A look back on the anniversary of the 1967 NHL expansion draft, when Boston lost a future Hall of Fame player and six All-Star talents to other teams.
This date in Boston Bruins history is a big one for the National Hockey League franchise — not so much because of any games played or any specific accomplishments, but rather due to the impressive list of players it lost from the roster.
On June 6, 1967, one day after the NHL officially announced that it would double in size by adding six new franchises, it held an expansion draft at the the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, the same location that it held the first-ever Joining the league were the California Seals, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and the St. Louis Blues, ending the Original Six era. Take a moment and think about the logistics with that just from the players' perspective alone.
Essentially half of each roster had to to be relocated, and form the core of a whole new team to build around. Daunting doesn't begin to describe it. Neither does the word "butchered,' which is what happened to the Bruins, who lost a Hall of Fame player and six future All-Stars. It was a bit surprising at the time, as Boston had been out of the playoffs for eight straight years and were coming off a 17-43-10 season in 1966-67.
But the Bruins had a lot of young, rising talent Things still worked out pretty well, though, as Boston had just added Bobby Orr and won the Stanley Cup in 1970 and 1972, and reached the Final in 1974 and, 1977 and 1978. • Each expansion team had to select 20 players , including two goaltenders and 18 skaters. The first two rounds of draft were only for goaltenders.
• Teams were allowed to protect 11 players and one goaltender on their current rosters. After the first, third, fourth and seventh rounds, they could protect an additional player, and also for any subsequent players lost. Also, teams were allowed to make deals to prevent the expansion teams from selecting certain players .
• Players coming off their first year in the league, and junior-level prospects were not eligible . The Bruins initially protected goaltender Gerry Cheevers, along with Don Awrey, John Bucyk, Gary Doak, Phil Esposito, Ted Green, Ken Hodge, John McKenzie, Eddie Shack , Fred Stanfield, Ed Westfall and Tom Williams.
Among the players who the Bruins were able also protect as the expansion draft progressed included Dallas Smith, Wayne Cashman, Eddie Johnston, Jean Pronovost, Ron Murphy, Glen Sather and Bob Leiter. The rounds were reserved for goaltenders and the first three overall selections all ended up in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
In the middle of 37-year-old Terry Sawchuk going from the Maple Leafs to the Kings, and 35-year-old Glen Hall from the Black Hawks to the Blues, Bernie Parent was selected by the Flyers. He was 22 at the time. Parent ended up having his No. 1 jersey retired and there's a statue of him with Bobby Clarke holding the Stanley Cup in south Philadelphia.
Parent won the Con Smythe Award and the Vezina Trophy in both 1974 and 1975 while leading the Flyers to the Stanley Cup, the first of which was against the Bruins. In the second round, the Flyers took Doug Favell, who split time with Parent for the first couple of seasons and took over as the primary goaltender in 1971 when Parent was traded to Toronto, and the two were actually traded for one another in 1973.
Favell played 373 career games and had a 7.13 goals against average and .905 save percentage. The Bruins were ignored in the third round, when the first skaters were selected, but then lost two future All-Star defensemen with Joe Watson to the Flyers in the fourth round , and Bob Woytowich to the North Stars in the fifth .
Watson spent most of his career in Philadelphia, which spanned 835 games, but is best known for scoring a shorthanded goal against Vladislav Tretiak agains the Soviet Red Army team in 1976. Woytowich had a long career that went from 1962-78, including 503 NHL games and 242 in the WHA.
There was a minor raid on Bruins players with defenseman Poul Popiel going to the Kings at No, 37, right wing Wayne Connelly to the North Stars at No. 38, and center Ron Schock to the Blues at No. 42. Popiel was the first Danish-born player in the NHL and he ended up being a three-time WHA All-Star with the Houston Aeros. Connelly ended up playing 909 games between the NHL and WHA, and tallied 300 goals and 636 points.
Schook also ended up playing 909 career games, with 166 goals and 517 points. He's best known for the "Midnight Goal" to win Game 7 and send the Blues to the 1968 Stanley Cup Final. Center Terry Crisp was nabbed by the Blues at No. 48 overall. He played 10 seasons in the league, and was a head coach for 11.
He's on the Stanley Cup as both, twice while playing with the Flyers and as Calgary's head coach in 1989. He was the inaugural coach of the expansion team Tampa Bay Lightning. Even though they didn't have anyone selected in the ninth round, this was a rough stretch for the Bruins. Left wing Ted Irvine went first at No. 55 to the Kings, followed by right wing Wayne Rivers to the Blue at No. 60.
Four straight Bruins went in the 11th round, with right wing Bill Goldsworthy to the North Stars at No. 62 overall, followed by defenseman Dick Cherry the Flyers, center Bob Dillabough to the Penguins and left wing J.P. Parise to the Seals. Defenseman Rob Harris went in the 12th round to the Seals at No. 71. Bill Goldsworth and Parise both became All-Stars and Minnesota hockey legends, plus played for team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series.
Most of the others became league stalwarts. Irvine notched 331 points in 774 games played over a 15-year career, and Rivers played in 465 NHL and WHA games through 1977. Dillabough played in 355 NHL and WHA games. 476 games. Harris played in 476 games through 1976.
Cherry, the brother of future Bruins coach and outspoken broadcasting personality Don, had retired from hockey in 1963 at the age of 24 and became a high school teacher but made a comeback and helped lead the Oklahoma City Blazers to the Central Hockey League title. The Bruins still had his rights. In the 14th round, Boston lost future All-Star Gary Dornhoefer at No. 81 to the Flyers.
The bruising right wing played in 787 games over 14 seasons, with 214 goals and 542 points, plus 1,291 penalty minutes. When he retired in 1978 he was second in team scoring to Bobby Clarke. Center Jeannot Gilbert went with the subsequent pick by the Penguins, but spent most of his career in the AHL. Center Forbes Kennedy, who nearing the end of his career, went in the 15th round, No. 87 and played two seasons with the Flyers.
But also in the 15th round, the Blues snared Ron Stewart, who had played 13 seasons for the Toronto Maple Leafs and won three Stanley Cups, before going in the Bruins. He played in just 19 games with St. Louis before being traded to the New York Rangers, Overall, the All-Star played in 1,353 career games and netted 529 points.
Although the draft went 20 rounds, the Bruins only lost one final player, right wing Keith Wright to the Flyers at No. 111. He was the last of seven players in the Bruins organization to to be selected by the Flyers, however Wright proceeded to play in just one NHL game with Philadelphia, spending most of his career in the minor leagues.
Out of the 120 players selected in the expansion draft, only four never played a game in the NHL, but the Flyers, who had zeroed in on the Bruins' talent pool, were big winners that day. General manager Norman "Bud" Poile, head coach Keith Allen and personnel director Marcel Pelletier had spent a year scouting for the draft, especially in the minor leagues where they saw players like Parent and Favell, who had been teammates on the Ontario Hockey Association's Niagara Falls Flyers.
Parent played 18 games with the Bruins and went 4-12-2 in 1966-67. Favell never wore a Bruins jersey.
"We thought they were the two best young goalies available and, fortunately, we got both of them," the late Allen recounted in the 40th Anniversary History of the Flyers documentary per the team website. Bolstered by its additions from the Bruins, the Flyers went on to win the Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975, and lost in the 1976 finals.
The Blues reached the Stanley Cup Final three straight years, 1968-1970, but each resulted in a sweep including by the Bruins in 1970. None of the other six expansion teams won the Cup until Pittsburgh with Mario Lemieux defeated the North Stars in 1991. Christopher Walsh is the publisher of Boston Bruins On SI.
He's also the founder of Alabama Crimson Tide On SI, which first published as BamaCentral in 2018, and the publisher of Nashville Predators On SI, along with the Boston College Eagles, Miami Hurricanes, and Vanderbilt Commodores sites. The longstanding sports writer is the author of 26 books including “100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die” and “Nick Saban vs. College Football.
” He's an eight-time honoree of Football Writers Association of America awards and three-time winner of the Herby Kirby Memorial Award, the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s highest writing honor for story of the year. In 2022, he was named one of the 50 Legends of the ASWA. Previous beats include the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, along with Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks.
Originally from Minnesota and a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, he currently resides in Tuscaloosa.
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