# 1978–79 Indianapolis Racers season

The 1978–79 Indianapolis Racers season was the Racers' final season in the World Hockey Association (WHA). The team folded after only 25 games.

## Offseason

Nelson Skalbania, the owner of Indianapolis Racers, signed the 17-year-old future super-star, Wayne Gretzky to, at that time, a whopping personal contract worth between 1.125 and 1.75 million dollars over 4 to 7 years. Skalbania, knowing that the WHA was fading, felt owning the young star was more valuable than owning a WHA team.

## Regular season

This was the first season of Wayne Gretzky's professional career. The Racers' management knew that the team was going to fold due to poor attendance, and sold Gretzky to the Edmonton Oilers after eight games. Skalbania needed cash and liquidated his greatest asset to his old friend and former partner, Peter Pocklington, owner of the Edmonton Oilers. Pocklington purchased Gretzky and two other Indianapolis players, goaltender Eddie Mio and forward Peter Driscoll paying $700,000 for the contracts of the three players, although the announced price was actually $850,000.

### Final standings

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals for, GA = Goals against, Pts = Points
| WHA Team | GP | W | L | T | Pts | GF | GA | PIM |
| Edmonton Oilers | 80 | 48 | 30 | 2 | 98 | 340 | 266 | 1220 |
| Quebec Nordiques | 80 | 41 | 34 | 5 | 87 | 288 | 271 | 1399 |
| Winnipeg Jets | 80 | 39 | 35 | 6 | 84 | 307 | 306 | 1342 |
| New England Whalers | 80 | 37 | 34 | 9 | 83 | 298 | 287 | 1090 |
| Cincinnati Stingers | 80 | 33 | 41 | 6 | 72 | 274 | 284 | 1651 |
| Birmingham Bulls | 80 | 32 | 42 | 6 | 70 | 286 | 311 | 1661 |
| xIndianapolis Racers | 25 | 5 | 18 | 2 | 12 | 78 | 130 | 557 |
| #Soviet All-Stars | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 27 | 20 | 77 |
| #Czechoslovakia | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 14 | 33 | 107 |
| #Finland | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 2 |
x-team folded during season #-played limited schedule

### Game log

| No. | R | Date | Score | Opponent | Record |
| 1 | L | October 14, 1978 | 3–6 | Winnipeg Jets (1978–79) | 0–1–0 |
| 2 | L | October 15, 1978 | 3–9 | Birmingham Bulls (1978–79) | 0–2–0 |
| 3 | W | October 18, 1978 | 4–0 | @ Quebec Nordiques (1978–79) | 1–2–0 |
| 4 | L | October 20, 1978 | 3–4 | Edmonton Oilers (1978–79) | 1–3–0 |
| 5 | L | October 22, 1978 | 3–6 | New England Whalers (1978–79) | 1–4–0 |
| 6 | L | October 27, 1978 | 2–4 | @ Birmingham Bulls (1978–79) | 1–5–0 |
| 7 | W | October 28, 1978 | 3–2 | Winnipeg Jets (1978–79) | 2–5–0 |
| 8 | T | October 29, 1978 | 3–3 | @ Winnipeg Jets (1978–79) | 2–5–1 |
| 9 | L | November 3, 1978 | 3–6 | @ New England Whalers (1978–79) | 2–6–1 |
| 10 | T | November 4, 1978 | 6–6 | New England Whalers (1978–79) | 2–6–2 |
| 11 | L | November 5, 1978 | 2–6 | @ Winnipeg Jets (1978–79) | 2–7–2 |
| 12 | L | November 8, 1978 | 0–4 | @ Cincinnati Stingers (1978–79) | 2–8–2 |
| 13 | L | November 11, 1978 | 2–8 | @ Quebec Nordiques (1978–79) | 2–9–2 |
| 14 | L | November 17, 1978 | 1–6 | @ Edmonton Oilers (1978–79) | 2–10–2 |
| 15 | L | November 19, 1978 | 2–5 | @ Winnipeg Jets (1978–79) | 2–11–2 |
| 16 | L | November 23, 1978 | 1–5 | Winnipeg Jets (1978–79) | 2–12–2 |
| 17 | L | November 24, 1978 | 5–8 | @ Cincinnati Stingers (1978–79) | 2–13–2 |
| 18 | W | November 25, 1978 | 6–3 | Cincinnati Stingers (1978–79) | 3–13–2 |
| 19 | L | November 28, 1978 | 2–8 | @ Edmonton Oilers (1978–79) | 3–14–2 |
| 20 | W | December 1, 1978 | 6–3 | Birmingham Bulls (1978–79) | 4–14–2 |
| 21 | L | December 2, 1978 | 2–4 | @ Birmingham Bulls (1978–79) | 4–15–2 |
| 22 | L | December 3, 1978 | 2–4 | Cincinnati Stingers (1978–79) | 4–16–2 |
| 23 | L | December 7, 1978 | 4–9 | Winnipeg Jets (1978–79) | 4–17–2 |
| 24 | W | December 10, 1978 | 6–4 | Edmonton Oilers (1978–79) | 5–17–2 |
| 25 | L | December 12, 1978 | 4–7 | New England Whalers (1978–79) | 5–18–2 |

## Player stats
### Regular season
#### Scoring

| Player | Pos | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | +/- | PPG | SHG |
| Blaine Stoughton | RW | 25 | 9 | 9 | 18 | 16 | −18 | 3 | 0 |
| Don Larway | RW | 25 | 8 | 10 | 18 | 39 | −20 | 2 | 0 |
| Rich LeDuc | C | 13 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 14 | −2 | 2 | 0 |
| Claude Larose | LW | 13 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Michel Parizeau | C | 22 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 4 | −1 | 0 | 0 |
| Gary MacGregor | C | 17 | 8 | 4 | 12 | 0 | −12 | 1 | 0 |
| Rene Leclerc | RW | 22 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Dave Morrow | D/LW | 10 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 29 | −13 | 0 | 0 |
| Larry Sacharuk | D | 15 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 25 | −11 | 2 | 0 |
| Al McLeod | D | 25 | 0 | 11 | 11 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bruce Greig | LW | 21 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 64 | −5 | 0 | 0 |
| Kevin Nugent | RW | 25 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 20 | −2 | 0 | 0 |
| Dave Inkpen | D | 25 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 22 | −5 | 0 | 0 |
| John Hughes | D | 22 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 48 | −16 | 0 | 0 |
| Wes George | LW | 9 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 23 | −11 | 1 | 0 |
| Claude St. Sauveur | C | 17 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 12 | −6 | 2 | 0 |
| Wayne Gretzky | C | 8 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0 | −3 | 0 | 0 |
| Ken Block | D | 22 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 10 | −11 | 0 | 0 |
| Peter Driscoll | LW | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 17 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Angie Moretto | C | 18 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | −6 | 1 | 0 |
| Gerry Leroux | LW | 10 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | −4 | 0 | 0 |
| Bryon Baltimore | D | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | −1 | 0 | 0 |
| Don Burgess | LW | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | −4 | 0 | 0 |
| Kevin Morrison | D | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | −10 | 0 | 0 |
| Glen Irwin | D | 24 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 124 | −10 | 0 | 0 |
| Dean Magee | LW | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10 | −2 | 0 | 0 |
| Jerry Rollins | D | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | −4 | 0 | 0 |
| Gary Inness | G | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mark Messier | C | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −4 | 0 | 0 |
| Eddie Mio | G | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gary Smith | G | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

#### Goaltending

| Player | MIN | GP | W | L | T | GA | GAA | SO |
| Gary Inness | 609 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 51 | 5.02 | 0 |
| Eddie Mio | 242 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 13 | 3.22 | 1 |
| Gary Smith | 664 | 11 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 61 | 5.51 | 0 |
| Team: | 1515 | 25 | 5 | 18 | 2 | 125 | 4.95 | 1 |
Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = plus/minus; PIM = Penalty minutes; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals  MIN = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts;