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...

1969 NHL Reverse Draft

The 1969 Reverse Draft, where WHL and AHL teams were allowed to pick players from the NHL teams, was held June 12. The results were as follows. Where applicable I have noted the minor-league affiliate (or national team) the player had played for the previous season.

Overall	Player Chosen	By	From
Round 1
1	Germain Gagnon	Salt Lake Golden Eagles	Montreal Canadiens (Houston Apollos [CHL])
2	Bill Young	Phoenix Roadrunners	Chicago Black Hawks (Greensboro Generals [EHL])
3	Wilf Martin	Denver Spurs	Montreal Canadiens (Cleveland Barons [AHL])
4	Noel Price	Springfield Kings	Pittsburgh Penguins
5	Rene Drolet	Quebec Aces	Philadelphia Flyers (Quebec Aces [AHL])
6	Dunc McCallum	Providence Reds	Pittsburgh Penguins
7	Doug Volmar	San Diego Gulls	Detroit Red Wings (U.S. National Team)
8	Gary Kurt	Cleveland Barons	New York Rangers (Omaha Knights [CHL])
9	Gary Bauman	Vancouver Canucks	Minnesota North Stars (Memphis South Stars [CHL])
10	Jean Lapointe	Hershey Bears	Philadelphia Flyers (Quebec Aces [AHL])
11	Pierre Pilote	Buffalo Bisons	Toronto Maple Leafs
12	Billy Orr	Rochester Americans	New York Rangers (New Haven Blades [EHL]
13	Jerry Lafond	Seattle Totems	Oakland Seals (Providence Reds [AHL])
Round 2
14	Rick Pagnutti	Salt Lake Golden Eagles	Los Angeles Kings (Springfield Kings [AHL])
15	Peter McDuffe	Phoenix Roadrunners	Chicago Black Hawks (Greensboro Generals [EHL])
16	Jacques Caron	Denver Spurs	Los Angeles Kings (Denver Spurs [WHL])
17	Bob Sneddon	Springfield Kings	Montreal Canadiens (Quebec Aces [AHL])
18	Roger Pelletier	Quebec Aces	Philadelphia Flyers (Quebec Aces [AHL])
19	Kevin O'Shea	San Diego Gulls	New York Rangers (Canadian National Team)
20	Jean Gauthier	Cleveland Barons	Boston Bruins
21	Jack Stanfield	Vancouver Canucks	Chicago Black Hawks (San Diego Gulls [WHL])
22	Jean-Guy Gratton	Hershey Bears	Montreal Canadiens (Trois-Rivières Maple Leafs [Quebec Jr. A])
23	Camille Henry	Buffalo Bisons	St. Louis Blues
Round 3
24	Galen Head	Salt Lake Golden Eagles	Detroit Red Wings (Johnstown Jets [EHL])
25	John Wright	Phoenix Roadrunners	Toronto Maple Leafs (University of Toronto [CIAU])
26	Georges Guilbault	Denver Spurs	St. Louis Blues (Kansas City Blues [CHL])
Round 4
27	Doug Shelton	Denver Spurs	Minnesota North Stars1

1. Doug Shelton was traded to the North Stars by the Black Hawks May 6, 1969 to complete the trade for Andre Boudrias and Mike McMahon (Feb. 14, 1969)

1972 Reverse Draft

The 1972 Reverse Draft was held June 8 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. The rules were that no NHL team could lose more than two players, and each pick cost the minor league team $15,000. A second phase of the draft, the rules to which I'm not certain of but I presume entail the NHL teams protecting more players than in the first phase, was held immediately after. In the second phase the pick price was halved to $7,500 and only one pick was made in this second phase of drafting. Note that I have called it "Round 4".


Note that players picked by a minor league club from their parent affiliate didn't count toward the two player limit. For example it appears the Canucks lost three players: John Hanna, Duke Harris and Barry Cummins. Hanna was picked by the Totems, a Canucks affiliate, therefore he didn't count toward the limit. In effect he didn't go anywhere and the Totems paid the Canucks $15,000 for allowing him to stay in Seattle; coincidentally he was lost to the WHA's Cleveland Crusaders anyway.

Overall	Player Chosen	By	From
Round 1
1	Larry Mavety	Tidewater Wings	Buffalo Sabres (Salt Lake Golden Eagles, WHL)
2	Bob Roselle	Seattle Totems	St. Louis Blues (Kansas City Blues, CHL)
3	Don O'Donoghue	Rochester Americans	Boston Bruins (Boston Braves, AHL)
4	Marv Edwards	Salt Lake Golden Eagles	Toronto Maple Leafs (Phoenix Roadrunners, WHL)
5	Rene Leclerc	Providence Reds	Detroit Red Wings (Tidewater Wings, AHL)
6	Ron Anderson	San Diego Gulls	Buffalo Sabres (Salt Lake Golden Eagles, WHL)
7	Andre Gaudette	Richmond Robins	Philadelphia Flyers (Richmond Robins, AHL)
8	Bob Peppler	Portland Buckaroos	Chicago Black Hawks (Syracuse Blazers, EHL)
9	Joe Daley	Cleveland Barons	Detroit Red Wings
10	Bernie Blanchette	Phoenix Roadrunners	St. Louis Blues (Kansas City Blues, CHL)
11	Ross Webley	Springfield Kings	Boston Bruins (Oklahoma City Blazers, CHL)
	pass	Denver Spurs
	pass	Cincinnati Swords
12	Hank Nowak	Hershey Bears	Philadelphia Flyers (Richmond Robins, AHL)
13	Jim Shaw	Baltimore Clippers	Chicago Black Hawks (Baltimore Clippers, AHL)
14	Bruce Landon	Nova Scotia Voyageurs	Los Angeles Kings (Springfield Kings, AHL)
15	Kerry Bond	Boston Braves	California Golden Seals (Phoenix Roadrunners, WHL)
Round 2
16	John Hanna	Seattle Totems	Vancouver Canucks (Seattle Totems, WHL)
17	Duke Harris	Rochester Americans	Vancouver Canucks (Rochester Americans, AHL)
18	Barry Cummins	Salt Lake Golden Eagles	Vancouver Canucks (Seattle Totems, WHL)
19	Howie Hughes	San Diego Gulls	Los Angeles Kings (Seattle Totems, WHL)
20	Jim Young	Portland Buckaroos	Chicago Black Hawks (Flint Generals, IHL)
21	Ron Dussiaume	Springfield Kings	Chicago Black Hawks (Dallas Black Hawks, CHL)
22	Roy Edwards	Hershey Bears	Pittsburgh Penguins
23	Claude Piche	Boston Braves	Minnesota North Stars (Roanoke Valley Rebels, EHL)
Round 3
all teams passed
Round 4
24	Hal Willis	Phoenix Roadrunners	St. Louis Blues (Denver Spurs, WHL)

Sources:
"How the reverse draft went". Montreal Gazette. June 9, 1972. p. 18.

1968 Reverse Draft

Since I'm already on a kick of posting draft results, what the hell: might as well keep going!


The 1968 Reverse Draft was held June 13. The big news this year was that (gasp!) actual NHLers were taken! The most notable at the time was almost certainly Allan Stanley, then a 42-year-old veteran whose NHL career stretched all the way back to the late 1940s. He was a cornerstone of the Maple Leafs defence in the 1960s, having helped them to win four Stanley Cups in 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1967. Stanley was chosen by the Quebec Aces, then AHL affiliates of the Flyers. He would finish off his career playing a year in Philly.


In stark contrast to the 1965 Reverse Draft where as I pointed out only one player chosen had NHL experience in the previous season, many of the choices taken in '68 had played in the NHL in the preceding year. In fact Stanley, Ed Hoesktra and Seth Martin spent the whole year in the NHL and at no point in the season were they assigned to the minors.


For Hoekstra that was his one and only season as a bona fide NHL player. He played for the Flyers after having spent the better part of his career with the Quebec Aces. He never played another NHL game after that one year.


Martin was Glenn Hall's backup in St. Louis and was left exposed in this draft because he'd already made it known that he was going to retire as a professional hockey player and go back to Trail, B.C. He played another year with the famed Smoke Eaters, with whom he'd won the World Championship in 1961 and Allan Cup in 1962, and followed that up with a last hurrah in 1969-1970 with the Spokane Jets of the Western International Hockey League. The Jets defeated the Orillia Terriers in the Allan Cup finals and Martin capped off his hockey career with another championship. His replacement in St. Louis? An old pro by the name of Plante...


Trivia for you: centreman Bill Hay, chosen in the second round by the Providence Reds, was retired. He hadn't played any hockey since the end of the 1966-67 season and he never played pro hockey again. He was for a time a member of Black Hawks' "Million Dollar Line", with Murray Balfour on his right and Bobby Hull to his left. Bill Hay was an educated man, you see; after the 1966-67 season he moved permanently to Calgary and put his degree in geology to use, working in the oil industry. (His father, Charles Cecil Hay, was president of the British-American Oil Company at the time; B-A was part-owned by Gulf Oil and became Gulf Canada in 1969.) Hay later became president of the Calgary Flames and is currently the chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Overall	Player Chosen	By	From
Round 1
1	Jim Morrison	Baltimore Clippers	Philadelphia Flyers (Quebec Aces, AHL)
2	Ed Hoekstra	Denver Spurs	Philadelphia Flyers
3	Dick Meissner	Providence Reds	Chicago Black Hawks (Baltimore Clippers, AHL)1
4	Brian Kilrea	Vancouver Canucks	Los Angeles Kings (Springfield Kings, AHL)
5	Rocky Farr	Cleveland Barons	Montreal Canadiens (Houston Apollos, CPHL)
6	Roger Cote	Phoenix Roadrunners	Los Angeles Kings (Springfield Kings, AHL)
7	Ted Snell	Springfield Kings	Boston Bruins (Hershey Bears, AHL)
8	Al Lebrun	San Diego Gulls	Chicago Black Hawks (Dallas Black Hawks, CPHL)
9	Bob Blackburn	Buffalo Bisons	New York Rangers (Buffalo Bisons, AHL)
10	Brian Bradley	Seattle Totems	Boston Bruins (Oklahoma City Blazers, CPHL)
11	Bob Barber	Hershey Bears	Montreal Canadiens (Houston Apollos, CPHL)
12	Rick Foley	Portland Buckaroos	Toronto Maple Leafs (Rochester Americans, AHL)
13	Allan Stanley	Quebec Aces	Toronto Maple Leafs
14	George Gardner	Rochester Americans	Detroit Red Wings (Fort Worth Wings, CPHL)
Round 2
15	Bill Hay	Providence Reds	St. Louis Blues2
16	Jack McCartan	San Diego Gulls	Oakland Seals (Omaha Knights, CPHL)
17	Seth Martin	Buffalo Bisons	St. Louis Blues
18	Gord Vejprava	Seattle Totems	New York Rangers (Vancouver Canucks, WHL)

1. Dick Meissner was loaned to the Clippers by the Black Hawks in November, 1967.
2. Bill Hay retired at the end of the 1966-67 season.


The draft price was $15,000 per player.

Sources:
"Quebec Aces pluck Stanley from Leafs". Regina Leader-Post. Canadian Press. June 14, 1967. p. 27. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dOpUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=lTwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2943%2C2840643

1965 Reverse Draft

1965 was the year of the inaugural Reverse Draft. Held June 10 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, WHL and AHL teams paid $10,000 per pick to the NHL teams. In theory this draft was for the purpose of allowing the minor league teams to draft talent from the NHL clubs, clubs who had been poaching their players for many years. In practice this draft consisted mostly of the big clubs exchanging players from one minor league affiliate to another. The Portland Buckaroos of the WHL, the only WHL club at the time which had no affiliation with an NHL team, didn't bother participating; they passed on all their draft choices.


The draft picks listed below are listed with both the NHL team whom they were nominally picked from as well as the minor-league affiliate they had been playing for in the 1964-65 season.


Note that Carl Wetzel, the goalie taken in the first round by the Quebec Aces, was the only player taken who had spent any time in the NHL in the '64-'65 season. He was the back-up to Roger Crozier and only appeared in two games. In January, 1965 he was demoted to Pittsburgh of the AHL.

Overall	Player Chosen	By	From
Round 1
	Frank Martin	Providence Reds	Montreal Canadiens (Quebec Aces, AHL)
	Adam Keller	Cleveland Barons	Detroit Red Wings (Pittsburgh Hornets, AHL)
	Howie Menard	Springfield Indians	Detroit Red Wings (Memphis Wings, CPHL)
	Pete Ford	Pittsburgh Hornets	Chicago Black Hawks (St. Louis Braves, CPHL)
	Ken Stephanson	Baltimore Clippers	Detroit Red Wings (Minneapolis Bruins, CPHL)1
	Pete Panagabko	Hershey Bears	Boston Bruins (Minneapolis Bruins, CPHL)
	Roger Lafreniere	Buffalo Bisons	Detroit Red Wings (Providence Reds, AHL)
	Carl Wetzel	Quebec Aces	Detroit Red Wings (Pittsburgh Hornets, AHL)
	Bob Barlow	Rochester Americans	Montreal Canadiens (Seattle Totems, WHL)
Round 2
	Dave McComb	Cleveland Barons	Montreal Canadiens (Cleveland Barons, AHL)
	Brent Hughes	Springfield Indians	Boston Bruins (Minneapolis Bruins, CPHL)
	Danny Belisle	Pittsburgh Hornets	New York Rangers (Vancouver Canucks, WHL)
	Duncan MacDonald	Baltimore Clippers	Toronto Maple Leafs (Minneapolis Bruins, CPHL)2
	Gerry Ouellette	Buffalo Bisons	Boston Bruins (Minneapolis Bruins, CPHL)
	Moe Mantha	Quebec Aces	Montreal Canadiens (Seattle Totems, WHL)
	Barrie Ross	Rochester Americans	New York Rangers (St. Paul Rangers, CPHL)
Round 3
	Wayne Schultz	Cleveland Barons	Boston Bruins (Minneapolis Bruins, CPHL)
	Jean Cossette	Baltimore Clippers	Montreal Canadiens (Seattle Totems, WHL)
Round 4
	Gerry Brisson	Cleveland Barons	Montreal Canadiens (Seattle Totems, WHL)
	Mike Corbett	Baltimore Clippers	Toronto Maple Leafs (Tulsa Oilers, CPHL)

1. Boston Bruins traded Ken Stephanson to Detroit Red Wings with Ab McDonald and John McKenzie for Bob Dillabough, Ron Harris, Junior Langlois and Parker MacDonald, May 31, 1965.
2. I'm not sure why Duncan MacDonald had been playing for a Bruins affiliate instead of the Maple Leafs; I suspect he had been loaned to the Minneapolis Bruins for the rest of the '64-'65 season. It was not uncommon back then.

Overall	Player Chosen	By	From
Round 1
	Jerry Toppazzini	Los Angeles Blades	Detroit Red Wings (Pittsburgh Hornets, AHL)
	John Gravel	San Francisco Seals	Boston Bruins (Minneapolis Bruins, CPHL)
	Bob Perreault	Victoria Maple Leafs	Boston Bruins (San Francisco Seals, WHL)
	Ron Boehm	Vancouver Canucks	Boston Bruins (Minneapolis Bruins, CPHL)
	Doug Senior	Seattle Totems	Montreal Canadiens (Seattle Totems, WHL)
	pass	Portland Buckaroos
Round 2
	Harry Sinden	San Francisco Seals	Boston Bruins (Minneapolis Bruins, CPHL)
	Wayne Muloin	Vancouver Canucks	Detroit Red Wings (St. Paul Rangers, CPHL)
	Ray Kinasewich	Seattle Totems	Montreal Canadiens (Seattle Totems, WHL)
Round 3
	Buddy Boone	Vancouver Canucks	New York Rangers (Vancouver Canucks, WHL)

Again, as with the 1966 Amateur Draft I have assigned no overall order to the picks because I can't be sure whether the AHL and WHL teams picked together or each league had its turn one after the other. The order presented here is accurate with respect to each league.

Source:
"Eight From Habs In Reverse Draft". Montreal Gazette. June 11, 1965. p. 27. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SIY1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=Wp8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=4308%2C2428581

The NHL Inter-League Draft & Reverse Draft

A lot of my research into the Seals has gone into player transactions. That's why I wanted to track down the draft order of the 1967 Expansion Draft. It wasn't enough for me to copy and paste a list of players drafted by the Seals: I wanted to know how the draft played out. Why the Seals picked one player over another. To see who was still available at any given point, who got picked before who, who got passed over.


This also led me to do a little investigating into the annual NHL drafts of the time. The NHL had instituted a "Intra-League Draft" in the early 1950s to help the Bruins and Black Hawks be more competitive. This eventually became the Waiver Draft, which lasted until the 2003-2004 season. The 2005 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL and NHLPA eliminated the Waiver Draft. The purpose of this draft was to improve the non-playoff teams by allowing them to acquire their pick of some of the worst players on the playoff teams.


In the 1960s three other drafts were instituted: the Amateur Draft (now the Entry Draft), the Inter-League Draft and the Reverse Draft. The Inter-League Draft was akin to the Amateur Draft in that NHL teams picked players from other leagues but whereas the Amateur Draft was a draft of (mostly) junior players the Inter-League Draft was a draft of minor-league professionals playing in the Western Hockey League (not to be confused with the current Major Junior WHL), AHL and CPHL.


The Reverse Draft, inaugurated in 1965, was a 'reverse' version of the Inter-League Draft: WHL and AHL teams could draft players from the NHL teams. Pickings were usually quite slim as the number of players 'protected' by the NHL teams was two to three dozen. The minor pro teams were drafting players who were already playing in the minors anyway, some already playing for the minor team in question after been loaned to them by an NHL affiliate.


The results of Inter-League and Reverse Drafts weren't always reported well, probably because in some years these affairs were very brief. Tracing my way back through rosters there were a few players picked up by or lost from NHL teams for seemingly no reason when in fact they had been exchanged as part of these drafts.


The following are the results of the 1968 Inter-League Draft, which weren't even published in the NHL Guide that year.

Overall	Player Chosen	By	From
Round 1
1	Brian Perry	Oakland Seals	Providence Reds (AHL)
	pass	Detroit Red Wings
	pass	Pittsburgh Penguins
	pass	Toronto Maple Leafs
2	Larry Hale	Minnesota North Stars	Seattle Totems (WHL)
3	Myron Stankiewicz	St. Louis Blues	Hershey Bears (AHL)
	pass	Los Angeles Kings
	pass	Philadelphia Flyers
4	Larry Leach	Chicago Black Hawks	Portland Buckaroos (WHL)
	pass	Boston Bruins
	pass	New York Rangers
5	Len Ronson	Montreal Canadiens	San Diego Gulls (WHL)
Round 2
all teams passed

The NHL teams paid the respective minor league teams $30,000 for each pick.


Sources:
"NHL clubs pick 5 players in interleague drafting". The Globe & Mail (Toronto). p. 30. June 12, 1968.