Choose your team based on performance from that year only. Teams are derived from the best of the NEW additions to the NHL (anyone who played in 66-67 or 78-79, can't be new. Previous NHL experience is allowed from any other years. See Zeidel and Hucul.)
I would say that this is indicative of how capable these new players were immediately, and how strong the incoming talent pool was during the E6 expansion vs the WHA merger - but it's not.
1968 had 150% as many new teams as 1980, so their talent pool's contribution to the competitiveness of the NHL is relatively weaker than it looks here:
Team 1968
| Ted Irvine, 40 PTS, -9 | Eddie Joyal, 57 PTS - 20th, -2 | Bill Flett, 46 PTS - T41st, +4 |
| Bill Sutherland, 29 PTS, +1 | Jacques Lemaire, 42 PTS - T52nd, +15 | Gerry Ehman, 44 PTS - T46th, -5 |
| Charlie Burns, 35 PTS, -11 | Ed Hoekstra, 36 PTS, +5 | Gary Dornhoefer, 43 PTS, +6 |
| Brian Smith, 19 PTS, +2 | Gene Ubriaco, 33 PTS, -11 | Frank St. Marseille, 32 PTS, +11 |
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| Mike McMahon, 47 PTS - T39th, -14 | Bill White, 38 PTS, +14 |
| Larry Zeidel, 11 PTS, +12 | Fred Hucul, 15 PTS, -3 |
| Barclay Plager, 20 PTS, +3 | Bob Plager, 7 PTS, -10 |
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| Wayne Rutledge, 21-15-5, .897, 2.88 GAA |
| Doug Favell, 16-15-7, .931 (T3rd), 2.27 GAA |
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Outside of the Calder (which they didn't win), Team 1968 didn't get any award voting attention.
Team 1980
| Brian Propp, 75 PTS - T33rd, +45 - T6th | Wayne Gretzky (Hart), 137 PTS - T1st, +14 | Blair MacDonald, 94 PTS - T10th, 0 |
| Morris Lukowich, 74 PTS - T37th, -16 | Mike Rogers, 105 PTS - 5th, +28 | Blaine Stoughton (goal leader), 100 PTS - 8th, +10 |
| Michel Goulet, 54 PTS, -10 | Kent Nilsson, 93 PTS - T12th, -3 | Real Cloutier, 89 PTS - 18th, -5 |
| Dave Hunter, 43 PTS, +7 | Dave Keon, 62 PTS, -13 | Mike Gartner, 68 PTS, +16 |
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| Mark Howe, 80 PTS - 24th, +14 | Ray Bourque (AS-1), 65 PTS, +52 - 2nd |
| Paul Reinhart, 47 PTS, +11 | Risto Siltanen, 35 PTS, -9 |
| Pekka Rautakallio, 30 PTS, +22 | Mike Busniuk, 20 PTS, +39 |
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| Mike Liut, 32(1st)-23-9, .895, 3.18 GAA |
| Jiri Crha, 8-7-0, .908 (1st*), 3.62 GAA |
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The 1980 new talent pool had layers who led the league in goals, assists, points, Wins, save percentage(*15 GP by Crha, but it beats anyone with over 1 GP). Bourque was 2nd in Plus Minus. Bourque and Howe were 4th and 5th in Norris voting. Howe was the top scorer for defenders. Gretzky won the Hart. Rich Preston was a 30-goal scorer who got Selke votes, but he's not here because there are no Selke votes possible for team 1968.
Thoughts?
