History of NHL Expansion to Canada, Part Two: If You Can't Join, Compete Instead

The first affront to Canada by the NHL via the expansion process occurred during the first expansion in 1967. 

It seems that when it was announced that the NHL would double in size, Canadian sportswriters, broadcasters, and much of the public took it for granted that Vancouver would be one of the six new teams. 

I can still recall the incredulous tones of radio voices when the city "St. Louis" was announced instead.

No matter that one-third of the six original franchises in the NHL were Canadian and that a Canadian (Clarence Campbell) was president of the NHL—the desire for American money and for American acceptance of hockey on equal footing with baseball, football, and basketball was greater. 

Quite possibly, Toronto and Montreal also didn't want to share CBC TV money with Vancouver.

While the uproar soon subsided, and Canadians accepted the new Americanized NHL (including Peter Puck) there was still a minor undercurrent of resentment. So to make partial atonement, Vancouver was admitted along with Buffalo in 1970. And that was as far as the NHL was prepared to go.

Enter the WHA. A new maverick league with many Canadian owners who couldn't buy their way into the NHL (like Jim Balsillie currently), in their need to keep their league going, they were prepared to value Canadian franchises much more highly.

At one time or other, Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto all had WHA franchises—as well as Edmonton, Quebec, and Winnipeg.  There was even a Canadian division.

All this while the NHL added four more teams: Another New York team, Atlanta (soon to be relocated in Canada in a reverse exodus), the record-losing Washington, and Kansas City-become-Colorado-become-New Jersey. 

Also along for the fun was Charles Finley's Oakland Seals, which transferred to Cleveland after the WHA left that city—and were run out of it within two years after attracting crowds of 6,000 people in an 18,000-seat arena.

While the two leagues competed against each other, salaries soared and both sides sought peace. Most Canadians wanted to see Edmonton, Quebec, and Winnipeg in the NHL, but a small minority of NHL owners—shockingly led by Canadian Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard, who also banned the Doors from Maple Leaf Gardens in 1969 because of Jim Morrison's Miami incident, and an ex-Canadian, Jack Kent Cooke, owner of the Los Angeles Kings, continually thwarted the prospect. 

These "Canadian patriots" kept Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Quebec out of the NHL until 1980.

It would be an American, the new NHL president John Ziegler, who would force the issue. But once again, Canadians had proved to be their own worst enemy.