan Marcetta

The draft got started at 10 a.m. on the 6th of June and was wrapped up around 3:30 that afternoon.


Sources:
Andrews, Ron. (ed.) 1967-68 NHL Guide. The National Hockey League. 1967. pp. 108-109.
Curran, Pat. "What if the cheque bounces?". Montreal Gazette. p. 37, June 5, 1967. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yp4tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BqAFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6612,1033677
Curran, Pat. "Habs Regain Larose In Draft Deal". Montreal Gazette. p. 37, June 7, 1967. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zJ4tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BqAFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6814%2C1482922
Curran, Pat. "California, Philadelphia Rate Top Expansion Clubs". Montreal Gazette. p. 38, June 7, 1967. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zJ4tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BqAFAAAAIBAJ&pg=7138%2C1487536
"Today's NHL Draft". The Vancouver Sun. p. 19, June 6, 1967. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=M5plAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tIoNAAAAIBAJ&dq=dave%20balon&pg=5930%2C1935659