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Edmonton Oilers: Dave Dryden (G), Ed Mio (G), Wayne Gretzky, Bengt Gustafsson. Hartford Whalers: John Garrett (G), Jordy Douglas, Mark Howe. Quebec Nordiques: Richard Brodeur (G), Paul Baxter, Garry Lariviere. Winnipeg Jets: Markus Mattsson (G), Scott Campbell, Morris Lukowich. |
Round 1
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Winnipeg | Peter Marsh, Montreal | Bill Nyrop |
| Edmonton | Cam Connor, Montreal | Gilles Lupien |
| Hartford | Al Hangsleben, Montreal | Rod Langway |
| Quebec | Dave Farrish, NY Rangers | Jocelyn Geuvremont |
Round 2
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Quebec | Gerry Hart, NY Islanders | Yvon Vautour |
| Hartford | Nick Fotiu, NY Rangers | Ed Johnstone |
| Edmonton | Lee Fogolin, Buffalo | Bill Stewart |
| Winnipeg | Lindsay Middlebrook, NY Rangers | no fill |
Round 3
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Winnipeg | Bobby Hull, Chicago | Bob Hoffmeyer |
| Edmonton | Pat Price, NY Islanders | no fill |
| Hartford | Rick Ley, Toronto | Jimmy Jones |
| Quebec | Ron Low, Detroit | no fill |
Round 4
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Quebec | Pierre Plante, NY Rangers | Jim Mayer |
| Hartford | Al Sims, Boston | Gary Doak |
| Edmonton | Colin Campbell, Pittsburgh | Kim Clackson |
| Winnipeg | Al Cameron, Detroit | Jean Hamel |
Round 5
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Winnipeg | Dave Hoyda, Philadelphia | Barry Dean |
| Edmonton | Larry Brown, Los Angeles | Doug Halward |
| Hartford | Jean Savard, Chicago | Miles Zaharko |
| Quebec | Blair Stewart, Washington | Eddy Godin |
Round 6
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Quebec | John Baby, Minnesota | Dave Semenko |
| Hartford | Ralph Klassen, Colorado | John Contini |
| Edmonton | Pete Lo Presti, Minnesota | no fill |
| Winnipeg | Jim Roberts, Minnesota | Dan Chicoine |
Round 7
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Winnipeg | Lorne Stamler, Toronto | Ron Ellis |
| Edmonton | Ron Areshenkoff, Buffalo | Richard Dunn |
| Hartford | Rick Hodgson, Atlanta | Bobby Lalonde |
| Quebec | John Smrke, St. Louis | Bob Murdoch |
Round 8
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Quebec | Dave Parro, Boston | no fill |
| Hartford | Kevin Kemp, Toronto | Bruce Boudreau |
| Edmonton | Inge Hammarstrom, St. Louis | Neil Komadoski |
| Winnipeg | Mark Heaslip, Los Angeles | Darryl Edestrand |
Round 9
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Winnipeg | Pierre Hamel, Toronto | no fill |
| Edmonton | John Gould, Atlanta | Curt Bennett |
| Hartford | Bill Bennett, Boston | Dennis O'Brien |
| Quebec | Ken Kuzyk, St. Louis | no fill |
Round 10
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Quebec | Roland Cloutier, Detroit | Rick Vasko |
| Hartford | Bernie Johnston, Philadelphia | Dennis Sobchuk |
| Edmonton | Doug Hicks, Chicago | Keith Magnuson |
| Winnipeg | Gord MacTavish, St. Louis | Bob Simpson |
Round 11
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Winnipeg | Gord Smith, Washington | Bob Girard |
| Edmonton | Tom Edur, Pittsburgh | Dale Tallon |
| Hartford | Brian Hill, Atlanta | Brad Marsh |
| Quebec | Terry Martin, Buffalo | Larry Playfair |
Round 12
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Quebec | Jamie Masters, St. Louis | no fill |
| Hartford | David Given, Buffalo | no fill |
| Edmonton | Wayne Bianchin, Pittsburgh | no fill |
| Winnipeg | Clark Hamilton, Detroit | no fill |
Round 13
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Winnipeg | Jim Cunningham, Philadelphia | Gord Garbutt |
| Edmonton | Mike Forbes, Boston | no fill |
| Hartford | M. F. Schurman, Philadelphia | no fill |
| Quebec | Hartland Monahan, Los Angeles | Steve Carlson |
Round 14
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Quebec | Ron Andruff, Colorado | Larry Skinner |
| Hartford | Nick Beverley, Colorado | Mike Gillis |
| Edmonton | Doug Favell, Colorado | no fill |
| Winnipeg | Dennis Abgrall, Los Angeles | no fill |
Round 15
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Winnipeg | Bill Riley, Washington | Ron Lalonde |
| Edmonton | Doug Patey, Washington | no fill |
| Hartford | Norm Lapointe, Vancouver | no fill |
| Quebec | Alain Cote, Montreal | no fill |
Round 16
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Quebec | Lars Zetterstron, Vancouver | Larry Goodenough |
| Hartford | Don Kozak, Vancouver | no fill |
| Edmonton | Bob Kelly, Chicago | no fill |
| Winnipeg | Gene Carr, Atlanta | no fill |
Round 17
| Team | Player selected | Player protected |
| Winnipeg | Hilliard Graves, Vancouver | End of draft |
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Amateur (Entry) Draft
Former WHA players chosen in the 1979 Amateur (Entry) Draft, held June 14, 1979, are noted below |
Rob Ramage chosen by Colorado (Round 1, Pick 1) |
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Habs in Secret WHA Deals, by Donald Ramsay • 11 June 1979 • The (Toronto) Globe and Mail Montreal Canadiens have engineered what amounts to a five-team deal with the National Hockey League's four newest franchises in a move designed to protect their Stanley Cup winning lineup from Wednesday's expansion draft. The deals, arranged with Hartford Whalers, Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets, also will reward the Canadiens with future draft choices and cash and will allow the four former World Hockey Association clubs to enter the NHL stronger than they had first thought. "Our first priority is protecting the Stanley Cup lineup," said Irving Grundman, vice-president and managing director of the Canadiens. "We evaluated how we could benefit or what we could lose by going the NHL route as opposed to the WHA route and it's obvious which route we have taken. It's clearly evident by the fact we didn't reclaim all the (23) players we held rights to in the WHA that we were working on arrangements that were fair and equitable to our position." Montreal only reclaimed four players - Alain Cote and Daniel Geoffrion of Quebec, Alan Hangsleben of Hartford and Peter Marsh of the defunct Cincinnati Stingers. All except Geoffrion are involved in this week's dealings with the four WHA clubs. As part of the deal, the Canadiens didn't reclaim and allowed Quebec to keep Marc Tardif, J.C. Tremblay and Richard David. Edmonton was allowed to keep David Hunter, Ron Carter and Joe Micheletti and Hartford held on to defenceman Gordie Roberts. Now the tradeoff begins. Last night all NHL teams filed their protected lists of 15 skaters and two goaltenders for Wednesday's expansion draft to stock the four newest teams. Because the Canadiens have outstanding depth, players like Gilles Lupien, Pierre Larouche, Yvan Cournoyer and Pat Hughes, Cote, Hangsleben and Marsh will not be protected. NHL teams will fill the spots on their protected lists for each player drafted from them by an expansion team with a player that was left unprotected on their lists. No club can lose more than four players. The Jets, who draft first, will reclaim Marsh and Canadiens can fill with, say, Larouche. Edmonton will draft Cam Connor and Montreal will fill with maybe Hughes. New England will take back Hangsleben and Montreal, perhaps, will protect Lupien. Quebec will take back Cote and Montreal will fill with, perhaps, Cournoyer. The Canadiens will have lost four players in the first round and will be exempted from the rest of the draft. In addition, they will have received draft choices and cash considerations from the four WHA teams for the players they did not reclaim. "Montreal has done its homework," said a WHA executive source, "and deserves everything they've gotten through this. Last week in Nassau at the owner-player meetings, Grundman and Ron Caron (director of recruitment) were working with us day and night on a variety of deals." The four newest NHL entries also have been negotiating with other NHL clubs in a similar, albeit a lesser, fashion than with the Canadiens. Chicago Black Hawks did not reclaim the great Real Cloutier from Quebec in exchange for a first-round draft choice. Quebec also was able to protect Serge Bernier after working out a deal for his NHL rights with Los Angeles Kings. The four expansion teams are allowed priority selections of two goalies and two skaters. Quebec used those selections to protect defencemen Garry Lariviere and Paul Baxter and goalie Richard Brodeur. Add Cloutier, Bernier, Tardif, Cote and free-agent Robbie Ftorek to their lineup, and the Nordiques will enter the NHL with a respectable oster. Edmonton has exercised its priority picks by protecting goalies Dave Dryden and Ed Mio and skaters Wayne Gretzky and Bengt-Ake Gustafsson. The Oilers also have made deals with Los Angeles to keep Blair MacDonald in Edmonton as well as with Philadelphia Flyers for the rights to protect Ron Chipperfield. Add Hunter, Connor, Micheletti and free agent Brett Calligen to their roster, and the Oilers should enter the NHL next season as a competitive team within the Smythe Division. "We should be all right but we're coming in a little weak on the blueline," said Oiler vice-president Larry Gordon. "A lot of our players were reclaimed and we had to do a lot of hard work in the past few weeks putting a nucleus together." The Jets might suffer the most. General manager John Ferguson was sure he had a deal whereby Bobby Hull would return to Chicago for the rights to Terry Ruskowski but the deal fell through Friday and the Hawks decided to place both Hull and Ruskowski on the protected list. "Really, I don't think there will be a hell of a lot available in the draft," said Ferguson. "At this point it looks like many rosters will remain virtually intact. One thing surprises me, though. All of a sudden the NHL teams want to reclaim all our players. All of a sudden the WHA - the so-called bush league - looks pretty good." The Jets' priority picks are goalie Markus Mattson, defenceman Scott Campbell and forward Morris Lukowich. The Whalers gave priority billing to goalie John Garrett and forwards Mark Howe and Jordy Douglas. Because New York Islanders lost three players - Mattsson, Lariviere and Brodeur - as priority picks to the four new teams they will be allowed to protect 17 skaters and two goaltenders in the draft. |
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Home • Credits & Legal Stuff
Reviews, Podcasts and Media
• Article: Color of Hockey: Alton White (The Hockey News), by William Douglas — March 8, 2020
• Review: US Sports History, by Rick Macales — Feb 6, 2021
• Podcast: Good Seats Still Available, by Tim Hanlon — Feb 28, 2021
• Podcast: Digital to Dice (Youtube), by Dave Gardner — July 3, 2022
 WHA Fact Book, 2nd ed |
 Complete WHA, 11th ed |
(c) Scott Surgent