Talk:1979 NHL expansion draft

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• http://www.washingtoncaps.com/history/History19791980.asp
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--JeffGBot (talk) 05:14, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

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• http://www.stlouisblues.com/history/alltime/transactions.html
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--JeffGBot (talk) 05:14, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

Rich Preston

I cannot find anything that explains adequately how he went from the Jets to the Blackhawks. He was not reclaimed as previously indicated on this page because he was never Blackhawk property. Duplacey's bio indicates that the hawks took him in the expansion draft, which is bizarre.18abruce (talk) 18:15, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

Dispersal draft

After seeing the edit by @Marc87: that Mike Liut was claimed from the Oilers, I did some googling, since I knew he'd never played for them. And thus learned of the existence of a dispersal draft, whereby former Stingers, Bulls (and supposedly, a few legacy Racers) were first claimed by the four teams who were joining the NHL, before the NHL teams could put claims in for them. Surely, a section on this should get added to this article, with proper sourcing. I don't see the dispersal draft mentioned at NHL–WHA merger, and it might be too much minutiae to add there; here seems better.

Thing is, I'm having a hard time finding references in reliable sources. NHL.com articles about the merger only seem to mention the reclaim/expansion draft, such as here: [1] - which seems to falsely suggest that Stingers and Bulls players were wide open for the NHL teams to select at will. Other possible sources are paywalled in archives for the New York Times or Washington Post. I did find this blog post [2], which is hardly a reliable source, but of interest to me is the full list of who went where, plus the explanation of players that were still draft-age eligible such as Messier and Ramage.

I don't know that the WHA dispersal draft is worthy of having its own article, and seems to me that including a section on it in this article is the best place, with a chart showing who went where, and possibly also mentioning the former WHA players who subsequently went into the 1979 NHL Entry Draft - maybe not listing all of them, but at least explaining the scenario. Thoughts? Echoedmyron (talk) 15:22, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

I concur that there should be some further explanation. According to this example from hockey-reference.com there was a WHA dispersal draft four days prior. I don't know what the rules were and am interested to find out more. The book 'Big bucks and Blue pucks, which has lots of details, does not mention it that I recall but I will look again. Pardon me, I should clarify that it appears to have happened the same day as the official date of the NHL reclamining players. I note that hockey reference disagrees with the Liut transaction though. Looking through the rosters there appears to be several gaps in the transaction records of how some of these players ended up on the team they did.18abruce (talk) 23:13, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

I believe they got the dates wrong on the 1979 WHA Dispersal Draft. According to this article from the nytimes.com, the dispersal draft took place no later than June 6, 1979. Both Liut and Reg Thomas were drafted by the Oilers. Thomas never played for them but he was part of a trade. On August 22, 1979, he was traded to the Maple Leafs in exchange for the 1981 6th-round pick, which the Oilers drafted Steve Smith.

You are right, I think that the dates were more of a guess since I found another article that lists the date as June 1st. I would like to try to build a table of this draft that also mentions the numerous players (mostly Bulls) who were sent to the entry draft. Hockey reference.com has some gaps, but together with the NY Times article, and the blog for support, I think it would greatly compliment the article. I believe that the book I referenced earlier has a couple errors in regards to the reclaimed and drafted players but I will cross check the information there as well.18abruce (talk) 12:38, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

Oh, I missed that NYT article, and yes, that should certainly pass muster as a source, and can help flesh this out. I'll see what else I can scrape up in terms of sources, but if someone else wants to start such an addition, go for it! Echoedmyron (talk) 15:22, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

I did find that Greig's book confirms that Liut was selected from Edmonton, and it details the dispersal draft of the Birmingham and Cincinnati players. Disappointed that I never noticed it before. Trying to set a good example for my kids with how much digital time I am spending but I will see what I can do.18abruce (talk) 16:21, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

I made a table that is stylistically similar to others on the page, I hope it is okay. The Greig book does not include the three players from the Racers, and it is strange that they were not simply free agents, but I think it is appropriate to include them base on the NYTimes article. I was wondering about listing the players who went into the entry draft (a short list) but was curious about noting or adding Crowder at 57 and Gibson at 71. They both played in the final season of the WHA but it is dubious whether the pro teams had any claim on them by the end of the season. According to the hockeydraftcentral website Gibson signed a ten game tryout with the jets in March and then returned to the Niagara Flyers. Seeing as he signed in March it is likely that the NHL would void the Jets claim to him anyway so I am not sure whether he belongs. Crowder signed prior to the season but decided to return to Peterborough after playing a few games in Birmingham, no idea what his contract status was and not sure whether he should be included as well.18abruce (talk) 01:21, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Great stuff so far. One thing that sticks out to me is the row spanning of team names covering multiple players in blocks. To be fair, the reclaimed and draft tables do that too, and I think things would work better if each player's row listed both To and From teams, such that yes, teams get listed multiple times. The current format with the blocks already has some of those blocks repeating, and keeping it simpler works. This could allow the tables to be sortable. For the draft there's an understood order that allows tables to default to order of selection, and thus the first mention of a team may be wikilinked on that basis. Are the sources on the dispersal clear on any order of selection at all? Echoedmyron (talk) 20:33, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Yeah sortable tables would probably be better. The blog is the only one that I have seen that gives an order, other than what the first pick was. I will look into it some more though.18abruce (talk) 01:15, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:1991 NHL Dispersal and Expansion Drafts which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 03:03, 17 March 2024 (UTC)