1979–80 NHL season

**The 1979–80 NHL season** was the 63rd season of the National Hockey League which began on October 9, 1979 and ended May 24, 1980.

This season saw the addition of four teams from the disbanded World Hockey Association as expansion franchises.

The Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, New England Whalers (later renamed "Hartford Whalers" at the insistence of the Boston Bruins) and the Quebec Nordiques joined the NHL, bringing the total to 21 teams.

The other two WHA teams (Birmingham Bulls and Cincinnati Stingers) were paid to disband.

The New York Islanders won their first Stanley Cup, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers in six games, in the finals.

The season also marked the eighth and final season for the Atlanta Flames before the franchise relocated to Calgary.

The NHL would return to the Georgia capital in 1999 with the Atlanta Thrashers, but that team would ultimately relocate away from Atlanta as well becoming the second (and current) incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets.

The collapse of the WHA also saw the much hyped superstar rookie Wayne Gretzky come to the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers.

He would tie Marcel Dionne for the scoring lead with 137 points and capture the Hart Memorial Trophy as the most valuable player while Dionne took home the Art Ross Trophy as the leading scorer by virtue of having scored two more goals.

Gretzky aside, many players made their debut in the NHL this season, both due to the WHA merger and to a change in the rules for the Entry Draft allowing 18 and 19-year-olds to be drafted for the first time; no fewer than seven Hall of Famers (Gretzky, Ray Bourque, Mark Messier, Mike Gartner, Michel Goulet, Mark Howe and Joe Mullen; Mullen was undrafted) debuted this season along with numerous other perennial stars.

The big story of the regular season was the record-breaking undefeated streak compiled by the Philadelphia Flyers. After starting the season with a 5–2 win over the New York Islanders and a 9–2 loss to the Atlanta Flames, the Flyers did not lose again for nearly three months, earning at least one point in every game between a 4–3 win over Toronto on October 14, 1979, and a 4–2 win over Buffalo on January 6, 1980, a span of (record 25–0–10) 35 games.

This stands as the longest undefeated streak in North American professional sports history.

## Regular Season

With 21 teams in the league, the regular-season schedule was set without regard to divisional affiliation. Each team played each of the other 20 teams four times in the year, twice at home and twice on the road.

As well, a new playoff structure was introduced with the four division winners plus the next 12 teams with the best records qualifying. Division winners were not granted any byes and the divisions were ignored for determining playoff match-up seeding.

Thus the division grouping ensured that if the five worst teams were to be in the same five-team division, the winner of this division would have qualified for the playoffs despite having the 17th best season record. Except for that unlikely possibility the divisional affiliations were irrelevant and had no effect on playoff qualification or seeding.

A few months into the season, the Detroit Red Wings started playing at Joe Louis Arena after having spent all but their first season at the Detroit Olympia.

For the four previous seasons, the Boston Bruins had owned first place in the Adams Division.

This season saw the Buffalo Sabres dethrone the Bruins in the Adams.

The New York Islanders finished first overall in the NHL the previous season with 116 points, but lost in the playoffs semifinals to the upstart New York Rangers. This season saw them fall considerably in the standings as they finished fourth overall with 91 points, a full 25 points below last year's finish.

On the other hand, the Philadelphia Flyers improved by 21 points from the previous season. Their 35-game undefeated streak (25–0–10) propelled them to the best record in the NHL with 116 points.

All four expansion teams finished poorly with records below .500.

The Hartford Whalers fared the best with 73 points and the Winnipeg Jets tied the Colorado Rockies for last overall with 51 points. Hartford (14th overall) and Edmonton (16th overall) qualified for the playoffs, but both teams were swept 3 games to 0 in their respective first-round playoff series.

### Rule changes

In August of 1979, then-NHL president John Ziegler Jr. announced that protective helmets will be mandatory for all NHL players. He said, "*The introduction of the helmet rule will be an additional safety factor*."

The only exception will be for players who signed their pro contracts prior to June 1, 1979. Those players under the exception who chose not to wear a helmet also had to sign a waiver form. At the time of the rule change, about 70% of NHLers were wearing helmets already.

The first player to wear protective headgear on a regular basis was George Owen of the Boston Bruins in 1928. Prior to that, the only time protective headgear was worn was to temporarily protect injuries.

While playing for the St. Louis Blues, Craig MacTavish was the last helmetless player, retiring after the 1996-97 NHL season.

## Player Statistics

### Other statistics

* **Plus-minus leader:** Jim Schoenfeld, Buffalo Sabres

## Coaches

### Patrick Division

* Atlanta Flames: Al MacNeil
* New York Islanders: Al Arbour
* New York Rangers: Fred Shero
* Philadelphia Flyers: Bob McCammon and Pat Quinn
* Washington Capitals: Gary Green

### Adams Division

* Boston Bruins: Fred Creighton and Harry Sinden
* Buffalo Sabres: Scotty Bowman
* Minnesota North Stars: Glen Sonmor
* Quebec Nordiques: Jacques Demers
* Toronto Maple Leafs: Floyd Smith, Dick Duff and Punch Imlach

### Norris Division

* Detroit Red Wings: Bobby Kromm and Ted Lindsay
* Hartford Whalers: Don Blackburn
* Los Angeles Kings: Bob Berry
* Montreal Canadiens: Bernie Geoffrion and Claude Ruel
* Pittsburgh Penguins: Johnny Wilson

### Smythe Division

* Chicago Black Hawks: Eddie Johnston
* Colorado Rockies: Don Cherry
* Edmonton Oilers: Glen Sather
* St. Louis Blues: Red Berenson
* Vancouver Canucks: Harry Neale
* Winnipeg Jets: Tom McVie and Bill Sutherland

## Milestones

### Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1979–80 (listed with their first team, asterisk(\*) marks debut in playoffs):

* Bobby Gould, Atlanta Flames
* Kent Nilsson §, Atlanta Flames
* Paul Reinhart, Atlanta Flames
* Pekka Rautakallio §, Atlanta Flames
* Pat Riggin §, Atlanta Flames
* Brad McCrimmon, Boston Bruins
* Craig MacTavish, Boston Bruins
* Ray Bourque, Boston Bruins
* Mike Ramsey, Buffalo Sabres
* Rob McClanahan, Buffalo Sabres
* Keith Brown, Chicago Black Hawks
* Rich Preston §, Chicago Black Hawks
* Terry Ruskowski §, Chicago Black Hawks
* Darryl Sutter, Chicago Black Hawks
* Rob Ramage §, Colorado Rockies
* John Ogrodnick, Detroit Red Wings
* Mike Foligno, Detroit Red Wings
* Jim Korn, Detroit Red Wings
* Kevin Lowe §, Edmonton Oilers
* Mark Messier §, Edmonton Oilers
* Wayne Gretzky §, Edmonton Oilers
* John Garrett §, Hartford Whalers
* Gordie Roberts §, Hartford Whalers
* Mark Howe §, Hartford Whalers
* Mike Rogers §, Hartford Whalers
* Mark Hardy, Los Angeles Kings
* Jay Wells, Los Angeles Kings
* Curt Giles, Minnesota North Stars,
* Craig Hartsburg §, Minnesota North Stars
* Tom McCarthy, Minnesota North Stars
* Chris Nilan, Montreal Canadiens
* Keith Acton, Montreal Canadiens
* Gaston Gingras §, Montreal Canadiens
* Rick Meagher, Montreal Canadiens
* Richard Brodeur §, New York Islanders
* Ken Morrow, New York Islanders
* Duane Sutter, New York Islanders
* Brian Propp, Philadelphia Flyers
* Michel Goulet §, Quebec Nordiques
* Jamie Hislop §, Quebec Nordiques
* Real Cloutier §, Quebec Nordiques
* Mike Liut §, St. Louis Blues
* Joe Mullen \*, St. Louis Blues
* Laurie Boschman, Toronto Maple Leafs
* Rick Vaive §, Vancouver Canucks
* Mike Gartner §, Washington Capitals
* Dave Christian, Winnipeg Jets

*[Note: Players marked with § previously started their major professional career in the World Hockey Association].*

### Last Games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1979–80 (listed with their last team):

* Curt Bennett, Atlanta Flames
* Paul Henderson, Atlanta Flames
* Gerry Cheevers, Boston Bruins
* Dave Schultz, Buffalo Sabres
* Keith Magnuson, Chicago Black Hawks
* Stan Mikita, Chicago Black Hawks (the last player to have played in the 1950s)
* Cliff Koroll, Chicago Black Hawks
* Gary Croteau, Colorado Rockies
* Tom Webster, Detroit Red Wings
* Dave Dryden, Edmonton Oilers
* Bill Flett, Edmonton Oilers
* Al Hamilton, Edmonton Oilers
* Gordie Howe, Hartford Whalers (the last player to be born in the 1920s and the last player to have played in the 1940s)
* Bobby Hull, Hartford Whalers
* Andre Lacroix, Hartford Whalers
* Syl Apps, Jr., Los Angeles Kings
* Barry Gibbs, Los Angeles Kings
* Randy Manery, Los Angeles Kings
* Jocelyn Guevremont, New York Rangers
* Dale Tallon, Pittsburgh Penguins
* Pierre Plante, Quebec Nordiques
* Carl Brewer, Toronto Maple Leafs
* Dennis Hextall, Washington Capitals
* Gary Smith, Winnipeg Jets