(The old) Western Hockey League

[Davenport]

Been fascinated for a long time with the old Western Hockey League (WHL), but can find little information, or mention of it here at HofH. I know it ran from 1952-53 until 1973-74, and that - at one time, before expansion of the NHL - it was a league supposedly in competition with the NHL. How well did the WHL compare to the NHL pre-1967, in terms of quality of play, attendance, and salaries paid to the players?

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[carjackmalone]

I’ve been looking into the old WHL lately as well,apparently the all time leading scorer in minor pro was in WHL.

How did WHL Attendance compare to the AHL at the time.

 

[Davenport]

Found out that the Vancouver Canucks were the most successful team in the Western Hockey League (WHL), winning that league's championship 4 times. The Canucks were also twice champions of the Pacific Coast Hockey League which - in 1952 - merged with the Western Canada Senior Hockey League to become the Western Hockey League.

Five inductees of the Hockey Hall of Fame played with the Vancouver Canucks: Andy Bathgate, Johnny Bower, Tony Esposito, Allan Stanley and Lorne "Gump" Worsley.

Below we see the Vancouver Canucks - the 1969-70 Lester Patrick Cup Champions of the WHL. In 1970-71, the name of the Vancouver Canucks would be carried on in to the NHL.

 

[The Panther]

Mark Messier's dad, Doug...

...was quite an amazing guy (he's still going at 87), with a considerable career in the old WHL, including playing for his hometown Edmonton Flyers (where he played with Barclay Plager) but notably several veteran-seasons for the Portland Buckaroos in Washington (where he played with Orval Tessier, Pat Stapleton, Dennis Kearns).

 

[kaiser matias]

There's a book on the WHL, Ice Warriors: The Pacific Coast/Western Hockey League 1948-1974 by John C. Stott. It goes year by year, with solid detail on the league and events. It has some profiles of top WHL players as well. Solid read and available on Amazon for cheap ($9.95 CAD).

 

[Michael Farkas]

Wow, I found a clip...



Not overly impressive in this short look. Especially Seattle goalie Bev Bentley. That's not even close to what NHL goalies were doing at the time. Though, to be fair, he's a '27 born in some of the last years of his career...

Well...I have a feeling I might have just hijacked my own night...

 

[Bear of Bad News]

There's a book on the WHL, Ice Warriors: The Pacific Coast/Western Hockey League 1948-1974 by John C. Stott. It goes year by year, with solid detail on the league and events. It has some profiles of top WHL players as well. Solid read and available on Amazon for cheap ($9.95 CAD).

I liked this book although it was a lot more of a taxonomy than a narrative - it read as very academic to me. It did fill in a lot of gaps!

 

[Michael Farkas]

Some scant attendance figures at the bottom of this page: Western Hockey League [1944-1974] history and statistics at hockeydb.com

 

[kaiser matias]

I liked this book although it was a lot more of a taxonomy than a narrative - it read as very academic to me. It did fill in a lot of gaps!

That might be because Stott is (was?) an academic, and I think was writing from that viewpoint (albeit he didn't include any footnotes, which would have been in line with the profession).

I'll also note he wrote a second book on hockey, Hockey Night in Dixie: Minor Pro Hockey in the American South which was also quite good. It looks at the lower-level minor leagues (SPHL, ECHL, etc), and he spoke to several people directly involved (players, fans, team officials, etc).

 

[Davenport]

There's a book on the WHL, Ice Warriors: The Pacific Coast/Western Hockey League 1948-1974 by John C. Stott. It goes year by year, with solid detail on the league and events. It has some profiles of top WHL players as well. Solid read and available on Amazon for cheap ($9.95 CAD).

Thank you.

Here is a video which looks at professional hockey in Seattle (long) before the Kraken, providing information about the WHL's Seattle Totems, and the WHL itself.