1967 NHL Offseason News and Notes
Here are offensive leaders for the season.
Here are the goalie leaders for the season.
Here are the playoff leading scorers.
Stan Mikita wins his third Hart Trophy. His amazing start to the season got the
Rangers on the right track. He’s probably more valuable to his team then
Dave Keon, but
Keon is the leagues best player, and he had a dominant season. The NHL missed the mark again here.
Keon though, wins what matters. He wins his 2nd Conn Smythe award, and ofcourse, the Stanley Cup.
Just got an offseason retirement news story for
Gump Worsley’s retirement. It’s about 6 months after he played his last game, but the
Red Wings will honor the goalie by raising his number 30 into the rafters of
The Olympia.
The
NHL has decided to expand. The league will double in size when the puck drops in October. 14 cities applied for franchises, and 6 new teams will join the league. If you want to take a detailed look, this article is a fun read.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_NHL_expansion
The 6 new expansion teams signify the end of an era in the NHL. We played 25 years with just 6 teams. This will always be known as the original 6 era. It’s a time when teams built their legacies, and legends played the game. Here is a look at the success each team had during this era…
With expansion, the NHL will now be made up of 2 divsions. The East and West divisions. All the original 6 teams are in the east, while all expansion teams are in the west. 4 teams from each division will make the playoffs. 1st will play 3rd, 2nd will play 4th. The winners of those series will play in a division final, with the two winners competing for the Stanley Cup. This format guarantees that one of these new teams will indeed be in the Stanley cup finals.
An expansion draft is held on July 2nd. The existing clubs were allowed to exclude a goaltender and eleven other players from eligibility in the draft by naming them to "protected" lists. Also excluded from the draft were junior players, players who were young enough to play Junior (born on or after June 1, 1946) but who were already playing professionally, and players sold to the minor league WHL and CPHL before June 1, 1966.
The teams will draft goalies for the first 2 rounds, then select skaters for 18 rounds.
Here is the 1st round of goalies taken.
Here is the first 2 rounds of skaters taken
Some older, bigger names are chosen in the draft.
Claude Provost, Kenny Wharram, Henri Richard, Bob Pulford, and
George Armstrong all have new homes. I’ll show each new teams roster in the season preview…
Henri Richard leaves Toronto for St. Louis
The addition of 6 new teams means players who never got a chance are now NHLers.
Wayne Cashman goes to Pittsburgh, and is now probably a top 6 player. He deserved a chance after spending the last 4 years in the minors. The 22 year old collected 154 points in 218 games. He also spent 648 minutes in the penalty box. I expect
Cashman to be one of the
Penguins best players this year.
Boston gets back
Brent Hughes, a 24 year old who played 27, not great games in
Detroit last year, but he should have a job next season.
Cashman is a Penguin!
The draft age has changed again. The minimum age to be drafted is now 20. That means a small group is eligible this year, and with more teams, less for everyone!!!
Oakland gets the first pick, don’t know why, lets say coin flip. They take 20 year old
Jim McKenny, who probably wouldn’t be too sought after most years, but he should play right away with the
Seals.
Pittsburgh trades for a presence on the blue line.
Tim Horton, after more then a decade on the
Boston blue line, moves to expansion
Pittsburgh.
Horton, at 37, still is playing good hockey. He’s a 3 star player, with elite defensive skills.
Horton immediately becomes the #1 guy in
Pittsburgh.
Pat Quinn just scored the overtime goal in game 6 of the finals, and was taken in the expansion draft. He’s 24(and my favourite real life coach of all time), with only 34 NHL games of experience, but should find a place on the
Bruins back end.
Rangers have changed their logo…
In real life,
Bill Masterson was killed in a game in January of 68. He suffered a terrible head injury after a hard hit. The NHL created the
Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy in his memory. It will be presented annually to the "National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey."
Masterson is still playing in this game, but I will not rename the trophy…
