1977 NHL-WHA merger

[ForsbergForever]

Two years prior to the deal in 1979 there was another agreement in place that would have seen the four teams that did make the jump: Quebec, New England (Hartford), Edmonton and Winnipeg plus the Houston Aeros and the Cincinnati Stingers. The terms of the deal were much better as these six teams would play in their own division and gradually become fully integrated. The plan was killed largely by Leaf's owner and resident caveman Harold Ballard who got the board of govenors to narrowly vote it down. Among the repercussions would have been having hockey in Texas almost twenty years earlier than when Dallas arrived and of course the entry draft. Had this happened there would have been no under-agers signed by the increasingly desperate WHA and thus Gretzky would have been forced to play a second season in the OHL and come in through the draft like everyone else. A whole domino effect really follows from there.

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[leafschatter]

Yep...I find it most fascinating.

Edmonton Oilers would have been a vastly different team. They would have been the worst team in the merger. Without the merger, they did a rapid rebuild by targeting high potential 23/24 year old players given up on by other teams. Made them the favourites going into 78-79 WHA season. Of course, getting Gretzky later helped.

If the merger went through, you probably would have seen a weak 79-80 Oiler team with Bobby Smith, Rob Ramage, Brett Callighen, and Dave Langevin.

 

[reckoning]

The book The Rebel League by Ed Willes has a lot of interesting information on the whole subject. It looked like a done deal in 1977. But the merger was rejected by one vote, largely because Ballard and Boston's Paul Mooney were rabidly opposed and pushed hard to have it rejected.

Two years later there was another vote. Most of the NHL wanted the merger; there was a bidding war for Hedberg and Nilsson the year before and they didn't want another salary-escalating situation like that, but once again it lost by one vote (Toronto, Boston, L.A., Montreal and Vancouver were the dissenting votes). But Montreal and Vancouver later had a change of heart, caused partially because of a public backlash against Molson in the three Canadian WHA cities, and because John Bassett was openly threatening to offer contracts to even more underaged junior players (Bourque and Wickenheiser were on his wishlist).

Ballard was still complaing after the merger was finally achieved, but nobody was listening anymore.