This Day in Isles History: June 6

June 6, 1972 -The 1972 NHL Expansion Draft - the date when the Islanders tangibly became a team. At NewYorkIslanders.com, we look back at a landmark moment for the franchise.

1972 EXPANSION DRAFT:

The Islanders and their expansion cousins, the Atlanta Flames, each selected 21 players in the 1972 expansion draft from the 14 established NHL teams. While today's 30 teams will lose one player, the 14 teams in 1972 each lost three.

In 1972, teams could protect two goalies and 15 skaters in the expansion draft. Once a player was selected, the established teams could move another player into the vacant protected slot and only one goalie could be claimed per team. The netminders also had to be selected first, so the first four picks in the expansion draft - including Billy Smith - were all goalies.

Atlanta had the first pick in the expansion draft and selected Phil Myre from the Montreal Canadiens, while the Islanders selected Gerry Desjardins second. The first pick in the expansion draft was a consolation for the Flames, as Islanders General Manager Bill Torrey won for the first pick in the 1972 Amateur Draft via coin toss, as well as the right to pick the first skater in the expansion draft - fifth overall.

The other consolation for the Flames was the first pick in the inter-league draft, where teams could draft minor-league professionals from each other. Teams were allowed to protect 19 players (two goalies, 17 skaters) in the inter-league draft.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Of the Islanders' 21 expansion picks, only Smith played on the dynasty teams. Ed Westfall - the Islanders' first captain - was the highest-scoring player of the draft, recording 286 points (105G, 181A) in 493 games with the team before retiring in 1979, one year before the Isles won their first Stanley Cup.

While the 2017 expansion draft was broadcast live from the NHL Awards in Las Vegas, the 1972 expansion draft was done with little showmanship. Even the players didn't immediately know they'd been drafted. Westfall was reportedly informed by a customs agent that he'd been selected by the Islanders after he was coming home from Scotland with his family.

"I remember saying to myself jokingly, 'I wonder which team I'll end up on. A few days later, when I was clearing customs, I could see my children waiting beyond the glass with sad, forlorn faces. Little did I know it was because Daddy was now a New York Islander." - Ed Westfall to Sports Illustrated in 1982

Gerry Hart - the Islanders 12th pick in 1972 (23rd overall) - also left a mark on the franchise and a physical one on their opponents, racking up 783 penalty minutes, 11th all-time in the Isles record books. For the record, Smith is 23rd in Isles all-time penalty minutes with 484 - tops among goalies.

NOT ALL BECAME ISLANDERS:

Smith and Westfall were the two most impactful Islanders of the draft, but seven players - Garry Peters, Larry Hornung, Ted Hampson, John Schella, Ted Taylor, Norm Ferguson and Bart Crashley - never played a regular season game for the team. The now-defunct World Hockey Association had poached them from the Islanders.

A handful of others: Bill Mikkelson (Washington - 1974), Brian Lefley (Kansas City - 1974), Dave Hudson (Kansas City - 1974) and Gerry Hart (Quebec - 1979) were claimed in later expansion drafts.

"There were a handful of players the Islanders lost to World Hockey that year, it was their initial year as well," Westfall told the Talkin' Isles Podcast in 2023. "It was only two or three of us who knew each other at [Islanders] training camp."

LEGACY OF THE EXPANSION ISLANDERS:

The expansion Islanders took their lumps in the 1972-73 season, going 12-60-6 (30 points), allowing 347 goals - nearly 100 more than the league average and 27 more than the previous record - and finishing last in the NHL. While the Flames got off to a better start with a 25-38-15 record (65 points), the Islanders secured the first-overall pick in the 1973 Amateur Draft and selected Denis Potvin, a move that paid off with tremendous dividends.

And while the expansion roster wasn't filled with marquee names or long Islanders tenures, some of the players Bill Torrey selected were pieces of trades that brought in key pieces of the dynasty teams.

Bart Crashley, the first skater taken in the draft (5th overall), and the rights to Larry Hornung, were traded to Kansas City in 1974 for Bob Bourne. Bourne won four Stanley Cups with the Islanders and is 10th all-time in team scoring with 542 points (238G, 304A).

Terry Crisp, selected 19th overall from the St. Louis Blues, was traded for Jean Potvin in 1973. Potvin was eventually dealt in 1978 with JP Parise in a trade that included Wayne Merrick, who won four Stanley Cups with the Islanders. Potvin re-signed with the Islanders as a free agent in 1979 and played two more seasons.

Brian Spencer, drafted 17th overall from the Toronto Maple Leafs, was traded in 1974 for Doug Rombough. Rombough was then part of the deal that brought in JP Parise, who scored the series-clinching goal in the Islanders' first playoff series win over the Rangers in 1975. Parise was later part of the deal that brought in Merrick.

QUOTES:

"We spent our time and effort mostly on kids. I told Roy Boe, 'O.K., you're going to go through the expansion draft and get 19 problem children. Either the guys can't play, they're too old, or they have personal problems. Second, your product is going to be constantly compared to the New York Rangers,' who were then the second-best team in hockey. Also, we were in the East Division with Montreal, Boston, the Rangers and four other established teams. We were guaranteed last place. But there was a ray of hope if we were patient because everyone in hockey knew that the amateur draft for the next few years was loaded. What other choice did we have?" - Bill Torrey to Sports Illustrated in 1982

"The Boston Bruins were the worst team in the league when I joined them in 1961 and they built that team to be the best team in hockey. Then I joined the New York Islanders and we were the worst team in the league. As an Islander, we broke all the negative records I set as a Bruin, but over the years I saw the Islanders franchise develop into the best team in hockey.It's very rewarding to know that you were a part of two franchises going from the worst to the best. It all happened so fast. It was 18 years of my life, but when I look back at it, it was very quick the way things happened and unfolded."- Ed Westfall to NewYorkIslanders.com in 2011.