Cleveland Barons (NHL)

For other hockey teams, see Cleveland Barons (disambiguation).

Cleveland Barons
#Season-by-season record
Founded	1967
History	California Seals 1967 Oakland Seals 1967–1970 California Golden Seals 1970–1976 Cleveland Barons 1976–1978 (Team merged into Minnesota North Stars June 14, 1978)
Home arena	Richfield Coliseum
City	Richfield, Ohio
Colors	Red, black and white

The Cleveland Barons were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1976–78. They were a relocation of the California Golden Seals franchise, which had played in Oakland since 1967. After only two seasons, the team merged with the Minnesota North Stars (now the Dallas Stars). They were the only NHL team ever based in the state of Ohio until the Columbus Blue Jackets formed in 2000. The Barons remain the last franchise in the four major North American sports leagues to cease operations, and as a result the NHL fielded only 17 teams during the 1978–79 season.

History

1976–77 Cleveland Barons home jersey
Hockey Hall of Fame

After new arena plans in San Francisco were cancelled, the NHL dropped its objection to a relocation of the troubled California Golden Seals franchise from Oakland. Minority owner George Gund III persuaded owner Melvin Swig to move the team to his hometown of Cleveland for the 1976–77 season. The team was named Cleveland Barons after the popular American Hockey League team that played in the city from 1929 to 1973. Although a successful minor league city, Cleveland had been turned down for an NHL expansion team on three previous occasions.

The Barons played in the suburban Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, Ohio, an arena originally built for the WHA’s Cleveland Crusaders and the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, with the then largest seating capacity in the NHL of 18,544.

The NHL approved the move to Cleveland on July 14, 1976, but details were not finalized until late August, and there was little time or money for promotion of the new team. The Barons would never come close to filling the arena in their two years in Cleveland. The team’s home opener on October 7, 1976, only drew 8,900 fans. They only drew 10,000 or more fans in seven out of 40 home games, and attendance was actually worse than it had been in Oakland.

The Barons were also troubled by an unfavorable lease with the Coliseum, and in January 1977 Swig hinted the team might not finish the season because of payroll difficulties. The Barons actually missed payroll twice in a row in February, and with the franchise on the verge of collapse, some of the Barons’ players were actively being courted by other teams. Wanting to avoid the embarrassment of a team folding at mid-season (as had happened in the rival WHA), a last-minute $1.3 million loan from the league and the NHLPA was arranged to allow the Barons to finish the season. After finishing last in the Adams Division yet again, Swig sold his interest in the team to Gund and his brother Gordon.

For 1977–78, the Gunds poured money into the team, and it seemed to make a difference at first. The Barons stunned the defending Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens on November 23 before a boisterous crowd of 12,859. After a brief slump, general manager Harry Howell pulled off several trades in an attempt to make the team tougher. It initially paid off, and the Barons knocked off three of the NHL’s top teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Islanders and Buffalo Sabres in consecutive games in January 1978. A few weeks later, a record crowd of 13,110 saw the Barons tie the Philadelphia Flyers 2–2. The bottom fell out in February, however, as a 15-game losing skid knocked the Barons out of playoff contention.

Merger and aftermath

After the season, the Gunds tried to buy the Coliseum, but failed. Meanwhile, the Minnesota North Stars were facing financial difficulties similar to those weighing down the Barons. Fearing that two franchises were on the verge of folding, on June 14, 1978 the league granted approval for the two teams to merge. While the North Stars were the surviving team, the Gunds were the majority owners and the North Stars assumed the Barons’ place in the Adams Division – a pragmatic move more than a symbolic one, as the Adams would have been left with three teams otherwise, and the North Stars would be moved to the Norris Division in the 1981 realignment. In 1991, the merger would effectively be undone as the Gunds assumed ownership of the expansion San Jose Sharks (occupying the same market as the Seals did prior to their move to Cleveland) and the two teams split the players on the North Stars at the time. The North Stars would move to Dallas as the Dallas Stars in 1993. (Coincidentally, the Sharks formed their own minor-league team in Cleveland, and named it the Cleveland Barons, from 2001 to 2006.)

Dennis Maruk was the last Baron (and last Golden Seal as well) to be active in the NHL, retiring from the North Stars after the 1988–89 season with 356 goals in 888 games.

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Season	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM	Finish	Playoffs
1976–77	80	25	42	13	63	240	292	1011	4th in Adams	Out of playoffs
1977–78	80	22	45	13	57	230	325	1010	4th in Adams	Out of playoffs
TOTALS	160	47	87	26	120	470	617	2021

Notable players

Team captains

• Jim Neilson and Bob Stewart, 1976–78 (co-captains)

First round draft picks

• 1975: Ralph Klassen (third overall by California as move to Cleveland had not taken place)
• 1976: Bjorn Johansson (fifth overall)

selection made by California Golden Seals as the move to Cleveland had not yet taken place

• 1977: Mike Crombeen (fifth overall)

Head coach

• Jack Evans, 1976–78

General managers

• Bill McCreary, 1976–77
• Harry Howell, 1977–78

See also

• List of Cleveland Barons players
• List of Cleveland Barons draft picks
• California Golden Seals
• Minnesota North Stars
• Dallas Stars
• List of NHL players
• List of NHL seasons
• 1967 NHL expansion