Rewriting History - The Oakland Seals
After visiting these forums for a little while now, I’ve decided to become a member and to document my latest FHM save with the Oakland Seals. The Seals are probably the least known and remembered franchise from the league’s 1967 expansion; an event that doubled the NHL in size from six teams to 12. Due to various issues including poor on ice performance and failing to fill their arena, the Seals were moved to Cleveland after less than a decade of name changes and mediocrity.
Here's a look at the most noteworthy players on the roster.
Not much to get excited about, honestly. I’ve only made a few moves, as we’ve signed free agents Willie O’Ree, Gerry Ouellette, and Carl Brewer. Brewer and Bob Baun will combine to create a halfway decent defensive pairing; hopefully I can hang onto Baun longer than the Seals did in real life (he demanded a move to an Original Six team after the 67-68 season). Willie O'Ree will hopefully make a sizable contribution to our team as well. I tried to make a trade or two over the course of the first season to bring in some sort of young talent, but was not successful.
My goal for this first season is to simply do better than the Seals did in their real life 67-68 season. The Seals were the worst team in the league, and finished with a 15-42-17 (Win-Loss-Draw) record, racking up a measly 47 points. To put their horrific season in perspective, the next best team that year was the Red Wings, who finished with 19 more points than Seals.
With all that being said, how did we do in season one?
Well, I was pleasantly surprised. Our record wasn’t very good, but our 64 points was good enough to land us in the playoffs as the third seed in the West Division. The only reason the Blues did so well in this season was due to their big signing of 38 year old Jacques Plante. The next post will document our journey through the 67-68 playoffs, which will start with a series against the second seed Philadelphia Flyers.