Freeway
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|  #1 Posted on 17.7.04 2352.31
Reposted on: 17.7.11 2353.14 | The World Hockey Association moved half a step closer to actually having a league today when they held their Free Agent Draft. Basically, this is the teams claiming rights to players who may or may not ever play with them. The full results can be found Here!
Notables, at least from a Flames perspective:
-Former Flames RW Theo Fleury (currently suspended by the NHL indefinately) was drafted by Hamilton 20th overall
-Former Flames C Doug Gilmour (retired, if I recall...) drafted 59th by the Founders' franchise.
-Flames D Jesse Wallin went 172nd to Toronto, despite the fact he only played once for the Flames AHL affiliate in Lowell due to a concussion sustained in that game. He's probably done in hockey.
-Flames C and sometimes Assistant Coach Dave Lowry went 173rd to Hamilton
-Flames RW Martin Sonnenberg went 178th to Halifax
Yep. I say the WHA plays, but at the level of, like, the ECHL or CHL. | Promote this thread! |             | Grimis
Scrapple
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|  #2 Posted on 18.7.04 1127.24
Reposted on: 18.7.11 1129.00 | Remember that the original WHA started off slow, and eventually got Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec, and New England into the NHL. Given that there may not be a season this year, you could conceivably see some NHL guys who don't want to play in Europe start the year with some WHA clubs.
The WHA's biggest problem right now is their city lineup.
Dallas OR Vancouver(pick one people)
Detroit
Halifax
Hamilton
Miami
Quebec
Toronto
Only seven teams? With the only surefire US teams being Miami and Detroit? This doesn't sound like a recipe for survivability long term. Especially when you consider Toledo is one of their hot to trot potential expansion sites... | dMp
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|  #3 Posted on 19.7.04 0106.36
Reposted on: 19.7.11 0107.32 | Guys like Gagne, Brad Richards got picked.
Bargain agreement or not, would they be allowed to play?
Funny that I didn't see Bret Hull in there (might have missed him) who was a surefire to go play for Daddy's league iirc.. | BigVitoMark
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| #4 Posted on 20.7.04 1603.58
Reposted on: 20.7.11 1604.09 | This draft couldn't matter less in the grand scheme of things, CBA issues or not. If this league has only seven and one of them is Miami, which has basically a failed hockey market market, then they clearly don't know what they're doing or who they're trying to target.
Two years from now this will be remembered in the same spirit as that Continental (or whatever it was called) league that tried to ride the Lindros holdout in '91 to the formation of a new league. Having Bobby Hull as commissioner might get you a mention on SportsCenter every now and then, but that doesn't mean that there's any market for a secondary hockey league. If there were, the AHL would be in demand. | Freeway
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| #5 Posted on 20.7.04 1622.18
Reposted on: 20.7.11 1625.18 | | Look at the markets that have more than one pro or major junior team: Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, New York, Detroit. Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg & Halifax could probably also support teams (and currently DO). Anywhere else the teams will suffer because outside of Canada and few US markets, nobody cares about hockey. | | ALL ORIGINAL POSTS IN THIS THREAD ARE NOW AVAILABLE |
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