The 1972âÂÂ73 WHA season was the first season of the World Hockey Association (WHA). Twelve teams played 78 games each. The league was officially incorporated in June of 1971 by Gary Davidson and Dennis A. Murphy and promised to ice twelve teams in various markets around Canada and the United States to rival the National Hockey League. The league instituted a ten-minute sudden-death overtime period for games not decided in the first sixty minutes while still awarding a point for a tie if a goal was not scored. The NHL, which abolished overtime since 1942, did not adopt overtime until 1982; ironically, the WHA only instituted sudden-death overtime after their plan of having a shootout (in the style of a penalty shot) saw an exhibition last 18 rounds that dissuaded them. The league championship trophy, the Avco World Trophy, was donated by AVCO Financial Services Corporation along with $500,000. The New England Whalers won the first Avco World Trophy.
The WHA's inaugural player draft was held in Anaheim, California on February 12 and 13, 1972. All 12 WHA franchises took part in the draft. There were no drafting constraints, and the WHA teams selected players from all levels of play, including established National Hockey League players, minor leaguers, college, junior players, Europeans, and even retired players. The first player selected in the general draft was United States men's national ice hockey team member Henry Boucha, taken by the Minnesota Fighting Saints (who also selected the Governor of Minnesota, Wendell Anderson, with a late pick). After 70 rounds the Winnipeg Jets selected Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin and then stopped participating in the draft, while the other teams continued making selections. This process continued, with teams arbitrarily dropping out from the draft, while others kept going, until attrition finally ended the process. The final two teams participating in this draft were the Dayton Aeros and the Los Angeles Sharks. In all, just under 1100 selections were made by the 12 teams, who could now focus their efforts on signing players for the first season of play.
The first WHA games, on October 11, 1972, were won by the Alberta Oilers 7âÂÂ4 over the Ottawa Nationals at the Ottawa Civic Centre and the Cleveland Crusaders 2âÂÂ0 over the Quebec Nordiques at Cleveland Arena. Ron Anderson of the Oilers scored the very first goal in WHA history at 6:19 in the first period.
The WHA was split into two divisions, the Eastern Division and the Western Division. Each division sported six teams. The New England Whalers led the Eastern Division and had the best record in the league. The other playoff qualifiers in the East were Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Ottawa. The Winnipeg Jets led the Western Division and had the second-best record in the league. Behind Winnipeg, the West had a thrilling race with four teams fighting for three playoff spots, trading second through fifth place all season. Houston won three of its last four games to finish second with 82 points. With two games remaining, Minnesota had 79 points, Alberta had 77, and Los Angeles had 76. Los Angeles won their last two games to finish third, while Minnesota and Alberta both lost their next to last game of the season, setting up a final game showdown in Minnesota against each other with Minnesota two points ahead of Alberta. Alberta won the game 5-3, so both teams finished with identical records. The league now faced a dilemma. The first standings tiebreaker was number of wins, and the teams both had 38. The second tiebreaker was head-to-head record and the teams split their eight games with four wins apiece. The league by-laws did not specify further tiebreakers. In the NHL, the next two tie breakers were goal differential and goals scored, both of which favored Alberta. But because the WHA by-laws did not specify additional tiebreakers, the league Board of Governors met to decide how to break the tie. They ultimately decided on a 1-game playoff at a neutral site. The Alberta Oilers missed the playoffs, despite having a superior goal-differential to the Minnesota Fighting Saints, because they lost the neutral-site, tie-breaking game against the Saints in Calgary by a score of 4-2.
GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes <br> Teams that qualifies for the playoffs are highlighted in bold
<sub>Bolded numbers indicate season leaders</sub>
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes
<sub>Bolded numbers indicate season leaders</sub>
GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties, GA = Goals against; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average
The WHA held its first all-star game on January 6, 1973, in Quebec City. The attendance of 5,435 was lower than expected, perhaps because it was locally televised and Quebec City was hit by a major snow storm. The East defeated the West 6âÂÂ2. Wayne Carleton of the Ottawa Nationals was named the game MVP.
During the all-star break, the WHA Players' Association was officially formed, with Curt Leichner of Portland as general counsel and Bill Hicke of the Alberta Oilers as president.
Compared to the thrilling race in the West Division, the playoffs were unexciting in that the team with the better record won every series and only one series went beyond 5 games. That was the West semifinal between Houston and Los Angeles. After getting blown out in game one in Houston by a score of 7âÂÂ2, Los Angeles rallied to win game two 4âÂÂ2 and even the series. The Sharks then won a thrilling game three in L.A. 3âÂÂ2. Game 4 was the turning point of the series. The teams headed into overtime tied at 2; a Houston goal would even the series while a Los Angeles goal would give the Sharks a commanding 3âÂÂ1 series lead. The Aeros scored in overtime to even the series, then won game 5 in Houston, 63. Game six in L.A. was another thriller, with Houston scoring in the final minutes to win the game 3âÂÂ2 and win the series.
The New England Whalers defeated the Winnipeg Jets, 4 games to 1. The Whalers defeated the Jets 9âÂÂ6 in the deciding game in Boston on May 6, 1973, with Larry Pleau scoring a hat trick. Upon their win, The Avco World Trophy had not yet been completed. As a result, the Whalers skated their victory lap with their divisional trophy on display instead.
The following is a list of players of note who played their first major professional game in 1972âÂÂ73 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
The following is a list of players of note who played their final major professional game in 1972âÂÂ73: