1967 NHL Expansion - Aftermath

Aftermath

The 1967 expansion marked the end of the Original Six era and the beginning of a new era of the NHL. The expansion, Bobby Orr's record $1 million contract, and the formation of the World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1972 forever changed the landscape of the North American professional game. It was the WHA that ended up being the NHL's chief rival during the 1970s, while the Western Hockey League ceased operations in 1974. The NHL would later expand to 18 teams by 1974, and then merge with the WHA in 1979. As a result, the NHL retained its status as the premier professional ice hockey league in North America; no other league successfully competed against the NHL since then.

However, the NHL's other goal of immediately securing a lucrative TV contract in the U.S. similar to MLB and the NFL never fully materialized until decades later. Despite the expansion and the subsequent merger with the WHA, NHL broadcasting on a national scale in the U.S. still continued to be spotty between 1967 and 1981; NBC and CBS held rights at various times, but neither network carried anything close to a full schedule, even carrying only selected games of the Stanley Cup Finals. And from 1971 to 1995, there was no exclusive coverage of games in the United States; although national cable channels like ESPN and the USA Network televised NHL games during this period, local broadcasters could also still televise them regionally as well. It was not until 1995 that Fox signed on to be the exclusive national broadcast network for a full schedule of regular season and playoff games, as well as selected games of the Cup Finals.

All the 1967 expansion teams were placed in the same division in 1967–68, so their success was largely gauged relative to each other before the 1974 realignment, which radially mixed up all of the league's teams into four divisions and two conferences. Subsequent expansions and realignments separated both the Original Six and the 1967 expansion teams even further, essentially reviving the league's earlier alternative plan to put Detroit and Chicago in the West, and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in the East. After the most recent 1998 realignment, re-organizing the league into six divisions, only the Flyers and the Penguins are in the same division (this will also remain under a proposed realignment made in 2011).

The St. Louis Blues immediately made an impact, making three Stanley Cup Finals appearances in the first three years, but never won the Cup, nor have ever reached the Cup Finals since then.

The Philadelphia Flyers also quickly built a strong team, and went on to win the Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975. As of the end of the 2011–12 season, which marked the 44th season for the 1967 expansion teams, the Flyers are the most successful in terms of all-time points percentage (.579) - second only to the Montreal Canadiens (.588) in NHL history. Additionally, the Flyers have the most appearances in the league semi-finals (known as the conference finals since the 1981–82 season) out of all 24 expansion teams (16), the most Stanley Cup Finals appearances (8), and they are tied with St. Louis Blues for the most playoff appearances out of all the expansion teams (36 out of 44 seasons).

The Pittsburgh Penguins were largely unsuccessful in the beginning, failing to win their division until 1990–91, but accumulated draft picks and built a strong team that would win two Stanley Cups in the early 1990s and again in 2009, becoming the first of the 1967 expansion teams to win three Cups.

The Los Angeles Kings did not make a Stanley Cup Finals appearance until 1993 during the Wayne Gretzky era. The Kings did not return to the Cup Finals again until 2012, when they finally won their first Cup.

While four of the 1967 expansion teams still play in their original cities, one has relocated and one ceased operations. Despite being in a traditional hockey area bordering Canada to the north, the Minnesota North Stars struggled financially for much of their time in Minnesota. They did manage to make two finals appearances in 1981 and 1991, but ended up moving to Dallas, Texas, in 1993 to become the Dallas Stars. The NHL would return to Twin Cities market when the Minnesota Wild began play in 2000.

The Oakland-based franchise was the least successful of the 1967 expansion teams: uncompetitive both on the ice and at the box office, the club eventually moved to Cleveland to become the Barons in 1976, and then merged with the Minnesota North Stars in 1978. However, the NHL would eventually return to both the San Francisco Bay Area and Ohio when the expansion teams San Jose Sharks (who themselves were spun off from the North Stars) and Columbus Blue Jackets (Columbus being two hours south of Cleveland via Interstate 71) began play in 1991 and in 2000, respectively, bookending a new expansion period that brought the NHL to 30 clubs.