1967 NHL expansion

The National Hockey League (NHL) undertook a major expansion for the 1967–68 season, adding six new franchises to double the size of the league. This marked the first change in the composition of the league since 1942, when the Brooklyn Americans folded. Thus, the expansion ended the era of the Original Six. The addition of six new teams was the result of the league's desire for a lucrative TV contract in the United States, as well as fears of a rival league.

Background

For many years after the shakeout caused by the Depression and World War II, the NHL owners staunchly resisted applications to expand beyond the so-called "Original Six" clubs (Boston, Montreal, Toronto, New York, Detroit and Chicago).^[1][2] Groups representing Philadelphia (which had secured rights to the dormant Montreal Maroons franchise), Los Angeles and the AHL Cleveland Barons were each in turn given conflicting requirements that seemed to contemporary observers designed to disqualify the bids, and it was widely understood that the existing NHL owners wanted no encroachments upon their profits.^[2]

The NHL had been an early leader in television broadcasting, both in Canada and the U.S.^[3] However, by 1960 its TV contracts had expired, and the league had none until 1963.^[1] The owners saw that the televising of other sports had enhanced the images of those leagues' players, and feared that this would provide leverage at salary time. Already, players were starting to get legal help in negotiating contracts.^[3] Additionally, the league did not want to change game start times to suit the networks.^[1] In 1965, the NHL was told that it would not receive a U.S. television contract without expansion, and that the networks were considering televising games from the Western Hockey League, an ostensibly minor league that had by that time expanded into several large West Coast markets and accumulated strong rosters of players excluded from the static NHL lineups of the era.^[4]

Fears of the WHL becoming a rival major league and the desire for a lucrative TV contract in the U.S., much like the ones Major League Baseball and the National Football League had secured, wore down the opposition; moreover, as more conservative owners retired, a younger guard more receptive to expansion, such as Stafford Smythe in Toronto, David Molson in Montreal, and William M. Jennings in New York, took power.^[1]

Expansion teams

In 1963, Rangers governor William Jennings introduced to his peers the idea of expanding the league to the American West Coast by adding two new teams for the 1964–65 season. His argument was based around concerns that the Western Hockey League intended to operate as a major league in the near future. He also hoped that teams on the west coast would make the league truly national, and improve the chances of returning to television in the United States as the NHL had lost its deal with CBS. While the governors did not agree to the proposal, the topic of expansion came up every time the owners met from then on out.

The expansion process formally began in March 1965, when NHL President Clarence Campbell announced that the league proposed to expand its operations through the formation of a second six-team division. San Francisco – Oakland and Vancouver were declared "acceptable cities" with Los Angeles and St. Louis as potential sites. In February 1966, the NHL Board of Governors considered applications from 14 different ownership groups, including five from Los Angeles, two from Pittsburgh, and one each from Minneapolis – Saint Paul, Philadelphia, San Francisco – Oakland, Baltimore, Buffalo and Vancouver. Cleveland and Louisville had also expressed previous interest but were not represented.^[5]

Six franchises were ultimately added. Four still play in their original cities, one has relocated and one ceased operations.

Opposition

Many were upset over the expansion. Canadian fans were irate that no Canadian teams were added, particularly since Vancouver had been considered a lock.^[1] Politics also took a hand in the selections; the Vancouver bid was reportedly very weak, but Montreal and Toronto were not interested in sharing CBC TV revenues with another Canadian club, and the powerful Chicago owner's support was reputedly contingent on the creation of a St. Louis team – though no formal bid had actually been received from St. Louis – to purchase the decrepit St. Louis Arena, which the Black Hawks ownership then also owned.^[1][2]

Furthermore, many traditionalists did not like the idea of expansion, claiming it would dilute the talent in the league.^[5] Even many of the proponents of expansion were worried at the idea of immediately doubling the NHL's size, instead of easing teams in gradually, as had Major League Baseball.^[6]

Most experts agreed that the new owners paid a heavy price to join the league: the expansion fee was US$ 2 million. Players taken in the very strict expansion draft came at a cost of a hefty $50,000. Thus, most expansion teams had no hope of competing successfully with the established teams in the near future.^[1]

One concession from the league, however, was that the new teams were all placed in the newly-formed West Division (somewhat of a misnomer since the two Pennsylvania clubs were clearly not among the most western-based half of the league - never mind in the Western United States), meaning four expansion teams would make the playoffs and an expansion team was guaranteed a slot in the Stanley Cup finals. This format was criticized by some fans who felt the first few expansion-era Stanley Cup finals were anti-climactic, pitting the league's best team against an opponent that clearly was not the second-best. An alternative proposal to put Detroit and Chicago in the West with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia going to the East was rejected by the league.

Changes

The new teams offered a big change to the league. After seeing virtually the same red/blue/black uniforms for over twenty years, purple, green, sky blue, and orange were introduced.^[5]

Aftermath

The 1967 expansion marked the end of the Original Six era and the beginning of a new era of the NHL. The expansion, Bobby Orr's record $1 million contract, and the formation of the World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1972 forever changed the landscape of the North American professional game.^[3][5] It was the WHA that ended up being the NHL's chief rival during the 1970s, while the Western Hockey League ceased operations in 1974. The NHL would later expand to 18 teams by 1974, and then merge with the WHA in 1979. As a result, the NHL retained its status as the premier professional ice hockey league in North America; no other league successfully competed against the NHL since then.

All the 1967 expansion teams were placed in the same division in 1967–68, so their success was largely gauged relative to each other. The Philadelphia Flyers won this division in the first season for the expansion teams, and quickly built a strong club that would go on to win the Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975. The St. Louis Blues also immediately made an impact, with three finals appearances in the first three years, but have never since reached the Stanley Cup finals. The Pittsburgh Penguins were largely unsuccessful in the beginning, failing to win their division until 1990–91, but accumulated draft picks and built a strong team that would win two Stanley Cups in the early 1990s and again in 2009. The Los Angeles Kings have made one Stanley Cup finals appearance in 1993 during the Wayne Gretzky era, but have not returned since.

Despite being in a traditional hockey area bordering Canada to the north, the Minnesota North Stars struggled financially for much of their time in Minnesota. They did manage to make two finals appearances in 1981 and 1991, but ended up moving to Dallas, Texas, in 1993 to become the Dallas Stars. The Oakland-based franchise was the least successful of the 1967 expansion teams: uncompetitive both on the ice and at the box office, the club eventually moved to Cleveland to become the Barons in 1976, and then merged with the Minnesota North Stars in 1978.^[5] However, the NHL would eventually return to both the San Francisco Bay Area and Minnesota when the expansion teams San Jose Sharks (who themselves were spun off from the North Stars) and Minnesota Wild began play in 1991 and in 2000, respectively, bookending a new expansion period that brought the NHL to 30 clubs.

As of June 2009^[update], at the end of the 2008–09 season, which marked the 40th season for the 1967 expansion teams, the Flyers are the most successful in terms of winning percentage (57.8%) which is only second to the Montreal Canadiens in the entire NHL, number of conference finals appearances (15), Stanley Cup finals appearances (7) and playoff appearances (33). The Penguins are the most successful in terms of number of Stanley Cups (3), however they are the least successful financially (3 bankruptcies).

However, the NHL still has never fared well on American broadcast television in comparison to the NBA, MLB, or the NFL after 1967. In fact, hockey broadcasting on a national scale in the US still continued to be spotty between 1967 and 1981; NBC and CBS held rights at various times, but neither network carried anything close to a full schedule, even carrying only selected games of the Stanley Cup Finals. And from 1971 to 1995, there was no exclusive coverage of games in the United States. It was not until 1995 that Fox signed on to be the exclusive national broadcast network for a full schedule of regular season and playoff games, as well as selected games of the Cup Finals. But to this day, national coverage of the Cup Finals continues to be split between an over-the-air network (now NBC) and a cable channel (now Versus).

References

See also

• 1967 NHL Expansion Draft