We take a break today from our usual NHL Saturday fare in order to bring you the story of the Oakland Seals—the only expansion team from 1967 that doesn’t exist anymore. While the St. Louis Blues, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Los Angeles Kings, and the Dallas Stars (originally the Minnesota North Stars) all have won Stanley Cup titles in their long existence, the Seals died a slow death.

Long forgotten in the Bay Area now, as Oakland becomes the first city ever to lose all 4 major professional sports teams, the Seals franchise was lousy: it only made 2 NHL playoff appearances, and those came in 1969 and 1970 when 4 of the 6 expansion franchises automatically qualified for the postseason at the time. In 1969, the Kings eliminated the Seals in 7 games, and in 1970, the Penguins swept the Seals out quickly.

And that was it: the team tried to rebrand itself in its fourth season as the California Golden Seals, but after doing so, the franchise never made the playoffs again. In fact, the team relocated to Cleveland by 1976 before all but folding there after the 1977-1978 season. The franchise basically merged with the North Stars at that time to prevent 2 NHL teams from folding, and the history of the Seals franchise has been forgotten.

In Oakland, the team played in the Oakland Coliseum Arena, where the NBA’s Golden State Warriors also played—next door to the MLB’s Athletics and the NFL’s Raiders. Six times in 9 seasons, the Seals finished last in their division; the team’s best season didn’t even produce a .500 record, either. A 29-36-11 record in 1969 and a second-place finish represents the high point for the franchise. The low point was pretty low.

With just 13-55-10 record in 1974, the Golden Seals hit rock bottom. Including the 2 seasons in Cleveland as the Barons, the organization went through 8 head coaches in just 11 years. The franchise’s overall record of 229-488-141 is pretty unsightly: that’s a .349 winning percentage. This year’s San Jose Sharks were bad with a .287 winning percentage, but to sustain a record that bad for 11 seasons overall takes some hard work.

What stands out the most to us is the fact the franchise never posted a winning record: how is that possible? Compared to the other 5 expansion teams of the era, it’s just brutal. The “next-worst” organizations were L.A. and Pittsburgh, both of whom took until 1975 to post winning records. This was just due to the expansion methods used at the time and the established dominance of the Original Six. Here’s the rub …

The Seals just got worse from 1976 on through the seasons in Cleveland, while their brethren were starting to win more often. That tells us management was not good; coaching was not stable (as noted); and the talent just was not there or being developed as a result. That recipe will bury almost any expansion team in its tracks before it has a chance to even poke its head above water. Remember that about the (Golden) Seals.