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1973–74 WHA season

Professional ice hockey league season

Field	Value
title	1973–74 WHA season
league	World Hockey Association
sport	Ice hockey
duration	October 6, 1973 – May 19, 1974
season	Regular season
draft	Draft
draft_link	1973 WHA amateur draft
top_pick	Bob Neely
picked_by	Chicago Cougars
MVP	Gordie Howe (Houston)
MVP_link	Gordie Howe Trophy
top_scorer	Mike Walton (Minnesota)
top_scorer_link	Bill Hunter Trophy
finals	[Avco Cup Final](1974-wha-playoffs)
finals_champ	Houston Aeros
finals_runner-up	Chicago Cougars
nextseason_year	[1974–75](1974-75-wha-season)
prevseason_year	[1972–73](1972-73-wha-season)
seasonslistnames	WHA

| conf1_runner-up = | conf2_runner-up = | finals_runner-up =Chicago Cougars The 1973–74 WHA season was the second season of the World Hockey Association, and lasted from October 1973 until the Avco Cup final game on May 19, 1974, when the Houston Aeros, with Gordie Howe, defeated the Chicago Cougars to sweep the series in four games. Twelve teams each played 78 games. The Philadelphia Blazers relocated to Vancouver, becoming the Vancouver Blazers. They were moved to the Western Division and Chicago moved to the East. The New York Raiders were renamed the New York Golden Blades and then moved to Cherry Hill, New Jersey to become the Jersey Knights after just 24 games. The Ottawa Nationals moved to Toronto and became the Toronto Toros. The Alberta Oilers changed their name to the Edmonton Oilers.

Regular season

Final standings

GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes ''Teams that qualifies for the playoffs are highlighted in '''bold'''''

Summary

In June 1973, the Houston Aeros lured 45-year-old Gordie Howe out of retirement by promising him that he could play with his sons Mark and Marty who were also on the team. Howe responded by having a 100-point season, leading the team in scoring and helping them finish with the best record in the league. The Aeros also received excellent goaltending from Don McLeod and Wayne Rutledge.

The defending Western Division champion Winnipeg Jets slipped to 4th place with a sub-.500 record. The other playoff qualifiers in the West were Minnesota and Edmonton. In the East, defending Avco World Trophy champions New England won their second straight division title followed by Toronto, Cleveland, and Chicago.

Player stats

Scoring leaders

Bolded numbers indicate season leaders

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Mike Walton	Minnesota Fighting Saints	78	57	60	117	88
Andre Lacroix	NY Golden Blades / Jersey Knights	78	31	80	111	54
Gordie Howe	Houston Aeros	76	31	69	100	46
Wayne Connelly	Minnesota Fighting Saints	78	42	53	95	16
Bobby Hull	Winnipeg Jets	75	53	42	95	37
Wayne Carleton	Toronto Toros	78	37	55	92	31
Bryan Campbell	Vancouver Blazers	76	27	62	89	50
Danny Lawson	Vancouver Blazers	78	50	38	88	14
Serge Bernier	Quebec Nordiques	74	37	49	86	107
Larry Lund	Houston Aeros	75	33	53	86	109

Leading goaltenders

Bolded numbers indicate season leaders

GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties, GA = Goals against; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average

Player	Team	GP	Min	W	L	T	GA	SO	SV%	GAA
Don McLeod	Houston Aeros	49	2971	33	13	3	127	3	91.1	2.56
Gerry Cheevers	Cleveland Crusaders	59	3562	30	20	6	180	4	90.6	3.03
Al Smith	New England Whalers	55	3194	30	21	2	164	2	89.5	3.08
Cam Newton	Chicago Cougars	45	2732	25	18	2	143	1	89.4	3.14
Jack Norris	Edmonton Oilers	53	2954	23	24	1	158	2	89.8	3.21

All-Star Game

At St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, MN, the East defeated the West 8–4.

Avco World Trophy playoffs

Main article: 1974 WHA playoffs

The West Division playoffs went according to form, with the top two seeds, Houston and Minnesota, easily disposing of Edmonton and Winnipeg respectively. In the east, Toronto won as expected over Cleveland, but Chicago shocked the WHA by upsetting the defending champion New England Whalers in seven games, winning three of the four games in New England. In the division finals, favored Houston defeated Minnesota in six games, while Chicago pulled its second upset by beating Toronto in seven games, outscoring the Toros 14–4 in winning games six and seven. They ran out of magic in the finals however, as Houston swept them in four straight, outscoring them 22–9.

WHA awards

Trophies

Howard Baldwin Trophy:	Billy Harris, Toronto Toros

All-Star Team

Position	First Team	Second Team
Centre	Andre Lacroix, New York/Jersey	Wayne Carleton, Toronto
Right Wing	Gordie Howe, Houston	Mike Walton, Minnesota
Left Wing	Bobby Hull, Winnipeg	Mark Howe, Houston
Defence	Pat Stapleton, Chicago	J. C. Tremblay, Quebec
Defence	Paul Shmyr, Cleveland	Al Hamilton, Edmonton
Goaltender	Don McLeod, Houston	Gerry Cheevers, Cleveland

References

HockeyDB

References

Goldaper, Sam. (1973-06-20). "GORDIE HOWE GETS $1-MILLION PACT". The New York Times.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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