The Toronto Toros were an ice hockey team based in Toronto that played in the World Hockey Association from 1973 to 1976.
32-628: The franchise was awarded to Doug Michel in 1971 for $ 25,000 to play in the WHA's inaugural 1972–73 season . Harold Ballard , owner of Maple Leaf Gardens and the Toronto Maple Leafs , offered to rent the arena to the team if it was located in Toronto, but Michel found the rent excessive. He then tried to base the team in Hamilton , but the city did not have an appropriate venue. Michel settled on Ottawa and
64-603: A five-year $ 1 million contract, but Sittler re-signed with the Leafs. The Toros played to a 41-33-4 record in the regular season, bolstered by goaltenders Gilles Gratton and Les Binkley and a strong defensive corps backstopped by ex-Maple Leaf star Carl Brewer . The Toros also fared well in the playoffs, making it to the Eastern Conference final, only to lose to the Chicago Cougars . The Toros moved to Maple Leaf Gardens for
96-733: Is a list of players of note who played their final major professional game in 1972–73: San Diego Mariners The San Diego Mariners were a professional ice hockey team based in San Diego, California , that competed in the World Hockey Association (WHA). The team played its home games at the San Diego Sports Arena . Previous to being in San Diego, the team was known as the New York Raiders , New York Golden Blades , and
128-526: The 1974–75 season , however, by this time Harold Ballard had regained control of the Gardens. Ballard was a virulent opponent of the WHA; he never forgave the upstart league for nearly decimating the Leafs' roster in the early 1970s, and Ballard had a few years earlier been involved with a power struggle with Bassett's father for control of the Maple Leafs, one that Ballard ultimately won. Ballard deliberately made
160-547: The Jersey Knights . After folding in 1977, San Diego Mariners' name was adopted by an unrelated franchise in the low-level, minor professional Pacific Hockey League (PHL). Star players for the Mariners included defenseman Harry Howell , center Andre Lacroix , and goaltender Ernie Wakely . The Mariners were coached by Howell (as player-coach ) during their first season and Ron Ingram the succeeding two seasons, qualifying for
192-590: The New England Whalers . During this playoff series, the team was referred to as the "Ontario Nationals". At the end of the season, the team moved to Toronto permanently, and was sold to John F. Bassett , son of media mogul and former Leafs part-owner John W. H. Bassett . Future Leafs owner Steve Stavro was a minority shareholder. They were renamed the Toronto Toros in June 1973. Initially, Bassett wanted to move
224-744: The Ottawa Nationals and the Cleveland Crusaders 2–0 over the Quebec Nordiques . 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
256-777: The United States . 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
288-557: 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
320-476: The Toros' lease terms at the Gardens as onerous as possible with the Toros' lease with Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. calling for them to pay $ 15,000 per game. However, much to Bassett's outrage, the arena was dim for the first game. It was then that Ballard demanded $ 3,500 for use of the lights. Ballard also denied the Toros access to the Leafs' locker room, forcing them to build their own at a cost of $ 55,000. He also removed
352-640: The WHA Mariners folded, San Diego Sports Arena operator Peter Graham joined the idea for a new low-level minor professional hockey league on the West Coast, the Pacific Hockey League (PHL). Graham used the name of the defunct WHA team, founding an unrelated San Diego Mariners in the PHL in 1977. Those Mariners were sold in 1978 to Pittsburgh businessman Elmer Jonnet, and played in the PHL's second and final season as
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#1732852347574384-462: The WHA playoffs each year. Late in the Mariners' second season in 1975–76 , owner Joseph Schwartz defaulted on paying his players' salaries and the league's assessments, and the league took over the team. In August 1976, McDonald's and San Diego Padres owner Ray Kroc purchased the team for $ 450,000. During the Mariners' final WHA season in 1976–77 , the team never drew well, and when they only managed to attract 5,000 fans per game, Kroc sold
416-485: The WHA. Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes 1972%E2%80%9373 WHA season The 1972–73 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
448-541: 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
480-691: The Winnipeg Jets, 4 games to 1. The Whalers defeated the Jets 9–6 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. The following is a list of players of note who played their first major professional game in 1972–73 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs): The following
512-432: The cushions from the home bench for Toros' games (he told an arena worker, "Let 'em buy their own cushions!"). It was obvious that Ballard was angered at the WHA being literally in his backyard, and took his frustration on the renegade league out on the Toros. Despite the financial difficulties, the Toros managed to strengthen themselves in the off-season. They signed two ex-Leafs: former NHL superstar Frank Mahovlich and
544-583: 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 7–4 over
576-558: The first round by the San Diego Mariners . The Toros were now averaging 10,000 fans per home game. In part due to the expenses associated with playing in the Gardens, the Toros bottomed out in the 1975–76 season . They finished with a horrible 24-52-5 record—the worst in the league—under their head coach Bobby Baun , despite Nedomansky's 56 goals and the signing of 18-year-old Mark Napier , who scored 93 points in his rookie year. The Toros still averaged over 8,000 fans per game, which
608-562: 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
640-409: The hero from the 1972 Summit Series , Paul Henderson , as well as Czech star Vaclav Nedomansky , who defected to Toronto. Tom Simpson became the first professional hockey player in Toronto to have a 50-goal season, scoring 52 goals (a number he would never come close to matching again). The Toros finished the year with the league's fifth-best record at 43-33-2, but were knocked out of the playoffs in
672-506: The jersey logo replaced with San Diego spelled out diagonally across the front. The color scheme was the same as it was for the San Diego Gulls of the old Western Hockey League . The color scheme was later adopted in the form of throwback jerseys for the now-defunct WCHL/ECHL San Diego Gulls . Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes After
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#1732852347574704-907: 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 Teams that qualifies for the playoffs are highlighted in bold Bolded numbers indicate season leaders GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes Bolded numbers indicate season leaders 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
736-522: 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
768-466: The team and move them to the same area as the Florida Icegators. However, this deal collapsed as well, and after three attempts by three different groups to move the team to Florida all failed, the Mariners folded just before training camp opened in the fall of 1977. Fans who put down deposits for season tickets never got their money back. The last Mariners player active in major professional hockey
800-697: The team became the Ottawa Nationals . Nick Trbovich became majority owner in May 1972. The team was a flop at the box office, averaging about 3,000 fans a game, and in March 1973 — just before the end of the season — the City of Ottawa demanded payment of $ 100,000 to guarantee the club dates at the Ottawa Civic Centre . The team decided to leave Ottawa and played their home playoff games at Maple Leaf Gardens, attracting crowds of 5,000 and 4,000 in two games before being eliminated by
832-531: The team into a renovated CNE Coliseum , while Bill Ballard — Harold's son, who was running the Gardens while his father served a prison sentence — wanted the team at the Gardens and opposed the plan to upgrade the Coliseum. The Toros ended up at Varsity Arena for the 1973–74 season . Bassett signed forwards Pat Hickey and Wayne Dillon to aid the offensive attack. He also made a strong attempt to sign Leaf centre Darryl Sittler , and thought he had an agreement for
864-548: The team to a group who planned to move it to Melbourne, Florida , however, they could not find a suitable arena. The team was then sold to former Philadelphia Flyers minority owner Bill Putnam, who changed the team's name to the "Florida Breakers" and announced they would play at the Hollywood Sportatorium in Hollywood, Florida , between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. After this deal fell apart Jerry Saperstein tried to buy
896-524: 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 7–2, Los Angeles rallied to win game two 4–2 and even the series. The Sharks then won a thrilling game three in L.A. 3–2. Game 4
928-574: Was Kevin Devine , who played his last NHL game in the 1982-83 NHL season . Ron Plumb was the last active player who retired in 1986 after playing in England. Mariners' draft pick Don Edwards played in the NHL until 1986, but never played in the WHA. Team colors for the Mariners were orange and blue. The uniforms were the same design as the team wore as the New York Raiders and Jersey Knights, albeit with
960-705: Was a 20 percent drop from the previous year. Following that disastrous season, with the drop in attendance and onerous lease terms at the Gardens, Bassett moved the club to Birmingham, Alabama , where they were renamed the Birmingham Bulls for the 1976–77 season . The last active Toros player in the NHL was Mark Napier, who last played in the NHL in the 1988–89 NHL season and retired in 1993 in Italy. As well, Toros draft pick Kent Nilsson played his last NHL game in 1995 and retired in Europe in 1998, but never played for Toronto in
992-466: 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 6–2. 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
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1024-474: 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 3–1 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 3–2 and win the series. New England Whalers defeated
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