In March 1965, a proper course of started headed by then NHL President Clarence Campbell in order that the league would broaden its operation to incorporate a second division of six groups. Gone could be the times of the so-called “Unique Six” franchises. Becoming a member of them could be a half-dozen new groups that may see the NHL attain additional into the USA, together with each the Midwest and West Coast.
Quite a few cities sought to be a touchdown spot for one among these six new groups, together with locations that have been initially handed over by the NHL akin to Cleveland, Buffalo, Vancouver, Louisville and Baltimore. A few of these identical cities would ultimately home NHL franchises because the league continued to expertise progress and stability.
Nevertheless, it could be early in 1966 that the league decided the six new acceptable cities which might be awarded an NHL staff. These “Second Six” of the NHL have been comprised of the Minnesota North Stars, Oakland Seals, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues, Philadelphia Flyers, and Pittsburgh Penguins. They have been housed in their very own division, referred to as the West Division on the time. For the primary time in league historical past, 12 groups competed for the Stanley Cup starting within the 1967-68 season.
THW takes a take a look at every of those groups and the way every fared upon their arrival into the NHL. It is going to be a enjoyable historical past lesson as we glance again upon the early trials and tribulations of every squad, and in the end both their successes or failures inside their first few years.
Minnesota North Stars
Within the six-team West Division, the North Stars completed in fourth place that first yr, thus grabbing the final playoff spot. In what has come to be often known as affectionately because the “Pee-Wee Hockey Capital of the World”, Minnesota was a pure hockey marketplace for the NHL. Whereas it took the North Stars time to have any actual successes, they have been a viable franchise all through their first few years of existence.
Having acquired him within the 1967 NHL Growth Draft, goaltender Cesare Maniago remained Minnesota’s steadfast goaltender for 9 straight seasons. Finally, he could be joined by 40-year-old Stanley Cup champion and eventual Hockey Corridor of Famer, Lorne “Gump” Worsley. The 2 would stay a goaltending duo for the North Stars for a bit greater than 4 seasons collectively.
Considerably surprisingly, the North Stars had the highest goal-scorer of the six enlargement groups that first yr. Wayne Connelly scored 35 objectives in 74 video games and tied with Phil Espositio and Norm Ullman for fourth most within the league. Connelly was the one participant on an enlargement staff to position within the top-10 for that class.
The North Stars would have on and off success for the rest of their existence. Unique North Star Invoice Goldsworthy scored 48 objectives for the staff in the course of the 1973-74 season, which remains to be the fifth-highest whole in franchise historical past. The staff would make two Stanley Cup Closing appearances (1981, 1991). Sadly although, the North Stars could be relocated to Dallas for the 1993-94 season the place they turned recognized merely because the Stars. The transfer has left many followers nonetheless heartbroken to this present day.
Oakland Seals
The Oakland Seals have been essentially the most colourful franchise by way of their character and character. Nevertheless, on the ice, they struggled immensely. Of the six enlargement groups, they completed in final place in the course of the 1967-68 season with a file of 15-42-17. They might make the playoffs solely twice of their temporary nine-year existence. This definitely didn’t preserve them from being themselves. The Seals did every little thing from carrying white skates at one level, to distributing yellow and inexperienced suitcases to their gamers, ultimately altering their colours to teal and gold, and even hiring a younger girl to streak bare throughout the ice as a publicity stunt.
Any off-ice oddities that the Seals introduced forth couldn’t compensate for his or her difficulties on the ice. They developed a penchant for giving up useful draft picks or prospects in change for gamers who have been previous their primes. For instance, the Montreal Canadiens basic supervisor Sam Pollock was in a position to safe the Seals’ first-round draft decide within the 1971 draft with a purpose to snatch the legendary Man Lafleur, whereas giving up a Habs’ first spherical choice in 1970. Whereas the deal was definitely truthful and inside the guidelines, it ended up with the Seals giving up their alternative to have taken a legendary participant.
To embody extra of a Bay Space fanbase, the Oakland Seals turned the California Golden Seals beginning for the 1970-71 season. As soon as their jerseys have been switched to being primarily teal in 1974-75 they dropped the “Golden” and have become merely the California Seals. Regardless of younger and gifted gamers akin to Reggie Leach, Gilles Meloche, Dennis Maruk, and Charlie Simmer, the Seals couldn’t stay viable and ultimately have been relocated to Ohio the place they turned the short-lived Cleveland Barons.
Los Angeles Kings
The opposite California-based staff was the Los Angeles Kings. One of many extra noteworthy points of the first-year Kings was that their goaltender was arguably the best netminder to ever play the sport, Terry Sawchuk. At 38 years previous, Sawchuk manned the nets for 36 video games as an authentic King and compiled a file of 10-17-5. He additionally recorded the one hundred and first and 102nd shutouts of his lengthy, masterful profession.
Other than a lone season of Sawchuk, Los Angeles had some youthful forwards like Eddie Joyal, Actual Lemieux, Ted Irvine, and “Cowboy” Invoice Flett who all helped lead the staff throughout its early years. Throughout the 1968-69 season, Joyal turned the membership’s first 30-goal scorer when he tallied 33 that yr. Shortly after their inaugural season, Los Angeles drafted Robert “Butch” Goring within the fifth spherical of the 1969 NHL Newbie Draft and he turned a 30-goal scorer for the staff spanning greater than a decade.
The Kings by no means actually gained a lot of a face across the league till the Nineteen Seventies. By trades and draft choices, they ended up comprising extra of an identification. The likes of Marcel Dionne, Rogatien Vachon, Dave Taylor, and Charlie Simmer all arrived afterward the scene and actually made the Kings extra recognizable.
Although the Kings would ultimately garner success after they acquired Dionne from the Detroit Crimson Wings in 1975, hockey by no means actually took off in California till “The Nice One” Wayne Gretzky arrived on the scene in 1988. Since that point hockey has remained standard within the “Golden State” and the Kings gained the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014.
St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis Blues have been the one staff to earn instant success. With Scotty Bowman on the helm in his first cease of what could be essentially the most illustrious NHL teaching profession, the early Blues have been a grand assortment of hockey’s “golden oldies”. Within the first season alone, the staff included the likes of Crimson Berenson, Al Arbour, Dickie Moore, Glenn Corridor and Doug Harvey – all Stanley Cup champions, and 4 of which have been ultimately inducted into the Hockey Corridor of Fame. Moreover, dependable function gamers akin to Jim Roberts, the Plager brothers Barclay and Bob, Noel Picard, Gerry Melnyk, and quite a few others have been distinction makers.
Popping out of the West that yr, the Blues have been the primary of the enlargement groups to make the Stanley Cup Closing which they misplaced in 4 video games to the Montreal Canadiens. The Blues would attain the Closing three years in a row, as they distinguished themselves to be one of the best of the six new groups. With three straight losses over the Stanley Cup to “Unique Six” groups, and with the addition of the Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks into the NHL in 1970, the groups have been realigned and no enlargement staff was assured a spot within the Cup Closing from that time ahead.
For the 1968-69 season, Bowman would have Corridor and Jacques Plante as his goaltenders. That yr the 2 shared the Vezina Trophy as the 2 goalies permitting the fewest objectives in opposition to. Having such sturdy goaltending with two legends who fed off of each other elevated the energy of the Blues tenfold. Had been it not for such savvy goaltending, St. Louis would not have made the three straight runs on the Cup in 1968, 1969 and 1970.
Within the first 50 years that the St. Louis Blues have been in existence, they’ve solely performed within the Stanley Cup Closing these first three years. They’ve had many different nice gamers within the historical past of their franchise, together with Bernie Federko, Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Chris Pronger, Curtis Joseph, Grant Fuhr, Al MacInnis, Pavol Demitra, Vladimir Tarasenko and others, however they haven’t but recaptured these preliminary glory days of the group.
Philadelphia Flyers
The enlargement Philadelphia Flyers have been extra of an aged guard when it got here to skaters, however backstopped by a younger and upcoming tandem in objective. Early Flyers Larry Zeidel and Allan Stanley have been of their 40s in the course of the first few years of the staff, whereas many different gamers have been effectively into their 30s. Stanley performed his twenty first NHL season – his solely with Philadelphia – in the course of the 1968-69 marketing campaign. Throughout the first season of 1967-68, solely two Flyers even reached the 20-goal plateau – Invoice Sutherland and Leon Rochefort, with 20 and 21 objectives respectively.
Anchoring a possible rise for the Flyers have been two 22-year-old goalies, Doug Favell and Bernie Mother or father. Within the first yr they break up the goaltending duties proper down the center, showing in 37 and 38 video games. Favell turned the principle goalie for the Flyers for six straight seasons till he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the course of the summer time of 1973 – oddly sufficient, in change for Mother or father.
Mother or father, who had started his NHL profession with the Boston Bruins, was with Philadelphia from the enlargement till he was traded to the Maple Leafs early in 1971. After three seasons in Toronto the place he gained tutelage from the good Jacques Plante as his goaltender associate he was again with the Flyers. He would play six seasons in Philadelphia and would backstop them to 2 straight Stanley Cups for the 1973-74 and 1974-75 seasons.
With Mother or father as their cornerstone, the Flyers turned arguably essentially the most feared NHL staff of the Nineteen Seventies. That stemmed particularly from having coach Fred “The Fog” Shero on the helm and his orchestration of the Flyers’ “Broad Road Bullies” – Dave “The Hammer” Schultz, Bob “Hound Canine” Kelly, Andre “Moose” Dupont, Don “Huge Chook” Saleski, and staff captain and face of the Flyers Bobby Clarke. Philadelphia was the primary enlargement staff to win the Stanley Cup.
Pittsburgh Penguins
The enlargement Pittsburgh Penguins have been led by the bullet-shooting Andy Bathgate. An eventual Hockey Corridor of Famer, Bathgate was the membership’s top-scorer in the course of the 1967-68 season when he tallied 20 objectives and 39 assists for 59 factors in 74 video games on the age of 35. Although the Penguins would be a part of the Seals in failing to make the playoffs in the course of the first yr, it helped issues that that they had a participant already thought to be a legend who was giving them firepower.
Bathgate performed within the minors for 2 seasons after the primary yr, earlier than he made a return to the Penguins for the 1970-71 season. He would end third on the staff in scoring behind Bryan Hextall Jr. and Jean Pronovost that yr. With no actual names aside from Bathgate’s to carry something near stardom, Pittsburgh made the playoffs solely twice of their first seven years.
The opposite vital key contributor in the course of the Penguins early years was goaltender Les Binkley. An affable particular person, Binkley by no means made his NHL debut till he had joined the Penguins and was effectively into his 30s. Initially taking part in maskless, he was the primary beginning goaltender in Pittsburgh’s historical past. He would stay between the pipes for the staff up via the 1971-72 season, earlier than leaping over to the rival WHA.
Oddly sufficient, it was Binkley who would bridge the hole for the franchise. Whereas the Penguins have been by no means a real contender for the Stanley Cup of their first twenty years, Binkley was a member of the staff’s first two Stanley Cup victories in 1991 and 1992. He earned Cup rings and noticed his identify engraved on the silver chalice having served the staff as a scout. In fact, these profitable Penguins groups have been led by the likes of Jaromir Jagr, Ron Francis, Kevin Stevens, Larry Murphy, Bryan Trottier, Paul Coffey, Tom Barrasso, and the premier face of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Mario Lemieux.
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