SCampo98, as this question comes up from time to time in regards to how influential Hull, Hedberg and Nilsson were, if you'll bear with reading my long post I believe you'll get a better idea from an excerpt in a book titled "The Hot Line" which was forwarded by former Oilers coach/general manager Glen Sather who was the architect behind the great Edmonton teams of the 1980s. The following are his words from the forward comments in the book:
"Bobby Hull, Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg were the most exciting line I ever saw. They were so creative and fundamentally, there weren't any flaws in their game. They moved the puck with precision, continually got in the open and anticipated where the puck was going to end up.
It was hard for teams at that time to play against them because they hadn't seen anything like that before.
As a left winger with the Edmonton Oilers in 1976-77, I think I was like everyone else. I was mesmerized by how they played. They whizzed by us. They could all skate and could all pick up the puck with either hand. They were terrific to watch. They were all great thinkers, too. They were all very cerebral.
The way they could play as a five-man unit, with Lars-Erik Sjoberg leading the back end, is what impressed me the most. Nobody played like that in the NHL. The NHL was still in the dark ages back then. It was really fun to play against them.
The first time I was on the ice against those three guys was October 15 at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton. It wasn't even close. The Jets beat us 6-1. They could play through all the hooking, holding, interference and dirty play. They just played the game the way it should be played.
Everybody tried to intimidate them but you couldn't. They weren't going to be intimidated. That was impressive, too. But it wasn't just Hedberg, Nilsson and Hull, it was also Willy Lindstrom, Dan Labraaten, Veli-Pekka Ketola, Thommie Bergman, Mats Lindh and Hexi Riihiranta, not to mention Peter Sullivan.
My first game as the Oilers' player-coach was March 3, 1977, also in Edmonton. We beat the Jets 5-4. (I like to say it's because we had superior coaching.) I also scored the opening goal that night. But even though we won, I wanted our team to play like the Jets.
The Jets beat us in the last Avco Cup finals in 1979. Even though Hull, Hedberg and Nilsson weren't there any more, that whole system had been incorporated by Winnipeg to play like that.
The Oilers didn't start to play like the Jets until we were in the NHL but they built the blueprint for us. It's one thing to have a plan to play like that but it's another to get players who can actually play in that style. When we started to draft players, like Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Juri Kurri and Glenn Anderson, we had four or five years to train them to play like that. It didn't just happen over night, but it did happen.
When I was with the Minnesota North Stars the year before, I read a lot about what was going on in the WHA. I thought at the time that I'd end up in the league. Minnesota offered me a one-year deal but I wanted a two-year deal so I said 'no' to them. I thought I could make more money, have a two-year deal and live in Alberta.
If you look at the way the Pittsburgh Penguins played in winning the Stanley Cup in 2016, they played like the WHA Jets, too. I think you'll see more teams in the NHL play like that. The New York Rangers are like that, the Detroit Red Wings are like that. Teams are gradually going to change. It's an exciting game when it's played like that.
Hull, Hedberg and Nilsson and the WHA Jets made the biggest impression on how the game should be played today. They showed the Edmonton Oilers how to play. We won five Stanley Cups with that system."
--Glen Sather, President, New York Rangers, 2016