Maven's Memories: The Unusual August Draft of 1979

If you think October 6-7th are unusual dates for the National Hockey League to hold a Draft, you'd be half-right.
As for the other half; well, in 1979 the NHL convened for its annual Draft at a most unusual time -- in the month of August, of all things.

"It was held at that crazy date (August 1979) because of the NHL-WHA merger that had been completed in June," said Jim Devellano, who was Islanders chief scout at the time and currently is Executive Vice President of the Red Wings.
"What complicated matters was that an Expansion Draft involving the four new NHL teams -- Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec and New England -- had to be held in June. As a result the regular NHL Draft was moved back to August."
From an Islanders viewpoint that Draft held 41 years ago, hardly could have been more successful. That, and the NHL-WHA Expansion Draft held in June 1979 which produced another gem for Bill Torrey's Nassaumen.
"We got what we wanted," enthused general manager Torrey, "and we did it at every position; goaltending, defense and forward."
MAVEN'S MEMORIES
WRITTEN COVERAGE
Maven's Memories: Taking on Montreal in 1993
Isles Fly Past Penguins in 1993
Prelude to Penguins Upset in 1993
Isles Beat Caps in 1993
1992-93 A Season to Remember
Maven's Haven
Despite choosing as late as 17th, Bow Tie Bill acquired Duane (Dog) Sutter who would play a pivotal role in building the Isles four-Cup dynasty.
Torrey's deputy, Devellano, had scouted Sutter in the Western League and badly wanted him for the Isles.
"Duane's compete level was off the charts," said Jimmy D, "and he also had scoring skill. I couldn't believe that 16 teams had passed on him before we got our chance. That was amazing.
No less astonishing was the fact that the Isles general staff still had more diamonds to mine in later rounds.
Torrey: "I often described the Draft as a 'crapshoot' but this time we did very well indeed, even in the lower brackets."
Following Sutter to the Islanders via that '79 Draft was Swedish defenseman Tomas Jonsson, forward Billy Carroll and netminder Roland (Rollie The Goalie) Melanson. Each of the aforementioned starred on some of the Cup teams.
As an extra-added attraction, Torrey also benefitted from the WHA-NHL "Expansion Draft." Bow Tie Bill's prize then was defenseman Dave (Bammer) Langevin.
"We got Bammer via Edmonton," Torrey asserted, "and he proved to be one of the cornerstones of our defense, playing on all four Cup teams."
Among the amusing sidebars of the August 1979 Draft was the point-counterpoint between Torrey and Dog Sutter on that fateful August day at Montreal.
For starters, Sutter chose not to attend the Draft because he never thought that he'd be chosen. A year previously, his brother, Darryl, had been told he'd be picked in the third round and didn't go until the eleventh round.
"I tried not to even think about what might happen," Duane remembered. "The morning of the Draft, a phone call got me out of bed. It was Bill Torrey. He told me that if I was available on the seventeenth pick, he'd take me.
"I said, 'Thanks, Mr. Torrey, that sounds nice, but no thank you. I don't want to play in a big city like New York with all those skyscrapers.' Then I went back to bed. My brother Brian heard about it and told me I was crazy.
"Brian kept insisting that the Islanders had a very first-class organization and that I'd very happy if I was picked by them. My big brother straightened me about the Isles."
Shortly thereafter, Torrey phoned again and congratulated Duane on him "being an Islander." Or, as Sutter added, "I had to do some serious backpedaling then."

There were no issues with Jonsson, Carroll, Langevin nor Melanson. One by one they were added to the championship teams and each -- in his own way -- helped New York amass a never-to-be equaled 19 consecutive playoff series wins.
"Without their contributions" Devellano insisted "we couldn't have put that kind of run together. The amazing thing was that a year later we were in the same17th position for the 1980 Entry Draft and this time we picked Dog's brother, Brent.
"Getting the two Sutters in back to back Drafts turned out to be a huge break for us in building the dynasty. We wound up with two hard-working Western Canadian farm boys who set a good example for their teammates."
To better understand the horse-trading in 1979 that helped cement Torrey's dynasty, one must flash back to the closing months of the bitter seven-years war between the established NHL and WHA.
"We wanted a merger as early as 1974," said Howard Baldwin who became WHA President and negotiated with Rangers president Bill Jennings to form an NHL-WHA coupling. "But the NHL 'Old Guard' kept resisting."
The resistance ended in Spring 1979 when an armistice of sorts took place. The NHL labelled the agreement an "expansion."
Ed Willes of the Vancouver Province, who authored "Rebel League," said, "The more accurate term -- a merger -- was offensive to the NHL."
The four merged WHA teams included Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques and Hartford Whalers. Each could protect two players in the June 1979 Expansion Draft.
"The Oilers were going to protect Wayne Gretzky," said historian Andrew Podnieks. "The other was a toss-up between Dave Langevin and Bengt Gustafsson. Edmonton chose the wrong guy.
"Langevin was key to the Islanders four Stanley Cups. He hit to hurt every time and eventually was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame."
Needless to say the current Islanders high command led by Lou Lamoriello will be very happy if it could pluck anyone like a Sutter, Langevan, Carroll or Melanson in this very unusual autumn Draft.