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23-546: The Racers were known in the WHA for their sometimes-fanatical fans. The franchise led the WHA in attendance for the 1976–77 season. The Racers won the 1975–76 WHA Eastern Division championship and swept the rival Cincinnati Stingers in the 1977 WHA playoffs. Notable players for the Racers include Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Pat Stapleton , Dave Keon , Michel Dion and Kim Clackson . The Racers' best-known coach, Jacques Demers , later led

46-474: A profit, was repeatedly accused of mismanaging the promising Indianapolis hockey market and plotting to move the franchise to Canada, where it would presumably have had a much better chance of being included in an eventual merger the WHA was negotiating with the National Hockey League (NHL). Having taken the firm position that no surviving Canadian WHA teams would be excluded from a merger, and knowing

69-717: A year after the merger when he fronted a Calgary-based ownership group that purchased the Atlanta Flames and moved them north, where they became the Calgary Flames . Cincinnati Stingers The Cincinnati Stingers were an ice hockey team based in Cincinnati that played in the World Hockey Association from 1975 to 1979 and in the Central Hockey League during the 1979–80 season. Their home arena

92-634: The Montreal Canadiens to the 1992–93 Stanley Cup championship. At the time of the Racers' founding, the only other major league competitor was the Indiana Pacers of the similarly-upstart American Basketball Association (ABA). As merger and expansion discussions heated up in both established leagues, the question of Indianapolis' inclusion proved a complicated one. Both the NBA and the NHL believed Indianapolis

115-502: The 1978–79 WHA Stingers; Dave Debol , Byron Shutt and Paul Stewart , but disbanded 33 games into the season. The last Cincinnati Stingers player active in North American major professional hockey was Mark Messier, who retired in 2004. Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes 1979 NHL Entry Draft The 1979 NHL entry draft

138-646: The 1978–79 season Skalbania liquidated his greatest asset to his old friend and former (and future) business partner, Peter Pocklington , owner of the Edmonton Oilers . Pocklington purchased Gretzky and two other Indianapolis players, goaltender Eddie Mio and forward Peter Driscoll , paying a reported $ 700,000 for the contracts of the three players, although the announced price was $ 850,000. The Racers folded 17 games later on December 15, 1978, ending major league hockey in Indianapolis. The other six WHA teams finished

161-519: The Edmonton Oilers in the WHA's final season. As per the terms of the NHL-WHA merger, Gretzky was to have become eligible for the 1979 draft due to having already played professionally in the WHA. However, Gretzky had a personal services contract with Oilers owner Peter Pocklington . The NHL had originally expected the contract would be voided. But Gretzky, faced with the likelihood of having to play for

184-403: The NHL until the 1981 draft . On the other hand, the NHL shortened the draft to only six rounds, whereas some previous drafts ran for more than twenty rounds. As a result, in spite of the larger number of teams participating the 1979 draft had 108 fewer selections than the previous draft and was the shortest draft since 1971 . It is the last entry draft to have fewer than 200 selections. Due to

207-475: The NHL was barely willing to even consider taking in a small number of WHA teams, the WHA was not willing to risk upsetting delicate merger negotiations and rebuffed all proposals to add more teams in Canada. Unable to move his team, Skalbania looked elsewhere to gain leverage in the ongoing merger discussions. He turned to underage players – the NHL had stringent rules regarding the age of players they could sign while

230-505: The Racers in the 1978–79 season, playing five games but failing to register a point before finishing his tryout contract. He was picked up later by Cincinnati for the remainder of the season, before being selected by the Oilers in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft . Messier retired in 2004 as the last active player to have played in the WHA, and also the last active player to have played for the Racers. Skalbania himself would ultimately become an NHL owner

253-400: The WHA regularly signed underage players. Skalbania's best-known signing was that of 17-year-old future superstar Wayne Gretzky, who signed a personal services contract worth between $ 1.125 and $ 1.75 million over four to seven years – at the time, one of the largest contracts ever offered a hockey player. The move did not improve the team's desperate financial situation, and just eight games into

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276-491: The draft age for some time, and timed the decision to lower the draft age at least in part to coincide with the merger. The lowering of the draft age caused two years' worth of draft picks to go in the same draft, contributing to what is generally considered one of the best draft classes in NHL entry draft history, which included seven future Hall of Famers : Ray Bourque , Mike Gartner , Michel Goulet and Kevin Lowe were selected in

299-466: The first professional team of long-time NHL stars Mike Gartner and Mike Liut , and the second pro team for Mark Messier , who scored one goal on a line with Robbie Ftorek , one of the league's top scorers. After the WHA shut down, a minor professional version of the Cincinnati Stingers began the 1979–80 season in the Central Hockey League (CHL). The CHL team included only three players from

322-401: The first round alone, while Mark Messier , Glenn Anderson , and Guy Carbonneau would be drafted in later rounds. 12 of the 21 players selected in the first round would play in at least one All-Star game, 19 of the 21 would play at least 450 career NHL games, and all 21 had NHL careers of at least 235 games. Under the old rules, Wayne Gretzky and Messier would not have been eligible to enter

345-484: The merger, so that starting in 1976, the WHA would have to compete with the established NBA in Indiana. While the Racers continued to attract strong fan support for awhile, this turned out to be the beginning of the end for the team. The Racers' demise came under the stewardship of Nelson Skalbania , a flamboyant Canadian real estate businessman. Skalbania, who regularly flipped real estate property and sports franchises for

368-469: The minimum age for the draft, the NHL provided junior teams with CA$ 40,000 (equivalent to $ 157,000 in 2023) in compensation for each under-age player selected and signed. Under-aged players were also offered back to junior clubs before being able to play in the minor leagues. The last active player in the NHL from this draft class was Mark Messier , who played his last NHL game in the 2003–04 season. Rising superstar Wayne Gretzky had played for

391-598: The only one of the WHA's five expansion teams that lasted through to the end of the league, but they were left out of the NHL–WHA merger in mid-1979. The WHA insisted on including all three of its surviving Canadian teams, though below-average attendance made it unlikely that the Stingers would have made the cut. The Stingers, along with the Birmingham Bulls , were paid to disband when the WHA ceased operations. The Stingers were

414-477: The season, and before the Winnipeg Jets won the 1979 Avco World Trophy , the league accepted the terms of a merger with the NHL whereby Edmonton, Winnipeg , Quebec , and New England would enter the NHL as "expansion teams" the following season and the WHA itself would cease operations. Cincinnati and Birmingham , the other surviving WHA teams, were paid to disband. Mark Messier also began his career with

437-462: The strength of the class and fewer selections, there are many undrafted players who were eligible to be drafted who went on to have notable NHL careers, including Hall of Famer Dino Ciccarelli , five-time Stanley Cup champion Charlie Huddy and four-time 50-goal scorer Tim Kerr . Gretzky, protected by the Oilers in the 1979 NHL expansion draft, also entered the Hall of Fame. As consolation for lowering

460-407: The terms of the merger, the four former WHA teams had joined the NHL on the condition that they be placed at the bottom of the entry draft order, as opposed to the top of the order as is usually the case for expansion teams . In addition, the minimum draft age was lowered from 20 to 19 with the addition of any underage players who had already played in the WHA. The NHL had been considering lowering

483-555: Was Riverfront Coliseum . They are the only major league hockey team to have played in Cincinnati. The Stingers franchise was awarded in 1974 as part of the WHA's ill-conceived attempt at expansion. They entered the league for the 1975–76 WHA season along with the Denver Spurs . Most of the league's existing teams were not financially stable, and franchise relocations were commonplace. The Stingers achieved enough stability that they were

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506-449: Was far too small to support teams in both sports in the long term, and were reluctant to risk the embarrassment of placing a failed franchise there. For this reason among others, the Pacers were seen for a long time to have a slim chance to be included in the eventual ABA-NBA merger . Nevertheless, to the surprise of many sports fans and pundits of the time the Pacers were ultimately included in

529-615: Was the 17th NHL entry draft. It took place on August 9, 1979, at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal , Quebec . The National Hockey League (NHL) teams selected 126 players eligible for entry into professional ranks, in the reverse order of the 1978–79 NHL season and playoff standings. The draft was the first to be conducted after the NHL-WHA merger , which had included its own 1979 NHL expansion draft , held on June 13, 1979. As part of

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