Wayne Gretzky: The Great One Was A Draft Dodger

This piece on Wayne Gretzky joining the NHL and t1979, he greatest draft in history, is from the upcoming book, Inexact Science by Evan Dowbiggin with Bruce Dowbiggin. It will be available from ECW Press in the fall.

The NHL celebrates plenty of iconic dates. But if you were to ask the most loyal followers of the sport the significance of November 2, 1978, they’d likely be stumped. That was the day Nelson Skalbania, owner of the Indianapolis franchise in the World Hockey Association, would sell three of the Racers’ best players to his pal Peter Pocklington, owner of the WHA’s Edmonton Oilers. For the sum of either $700,000 or $850,000 (depending on whom you ask), Wayne Gretzky, goalie Eddie Mio and Peter Driscoll went westward from the hockey wasteland of Indianapolis to the hockey hotbed of Edmonton. Long-time sportswriter Jim Matheson of The Edmonton Journal chronicled their arrival, capturing Gretzky commenting on the audaciousness of his situation by quipping “It’s funny really. Here I am only 17, with three years starts on most guys (his own age) and already I’ve been traded.” (Edmonton Journal, January 27, 1979).

Not only did the trade shift the balance of power in pro hockey to Edmonton for a decade, it also led to having Gretzky— the greatest prospect ever— avoid the clutches of eager GMs at the NHL Draft in 1979. That was just one of the many remarkable features of this particular draft, held in Montreal just after the completion of the NHL/WHA merger..

It was a watershed moment that changed the structure of the NHL draft. To fit Gretzky into their template, the NHL now had to make available many of the WHA’s under-20 stars— many of whom hadn’t been drafted yet— while also allowing teams to scour the amateur levels for the best under-20 kids, too. As a result, it would go on to be lauded as perhaps the most fruitful draft in NHL history— despite Gretzky’s name never being called. A combination of what would normally be multiple draft classes condensed into a “one-time-only” setup, all contained in a six-round, reverse-snake draft format, 1979 witnessed a depth of talent selected that had never been seen in a draft— with one very large exception.

That exception was, of course, Gretzky— a young man who was to become the greatest offensive star in the league’s history. Extending Gretzky’s contract early in ‘79 to an unprecedented 21 years at a total value of $5 million, owner Pocklington engineered a pact that was thought to have ensured his team’s transition to the NHL and, as history would prove, long-term prosperity on the ice, too. The signing would pay The Kid just over US $238,000 a season. The key aspect of this contract was that it would bind Gretzky, the next big NHL box-office star, to the Oilers and make for a very strong negotiating ploy in their bid to earn a National Hockey League franchise. How so? Well, the contract contained personal services clauses which would end up being used to keep him from having to enter the 1979 Draft and be lost from the organization forever.. 

Instead, “The Great One” would be signed up to remain an Oiler employee right up until 1999 (which didn’t happen of course but, ironically enough, proved to be the year he would retire from the game). Alas, there was one potentially big caveat of the contract. It allowed for the possibility of Gretzky to move on from Edmonton because of an out-clause following year ten..

Through all the contract hoopla, the NHL desired Gretzky in its ranks at any cost. Standing in the way of that was their policy of not permitting players to enter until after an age-20 season of play at the amateur level. That wouldn’t come for two more years in Gretzky’s case, making him potentially 1981’s fabled prize.

But once the 1978-79 season ended, the league preferred that Gretzky be eligible right away since he would go to the Colorado Rockies with the first pick and be that fledgling organization's much-needed saviour. Merger talks would also ramp up in a major way after ‘78-79. From it, four of the remaining WHA teams— Hartford, Edmonton, Quebec City and Winnipeg— ended up being invited to join the NHL. Despite all the sturm und drang of this wild merger situation, the Oilers would pull through it largely unscathed thanks to Gretzky’s unique contract situation and his camp’s unwillingness to let the NHL void it through the courts. 

It was unusually bold for the normally deferential Gretzky to refuse entry into the “NHL Entry Draft.” The humble kid usually catered to the whims of his superiors in the management and ownership field, delivering polite comments and actions in a respectful, small-town Canadian boy sort of way— even the case when he progressed to manhood and then family life. But on this occasion, he was pushing back against those same elders.

Another interesting feature of this signature draft year was the option for juniors who went undrafted to sign as free agents or return to junior and try their luck again at the draft table a year later. This provision came with a November 1, 1979, deadline for agreements to be made and it would result in 31 different 19-year olds being inked— a group that included future big time stars such as four-time 50-goal man Tim Kerr and 600-goal, power-play specialist Hall of Famer Dino Ciccarelli . Not to mention there were very useful players snapped up, such as five-time Cup champion Charlie Huddy and four-time 20-goal scorer Ron Flockhart.

The rare quality of the undrafted free agents who were nabbed a few months after the 1979 Draft further proved how impeccable the talent taken that year really was. Even though the Great One himself was absent, the unique setup of ‘79 allowed for gems to be unearthed with every few choices on average. 

That opening round ranged from the legendary (Mike Gartner, Ray Bourque, Goulet) to the excellent (Rick Vaive, Paul Reinhart, Brian Propp, Craig Hartsburg) to the very good (Rob Ramage, Mike Foligno, Tom McCarthy, Mike Ramsey, Kevin Lowe) to the serviceable (Perry Turnbull, Keith Brown, Laurie Boschman, Duane Sutter, Doug Sulliman, Ray Allison). Truly, 1979 was so excellent that the first round provided only one glaring bust: Jets number 19 overall pick Jimmy Mann— a John Ferguson pet project who wound up serving as a one-dimensional enforcer with 895 penalty minutes in 293 career NHL games.

The rare 1979 Draft misses like Mann looked even worse when compared to the many all-stars and future Hall of Famers who were taken after Round 1. There were rather weighty picks made, such as Pelle Lindbergh, Mats Naslund, Dale Hunter and Neal Broten in Round 2, Guy Carbonneau, Mark Messier and Keith Crowder in Round 3 plus John Ogrodnick, Glenn Anderson and Anton Stastny in Round 4. Even the last couple of rounds saw steals engineered in the form of excellent role players like Dirk Graham (#89 to the Canucks, but flourishing as a two-way stud his late 20s as a Blackhawk following a brief stop with the North Stars), Thomas Steen (#103 to the Jets), Doug Crossman (#112 to the Blackhawks) and Mike Krushelnyski (#120 to the Bruins). 

When the dust settled from this classic crop of talent, the final player to hang up his skates among (the 126 taken that year) wouldn’t do so until 25 years later. That player was Mark Messier, who concluded his quarter century NHL career (26 as a pro including his lone WHA season) at age 43 following the 2003-04 slate.  Fittingly, the very last goal scored by “The Moose” would move him into second in career points (1851) behind his close friend Gretzky, a position he would hold onto until Jaromir Jagr surpassed it fourteen years later. 

Even though keeping Gretzky out of the draft represented the ultimate coup for Edmonton, the Oilers would have lots more to celebrate in 1979 and beyond. It was in that same draft that they picked up defenceman Kevin Lowe from Lachute, Quebec, with the final pick of Round One (#21). Then they scored another success by snapping up Messier in the third (after having dealt away their second rounder to regain eventual Gretzky wingman and “bodyguard” Dave Semenko, who had been a priority pick by his NHL rights holders the North Stars). Quite the haul indeed.

All told, the success rate of 1979 was a staggering one. A whopping 81.7 percent of the selections made that year ended up playing at least one NHL game. The highest rate in a year before that was only 58 percent. That 81.7 percent rate would have been even higher were it not for the glut of 19-year olds passed over until the junior free-agent period had elapsed. In spite of the drama of Wayne Gretzky’s skipping the whole draft process, 1979 still will go down as the most ridiculously stacked draft in NHL history to date

What made it even more compelling was the fact that Gretzky was the potential carrot waved in front of some lucky downtrodden team’s eyes —only to be snatched away months before the draft.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his new book Personal Account with Tony Comper is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx