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1979 Expansion and Entry Drafts
1979 Dispersal and Reclamation Drafts
Expansion Draft
Held June 13, 1979, Montreal. The four incoming teams could designate up to two goaltenders and two position players as "priority" selections. The selection order was Winnipeg, Edmonton, Hartford and Quebec in odd-numbered rounds, and then reversed in even-numbered rounds. The existing 17 NHL teams could fill (protect) one player each time one other player was selected. No more than four players (and no more than one goaltender) could be selected from any of the exisiting 17 NHL teams.
Priority Choices
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)
Mike Gartner chosen by Washington (Round 1, Pick 4)
Rick Vaive chosen by Vancouver (Round 1, Pick 5)
Craig Hartsburg chosen by Minnesota (Round 1, Pick 6)
Michel Goulet chosen by Quebec (Round 1, Pick 20)
Gaston Gingras chosen by Montreal (Round 2, Pick 27)
Pat Riggin chosen by Atlanta (Round 2, Pick 33)
Mark Messier chosen by Edmonton (Round 3, Pick 48)
Keith Crowder chosen by Boston (Round 3, Pick 57)
John Gibson chosen by Los Angeles (Round 4, Pick 71).
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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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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