1979 NHL Entry Draft: The Benchmark of a High Quality Draft?

Typically, in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft, there will be at least a few duds that never quite catch on in the National Hockey League. This wasn’t the case in the 1979 Draft. Of the 21 players selected, the lowest career total games was 238 by Ray Allison who was selected 18^th overall by the Hartford Whalers.

Eleven of the 21 players selected in the first round of the 1979 NHL Entry Draft went on to play over 1,000 regular season NHL games. The most career games played by this fine group of players is 1,612 by Ray Bourque. Bourque was selected eighth by the Boston Bruins.

Six of the 21 players scored more than 300 regular season goals during their NHL careers, with five of those surpassing the 400 goal plateau. Michel Goulet, selected 20^th overall by the Quebec Nordiques, scored 548 in his career while Mike Gartner, who was selected fourth overall by the Washington Capitals, scored an amazing 708.

Bourque, Gartner, Goulet and Brian Propp (14^th overall pick of the Philadelphia Flyers) all surpassed 1000 career points. Of this group, all by Propp are honoured members of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Michel Goulet was inducted in 1998, Mike Gartner entered in 2001 and Bourque joined them in 2004.

1979 was still a little ahead of the European invasion. None of the 21 players selected in the first round came from outside North America. Only one player, Mike Ramsay of the University of Minnesota selected eleventh overall by the Buffalo Sabres, came from outside the Canadian major junior system. Four players were drafted out of the newly defunct World Hockey Association but the four originally were products of either the Ontario Hockey Association or the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Seven players were selected from the WHL, six players came from the OHA, three came from the QMJHL and four were from the WHA. Of the four from the WHA, two (Rob Ramage and Mike Gartner) were from Ontario and two (Rick Vaive and Michel Goulet) were from Quebec.

A heavy amount of grit came out of the 1979 Draft, as well. Four of the 21 players selected tallied up over 2,000 minutes in penalties over their NHL careers. Leading the way is Jay Wells with 2,359. Wells was selected 16^th overall by the Los Angeles Kings and was a product of the Kingston Canadians of the OHA. Ninth overall pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs Laurie Boschman was next with 2,260 PIM over 1,009 career games. Rob Ramage totalled 2,224 PIM and third overall pick of the Detroit Red Wings Mike Foligno ended his NHL career with 2,049.

It didn’t stop after the first round in 1979. NHL greats Dale Hunter (41^st overall – Quebec Nordiques), Neal Broten (42^nd overall – Minnesota North Stars), Mark Messier (48^th overall – Edmonton Oilers), Glenn Anderson (69^th overall – Edmonton Oilers) and Thomas Steen (103^rd overall – Winnipeg Jets) are just a few of the players that went in the later rounds of the draft.