1974 NHL Expansion Draft

The Background

Let me set the scene for you. It's June, 1972. The National Hockey League is a sixteen-team circuit, with new teams in Atlanta and on Long Island, New York having just finished participating in an expansion draft. The new teams will begin play in the fall of 1972. So too will the World Hockey Association, an upstart twelve-team league founded by a pair of mavericks whose primary objective is to disrupt the professional hockey business.

To get started the WHA needed two things: players and places to play. They would have to compete with the old-guard NHL for both. Players would come after promises of substantially more wealth. Finding places to play was more difficult. Half of the WHA member clubs were based in smaller cities that the NHL had no serious intention of ever expanding to: Cleveland, Edmonton, Houston, Ottawa, Quebec City and Winnipeg. In those cities they would only have to face competition for hockey fans from minor league and junior teams. The other half of the league took the NHL head-on in New York City, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Not only were these teams vying for the same hockey fans as the NHL teams they were also vying for arenas to play in.

The WHA's New York Raiders (the name cheekily referencing the WHA's 'raiding' the NHL) were going to play at the planned arena in the 'burbs on Long Island. The NHL saw this coming and made their first pre-emptive strike against the WHA: they granted an expansion franchise to play on Long Island at the new arena. The New York Islanders as they became known signed a long-term lease at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the WHA was shut out. The Raiders had to settle for an exorbitantly expensive lease in Manhattan, at Madison Square Garden. The Raiders would also have to settle for whatever leftover dates they could get after the Rangers and NBA's Knicks had priority.

The New England Whalers signed a lease with the Boston Garden. As was the case with the Raiders in New York the Whalers had to compete for dates at the Garden with the NHL's Bruins and NBA's Celtics. When the Garden was unavailable they made do at the much smaller Boston Arena, home of Northeastern University's hockey team and former home of the Bruins.

By contrast the Chicago Cougars were unable to secure ice time at Chicago Stadium. They hoped to play at a new suburban arena but financing for the arena project wasn't secured in time for the season (the Cougars' owners, brothers Jordon and Walter Kaiser, were eventually unable to secure any financing at all and sold the team to players Ralph Backstrom, Dave Dryden and Pat Stapleton in 1974; the team folded in 1975, five years before the proposed arena in Rosemont was built and opened). They were forced to play games at the International Amphitheatre, originally built in the 1930s to host livestock exhibitions. Similarly the Philadelphia Blazers were forced to play games at the Philadelphia Civic Center, former home of the NBA's 76ers.

The Los Angeles Sharks had the luxury of a pair of venues being available: the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena and Long Beach Arena. The NHL's Kings were forced to build their own arena in 1967, The Forum, because the WHL's Los Angeles Blades held the lease at the Memorial Sports Arena.

St. Paul, Minnesota built its own new pro sports arena in the early '70s and the Minnesota Fighting Saints became the first tenant of the St. Paul Civic Center in downtown St. Paul.

Arenas were as much a driving force in the locations of the WHA's franchises as they were in the NHL's choices for expansion franchises. The 1972 expansion to Long Island and Atlanta was a deliberate effort to keep WHA teams out of the arenas and to limit the WHA's growth. The story was the same in the next round of expansion. Kansas City, Missouri was building a new arena for the NBA's Kansas City Kings and Washington, D.C. planned a new arena in downtown, tentatively called the Eisenhower Memorial Center. In order to keep the WHA out the NHL let Washington and Kansas City in. Expansion franchises were awarded to Baltimore Bullets owner Abe Pollin in Washington and an enormous group (more than 30 individuals) in Kansas City on June 8, 1972. The teams would begin play in 1974.

Pollin's downtown arena never materialized and he built his own arena instead, the Capital Centre, in suburban Largo, Maryland. He chose to name his new hockey team the Capitals, and hired outgoing Boston Bruins general manager Milt Schmidt as his GM in April, 1973.

The Kansas City group was originally going to name their club the Mohawks: 'MO' for Missouri and 'Hawks' as a reference to Jayhawkers, a nickname for Kansans. That was quashed by the Black Hawks' owners. There was only room enough in the NHL for one team nicknamed 'Hawks'. The owners hired St. Louis Blues GM Sid Abel, formerly of the Red Wings, in April, 1973 to take up the same post and begin building the team. The team was named 'Scouts' in June of 1973 after the statue in the city's Penn Valley Park.

The Rules

The rules of the 1974 expansion draft were almost exactly the same as they were in 1972. The existing clubs were allowed to protect 15 skaters and a pair of goaltenders, and the teams who lost goaltenders in the 1972 draft—Canadiens, Black Hawks, Bruins and Kings—were allowed to exempt themselves from losing a goalie in 1974. The Canadiens and Kings left themselves open to losing a goaltender again. The existing teams would lose three players each, including a maximum of one goaltender, and each selection would be followed by a fill-in player added to the team's protected list. The expansion clubs would chose a pair of goaltenders and 22 skaters each.

The amateur draft was held by conference call and earlier than normal (May 28th, 29th and 30th) in order to keep the WHA from knowing who chose who and giving the NHL a head start in contract negotiations with the players. The Capitals won a coin toss over the Scouts for the first selection in the amateur draft so first choice in the expansion draft two weeks later was given to the Scouts.

The draft began at 2:00 pm on June 12, in the Grand Salon of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.

The Protected Lists

Atlanta Flames	Boston Bruins	Buffalo Sabres	California Golden Seals
Goaltenders
Dan Bouchard	exempt	Gary Bromley	Gilles Meloche
Phil Myre		Rocky Farr	Gary Simmons
Skaters
Curt Bennett	Johnny Bucyk	Larry Carriere	Mike Christie
Dwight Bialowas	Wayne Cashman	Rick Dudley	Len Frig
Jerry Byers	Gary Doak	Norm Gratton	Stan Gilbertson
Rey Comeau	Darryl Edestrand	Bill Hajt	Hilliard Graves
Buster Harvey	Phil Esposito	Jerry Korab	Dave Hrechkosy
Ed Kea	Dave Forbes	Jim Lorentz	Spike Huston
Bob Leiter	Ken Hodge	Don Luce	Joey Johnston
Jean Lemieux	Don Marcotte	Rick Martin	Wayne King
Randy Manery	Terry O'Reilly	Gerry Meehan	Al MacAdam
Bob Murray	Bobby Orr	Brian Spencer	Ted McAneeley
Noel Price	Derek Sanderson	Gilbert Perreault	Jim Neilson
Pat Quinn	Bobby Schmautz	Craig Ramsay	Craig Patrick
Jacques Richard	Gregg Sheppard	Rene Robert	Bob Stewart
Larry Romanchych	Dallas Smith	Mike Robitaille	Stan Weir
John A. Stewart	Carol Vadnais	Jim Schoenfeld	Larry Wright
Chicago Black Hawks	Detroit Red Wings	Los Angeles Kings	Minnesota North Stars
Goaltenders
exempt	Doug Grant	Gary Edwards	Cesare Maniago
	Jim Rutherford	Rogie Vachon	Fern Rivard
Skaters
Ivan Boldirev	Red Berenson	Bob Berry	Chris Ahrens
Germain Gagnon	Thommie Bergman	Gene Carr	Fred Barrett
Dennis Hull	Henry Boucha	Mike Corrigan	Jude Drouin
Doug Jarrett	Ron Busniuk	Butch Goring	Barry Gibbs
Cliff Koroll	Guy Charron	Terry Harper	Bill Goldsworthy
Keith Magnuson	Marcel Dionne	Sheldon Kannegiesser	Danny Grant
Chico Maki	Jean Hamel	Neil Komadoski	Dennis Hextall
John Marks	Bill Hogaboam	Don Kozak	Don Martineau
Pit Martin	Pierre Jarry	Dan Maloney	Lou Nanne
Stan Mikita	Nick Libett	Bob Murdoch	Dennis O'Brien
Jim Pappin	Jack Lynch	Mike Murphy	Murray Oliver
Dick Redmond	Hank Nowak	Frank St. Marseille	J.P. Parise
Phil Russell	Mickey Redmond	Vic Venasky	Tom Reid
Dale Tallon	Doug Roberts	Juha Widing	Fred Stanfield
Bill White	Bryan Watson	Tom Williams	Ron Wilson
Montreal Canadiens	New York Islanders	New York Rangers	Philadelphia Flyers
Goaltenders
Ken Dryden	Chico Resch	Eddie Giacomin	Bernie Parent
Wayne Thomas	Billy Smith	Gilles Villemure	Bobby Taylor
Skaters
Pierre Bouchard	Craig Cameron	Jerry Butler	Bill Barber
Yvan Cournoyer	Dave Fortier	Bill Fairbairn	Tom Bladon
Guy Lafleur	Billy Harris	Rod Gilbert	Bobby Clarke
Yvon Lambert	Gerry Hart	Ed Irvine	Bill Clement
Jacques Laperriere	Lorne Henning	Walt McKechnie	Gary Dornhoefer
Guy Lapointe	Ernie Hicke	Gilles Marotte	Andre Dupont
Chuck Lefley	Gary Howatt	Brad Park	Bob Kelly
Jacques Lemaire	Walt Ledingham	Jean Ratelle	Orest Kindrachuk
Pete Mahovlich	Billy MacMillan	Dale Rolf	Reggie Leach
Henri Richard	Bert Marshall	Larry Sacharuk	Ross Lonsberry
Jim Roberts	Bob Nystrom	Rod Seiling	Rick MacLeish
Larry Robinson	Jean Potvin	Pete Stemkowski	Don Saleski
Serge Savard	Doug Rombough	Walt Tkaczuk	Dave Schultz
Steve Shutt	Ralph Stewart	Steve Vickers	Ed Van Impe
Murray Wilson	Eddie Westfall	Bert Wilson	Jim Watson
Pittsburgh Penguins	St. Louis Blues	Toronto Maple Leafs	Vancouver Canucks
Goaltenders
Andy Brown	Eddie Johnston	Doug Favell	Bruce Bullock
Denis Herron	Wayne Stephenson	Dunc Wilson	Gary Smith
Skaters
Syl Apps	Don Awrey	Willie Brossart	Gregg Boddy
Chuck Arnason	Ace Bailey	Tim Ecclestone	Andre Boudrias
Dave Burrows	Bill Collins	Ron Ellis	David Dunn
Nelson Debenedet	Dave Gardner	George Ferguson	John Gould
Ab Demarco	Wayne Merrick	Bill Flett	Jocelyn Guevremont
Steve Durbano	Brian Ogilvie	Brian Glennie	Dennis Kearns
Vic Hadfield	Barclay Plager	Rick Kehoe	Bobby Lalonde
Bob “Battleship” Kelly	Bob Plager	Dave Keon	Don Lever
Ron Lalonde	Pierre Plante	Jim McKenny	Larry McIntyre
Bernie Lukowich	Greg Polis	Garry Monahan	Chris Oddleifson
Lowell MacDonald	Phil Roberto	Mike Pelyk	Gerry O'Flaherty
Bob Paradise	Glen Sather	Gary Sabourin	Tracy Pratt
Jean Pronovost	Floyd Thomson	Darryl Sittler	Barry Wilkins
Ron Schock	Garry Unger	Errol Thompson	Jim Wiley
Ron Stackhouse	Rik Wilson	Norm Ullman	Brian McSheffrey

The Draft

Ovr.	Player	Picked By	Picked From	Fill-In
Goaltenders
1	Michel Plasse	Kansas City Scouts	Montreal Canadiens	John Van Boxmeer
2	Ron Low	Washington Capitals	Toronto Maple Leafs	Lyle Moffatt
3	Peter McDuffe	Kansas City Scouts	New York Rangers	Ron Harris
4	Michel Belhumeur	Washington Capitals	Philadelphia Flyers	Joe Watson
Skaters
5	Simon Nolet	Kansas City Scouts	Philadelphia Flyers	Terry Crisp
6	Dave Kryskow	Washington Capitals	Chicago Black Hawks	J. P. Bordeleau
7	Butch Deadmarsh	Kansas City Scouts	Atlanta Flames	Keith McCreary
8	Yvon Labre	Washington Capitals	Pittsburgh Penguins	Jean-Guy Lagace
9	Brent Hughes	Kansas City Scouts	Detroit Red Wings	Claude Houde
10	Pete Laframboise	Washington Capitals	California Golden Seals	Morris Mott
11	Paul Terbenche	Kansas City Scouts	Buffalo Sabres	Larry Mickey
12	Bob Gryp	Washington Capitals	Boston Bruins	Al Simmons
13	Gary Coalter	Kansas City Scouts	California Golden Seals	Del Hall
14	Gord Smith	Washington Capitals	Los Angeles Kings	Bob Nevin
15	Gary Croteau	Kansas City Scouts	California Golden Seals
16	Steve Atkinson	Washington Capitals	Buffalo Sabres	Joe Roberts
17	Randy Rota	Kansas City Scouts	Los Angeles Kings	Larry Brown
18	Bruce Cowick	Washington Capitals	Philadelphia Flyers
19	Lynn Powis	Kansas City Scouts	Chicago Black Hawks	Duane Wylie
20	Denis Dupere	Washington Capitals	Toronto Maple Leafs	John Grisdale
21	John Wright	Kansas City Scouts	St. Louis Blues	Larry Giroux
22	Joe Lundrigan	Washington Capitals	Toronto Maple Leafs
23	Ted Snell	Kansas City Scouts	Pittsburgh Penguins	Duane Rupp
24	Randy Wyrozub	Washington Capitals	Buffalo Sabres
25	Chris Evans	Kansas City Scouts	Detroit Red Wings	Charlie Shaw
26	Mike Bloom	Washington Capitals	Boston Bruins	Andre Savard
27	Bryan Lefley	Kansas City Scouts	New York Islanders	Neil Nicholson
28	Gord Brooks	Washington Capitals	St. Louis Blues	Murray Kuntz
29	Robin Burns	Kansas City Scouts	Pittsburgh Penguins
30	Bob Collyard	Washington Capitals	St. Louis Blues
31	Tom Peluso	Kansas City Scouts	Chicago Black Hawks
32	Bill Mikkelson	Washington Capitals	New York Islanders	Vic Teal
33	Kerry Ketter	Kansas City Scouts	Atlanta Flames	Morris Stefaniw
34	Ron Anderson	Washington Capitals	Boston Bruins
35	Normand Dubé	Kansas City Scouts	Los Angeles Kings
36	Mike Lampman	Washington Capitals	Vancouver Canucks	Jim Mair
37	Richard Lemieux	Kansas City Scouts	Vancouver Canucks	Larry Gould
38	Lew Morrison	Washington Capitals	Atlanta Flames
39	Dave Hudson	Kansas City Scouts	New York Islanders
40	Steve West	Washington Capitals	Minnesota North Stars	Rod Norrish
41	Ken Murray	Kansas City Scouts	Detroit Red Wings
42	Larry Bolonchuk	Washington Capitals	Vancouver Canucks
43	Dennis Patterson	Kansas City Scouts	Minnesota North Stars	Blake Dunlop
44	Murray Anderson	Washington Capitals	Minnesota North Stars
45	Ed Gilbert	Kansas City Scouts	Montreal Canadiens	Claude Larose
46	Larry Fullan	Washington Capitals	Montreal Canadiens
47	Doug Horbul	Kansas City Scouts	New York Rangers	John Bednarski
48	Jack Egers	Washington Capitals	New York Rangers

Once again Canadiens GM Sam Pollock used the rules to manipulate the results in his favour with a masterful touch. He had used three goaltenders in the '73-'74 season: Michel Larocque, Wayne Thomas and Michel Plasse. Ken Dryden had taken the year off after contract negotiations broke down, but Dryden would be back for '74-'75. Pollock knew he could afford to lose another goalie and did so so that he could keep one of his other players. When Plasse was chosen by the Scouts first overall the Canadiens added John Van Boxmeer to their protected list. Neither the Scouts nor the Capitals were interested in Claude Larose, the only other notable player left off the protected list by the Canadiens.

The Scouts and Capitals were the unfortunate victims of the rise of the WHA and arguable over-expansion by the NHL: the talent pool was notably thin for this expansion draft. You may have noticed that a few notable players were left off the protected lists, such as Frank Mahovlich of the Canadiens and Dave Dryden of the Sabres. It was already known that these players were going to the WHA.

Several newspapers (Toronto Star and Montreal Gazette for example) commented that this draft was easily the worst expansion draft yet, and the $6,000,000 expansion fees exacted from the Capitals and Scouts was the most amount of money paid for the least amount of talent in any expansion draft to date at the time. Several players didn't play in another NHL game again after this draft, and many more played less than a season's worth. In fact Tom Peluso, chosen 31st overall by the Scouts from the Black Hawks and Steve West, chosen 40th overall by the Capitals from the North Stars, never played in the NHL at all.

1974 NHL Reverse Draft

The 1974 Reverse Draft was held June 13. The draft price was $15,000.

Overall	Player Chosen	By	From
1	Glen Seperich	Syracuse Eagles (AHL)	Detroit Red Wings (Tidewater Wings [AHL])
2	Bill Butters	Denver Spurs (WHL)	Toronto Maple Leafs (Oklahoma City Blazers [CHL])
3	Rene Drolet	Tidewater Wings (AHL)	Philadelphia Flyers
4	Graham Parsons	Richmond Robins (AHL)	Minnesota North Stars (New Haven Nighthawks [AHL])
5	Alan Hangsleben	Nova Scotia Voyageurs (AHL)	Montreal Canadiens (Nova Scotia Voyageurs [AHL])
6	Harry Shaw	Rochester Americans (AHL)	Minnesota North Stars (New Haven Nighthawks [AHL])

The previous day the NHL had announced that conditional franchises had been awarded to Vincent Abbey and Ivan Mullenix, the owners of the WHL's Seattle Totems and Denver Spurs respectively, to begin play in those cities in 1976. The WHL announced it was suspending operations for the '74-'75 season later that day. The Totems, Spurs and Salt Lake Golden Eagles moved to the Central Hockey League for the '74-'75 season. The WHL's indefinite suspension of operations became permanent.

I suspect the Spurs' selection of Bill Butters was either voided (having ostensibly been chosen by a team without a league at the time) or a cash deal was made to sell his rights back to the Maple Leafs; he was back in Oklahoma City by the beginning of the season in the fall.

In 1975 the Spurs and Totems' conditional NHL franchises were revoked. The financial situation of many of the league's teams were precarious (particularly the Penguins, Scouts and Golden Seals): more expansion was thought to be too risky at the time. The Totems folded while the Spurs decided to move to the WHA instead. The WHA Spurs didn't last long though; attendance at the then-new McNichols Sports Arena was atrocious and Mullenix was bleeding money. He conditionally sold the team to interests in Ottawa around New Year's Day, 1976, and the team played a few more games as the "Ottawa Civics" before folding for good in mid-January. Over-expansion was taking its toll...

1974 NHL Inter-League Draft

The 1974 Inter-League Draft was held June 12, immediately following the expansion draft. Only the expansion Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals took part.

Overall	Player Chosen	By	From
1	Jim Hrycuik	Washington Capitals	Hershey Bears (AHL)
2	Hugh Harvey	Kansas City Scouts	Hershey Bears (AHL)

Hrycuik later scored the very first goal in Capitals franchise history, beating Eddie Giacomin at 5:06 of the first period in the Capitals' first regular season game against the Rangers on October 9, 1974. The Capitals lost the game 6-3, the first of 67 losses in the '74-'75 season. They went on to set a record in futility by winning only eight games that season, a low-mark that is still unsurpassed by an NHL team having played 70 or more games in a season.

1974 NHL Intra-League Draft

The 1974 NHL Intra-League Draft took place June 10 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. This year, because it was an expansion year, the rules were modified slightly such that the teams could lose only one player. As in the past first-year pros were exempt and the draft price was $40,000. Also exempt this year were goalies. Any player claimed in the proceedings had to be kept on the claiming team's 16-man protected list in the expansion draft, which took place later that week.

Overall	Player Chosen	By	From	Player Removed From Protected List	Claim player or cash
1	Jim Neilson	California Golden Seals	New York Rangers	Walt McKechnie	claim
2	Dave Fortier	New York Islanders	Philadelphia Flyers	Brian Lefley	cash
3	Jim Wiley	Vancouver Canucks	Pittsburgh Penguins	Jim Mair	cash
4	Brian Ogilvie	St. Louis Blues	Chicago Black Hawks	Butch Williams	cash
5	Ron Busniuk	Detroit Red Wings	Buffalo Sabres	Al McLeod	cash

The biggest news story surrounding this year's draft was fall-out from the first selection. Before the draft the Golden Seals, Rangers and Bruins had come to an agreement such that the Seals would take Jim Neilson with their first pick, drop Walt McKechnie from their protected list to make room for Neilson, the Rangers would claim McKechnie as compensation, and they would trade McKechnie to the Bruins at a later date for Derek Sanderson. All was going according to plan until the Sabres had their turn. Because McKechnie was claimed as compensation for losing Neilson McKechnie wasn't placed on the Rangers' protected list. Sabres GM Punch Imlach, being Punch Imlach, thought he could claim McKechnie from the Rangers (his rationale being "McKechnie was the best player available"), thus negating the pre-arranged deal the Rangers and Bruins had agreed to. NHL President Clarence Campbell immediately ruled that the selection was invalid, explained that this year a team could only lose one player and the Rangers had already lost Neilson to the Golden Seals, and the Sabres would have to make another selection or forfeit their pick. Imlach threatened to appeal to the Board of Governors but Campbell rebuffed him, telling him appeals on this matter would not be allowed.

Imlach waived his selection and the rest of the teams passed as well, ending the draft. Two days later McKechnie was traded to the Bruins for Sanderson.

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NHL Draft Results