The Scramble for Players

Philadelphia. Older arenas with limited seating and lack seeing the WHA as an alternative to the floundering of modern amenities (such as chain link fencing instead situation in Oakland. The WHA also looked for talent in of plexiglass lining the rink) would house the new areas usually overlooked by the NHL, such as American Cleveland, Edmonton and Houston clubs, but all three collegiate hockey, the semi-professional leagues around cities had new, modern arenas actively being built, Minnesota and the Great Lakes, the Québec leagues, and mitigating the short-term inconvenience. The Minnesota to a lesser extent, Europe. team would play at the older St. Paul Auditorium for a In February 1972, the WHA held its General Player couple months before the modern St. Paul Civic Center Draft, in which over 1,000 players were chosen by the 12 was completed in early 1973. teams. Virtually every active NHL players was chosen, On the East Coast, the New England Whalers were as were many more in the minor leagues. A number of able to secure playing dates at the Boston Garden, home juniors were also selected, the WHA informally to the NHL Bruins and NBA Celtics. When the Garden combining its amateur draft into the proceedings. A few was booked for an evening, the Whalers moved into the former players, some recently retired, were selected. A smaller Boston Arena for the night. However, competing handful of European players were also chosen, including against the Bruins and Celtics for prime playing dates, some of the top talent from the USSR and and often losing the battle, motivated the Whalers to Czechoslovakian teams. Also among those drafted were make Hartford their permanent home in early 1975. a handful of former and current football players, the All of the Canadian cities had hockey facilities Governor of Minnesota, and the Premier of the Soviet ready for use, though most of the arenas were older Union. An ethical question arose regarding the new buildings with low capacities. The Winnipeg Arena and league drafting players from the Canadian Juniors, as Le Colisee in Québec both sat around 10,000, while the these leagues were financially supported by the NHL Edmonton Gardens sat barely 5,000 and served as a through the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association temporary building while the new Edmonton Coliseum (CAHA). However, a player drafted by an NHL club was was being built. The city of Ottawa had the fine new not bound to that club until he signed an NHL contract. Civic Centre Arena, which sat just under 10,000, to The WHA felt drafting from the juniors was within its house the Nationals. rights, and the new league did so yearly. Later, when the World Hockey Association started The WHA began signing players to contracts in admitting expansion teams and considering relocations February 1972, and the first player of significant stature, of established teams, a large, major-league arena was a Toronto Maple Leaf goaltender Bernie Parent, signed requirement for the league to grant its approval. At the with the Miami Screaming Eagles that month. Parent’s least, the team needed a commitment from its host city plunge emboldened other players in the NHL to look that a new arena was to be built soon, if one was not toward the WHA, and many were in serious negotiations already present. Expansion teams in Cincinnati, Phoenix, with WHA clubs by March. Parent’s jump also served as Denver and Indianapolis could all boast major-league a barometer on how the NHL would react to a star quality playing sites upon entry into the league. player’s defection. The Maple Leafs made no effort to retain Parent, content to let him go instead of challenging the Miami offers. The Maple Leafs were under intense The Scramble for Players pressure from the rest of the NHL owners not to give in The Signing of Bobby Hull to the WHA, for if one team started signing players to more expensive contracts the rest would certainly be forced to do the same. The Maple Leafs may have established a point on principle by quietly letting Parent Twelve new teams now meant approximately 250 go to the Miami team, but it cost Toronto the services of playing positions needed to be filled. The WHA looked one of the best goaltenders in the game. everywhere for players: those already in the NHL, the However, the signing that ensured the survival of the many more laboring in the minor leagues, and graduating fledgling league occurred on June 27, 1972, when Bobby juniors who would be eligible in 1972. Players were Hull—the second leading scorer in NHL history and the willing to consider the WHA given its lack of observance league’s most visible superstar—signed a 10-year, $2.5- of the reserve clause, and its willingness to pay higher million contract to play and coach for the Winnipeg Jets. wages. Many journeymen players, those not-quite-good- In 1971, Bobby Hull was the highest-paid player in the enough to crack an NHL lineup, or simply forgotten by NHL, making over $100,000 per year, but that figure was the NHL altogether, jumped at the chance to play in the only achieved through arduous and bitter yearly new league. Some NHL teams inadvertently helped the negotiations with Chicago management. Being selected WHA. For example, the California Golden Seals lost by Winnipeg gave Hull the opportunity to free himself nearly a dozen players to the new league, the players of the vicious cycle in Chicago as well as forge a path for 4 .

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