WHA Holds Fantasy Draft

The WHA was a short-lived 10-franchise hockey league in the seventies. They made a big splash when the new Winnipeg Jets signed Bobby Hull to a million dollar contact. It closed up shop in 1979, with several teams moving to the NHL. There’s more history of the league here.

The WHA is back (with kind of a goofy URL), with Hull as league commissioner. It currently has seven teams ready to start the 04-05 season in places like Miami, Quebec City and Hamilton. The WHA hopes to exploit the anticipated work NHL stoppage, which could last all season.

Today, the WHA helds it first entry draft. The draft featured a bizarre mix of superstars, decent NHL players and no-names. If the WHA teams are lucky, there won’t be NHL hockey next season, so they can dress NHL players who don’t chose to play elsewhere (that is, Europe). If not, they’ll go with the nobodies. Here are the top ten picks:

1. Simon Gagné
2. Travis Green
3. Dany Heatley
4. Michael Ryder
5. Joe Thornton
6. Todd Bertuzzi
7. Eric Lindros
8. Brad Richards
9. Steve Shields
10. Scott Gomez

Notably, two of the top ten are currently under criminal investigation. If you check out the entire draft, Halifax seems to be the only team who thinks the NHL will play next year. They’ve consistently chosen fringe and non-NHL players. They took Travis Green at #2, Craig MacDonald at #15 and Chris Tamer at #18. So, asumming their picks prefer WHA stardom to being pluggers in the NHL, Halifax will either be the best or the worst team in the league.