This is it! Our last NHL Saturday entry on the WHA has arrived, and it was a shitshow of a season, that’s for sure. The Indianapolis Racers folded just 25 games into the year, leaving only six teams left standing on the ice. Five of them would make the playoffs, with the Birmingham Bulls being the odd organization out. In the end, the Winnipeg Jets claimed the last league title, beating the Edmonton Oilers in the WHA Finals.

1979 Gordie Howe Trophy: Dave Dryden, G, Edmonton (original); Robbie Ftorek, C, Cincinnati (revised)

This was the only time a goaltender won the Howe vote, and our rule is to reserve this award for forwards. So vote-winner Dave Dryden of the Edmonton Oilers will have to settle for the Hatskin below. In the meantime, our top candidates here are Quebec Nordiques right wing Réal Cloutier (1.68 ppg, 0.73 gcpg) and Cincinnati Stingers center Robbie Ftorek (1.45, 0.54). There are few clarifying details to outline here next.

Quebec finished much higher in the standings, and the Nordiques also had three skaters in each of the two key sabermetric categories here (points per game, goals created per game). Meanwhile, Ftorek was hauling the ice alone for the Stingers, who claimed the last playoff berth by just two points over the Bulls. We always have valued these elements in picking a winner, so we go with Ftorek. His career needs some light …

He played 15 games in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings over two seasons before joining the WHA in 1974. He spent three years with the Phoenix Roadrunners before joining the Stingers for the final two seasons of the league; he moved back to the NHL with the Nordiques before finishing his career across three-plus seasons with the New York Rangers. His 77 assists led the WHA in this final season, by the way. What a ride!

1979 Dennis A. Murphy Trophy: Rick Ley, New England (original); Rob Ramage, Birmingham (revised)

The vote winner here was New England Whalers veteran Rick Ley (27 points, 135 PIMs). The best blueliner, though, may have been Birmingham rookie Rob Ramage (48, 165). Yet his team missed the postseason, somehow, despite his plus-10 rating. We also have Edmonton youngster Dave Langevin (27, 76) and Oilers veteran Paul Shmyr (47, 119, plus-37) to consider. The latter won this nod from us in 1974 and 1976, as well.

But we have to eliminate the teammates, and that leaves us with an underwhelming vote winner and dominant player who missed the postseason. The Bulls gave up the most goals in the league, although they still almost made the playoffs. There’s nothing impressive about Ley’s statistical line, however. He also was minus-3 for a team that outscored its opponents. We usually would go with the playoff-bound skater here.

Yet we cannot this time, since Ley clearly was a beneficiary of his teammates, while Ramage was pretty dominant on a bad team. And in the end, Birmingham barely failed to surpass the Stingers. For the record, Ramage would go onto a 15-year NHL career, with four All-Star Game selections and two Stanley Cup titles (1989, 1993). He also would have won the Kaplan below if not for someone else who had a decent NHL run, too.

1979 Ben Hatskin Trophy: Dryden (original, confirmed)

Dryden took the Triple Crown of WHA goaltenders by topping his peers in wins (41), GAA (2.89), and shutouts (3). No other goalie won more than 25 times, and no other backstop finished under 3.00 in goals-against average, either. While the Oilers finished 11 points ahead of every other team in the league, we have to understand that was partially because Dryden was so dominant. And if his last name sounds familiar?

He was the older brother of NHL legend Ken Dryden, who won our Vezina three times and Conn Smythe twice. This elder brother made his NHL debut in 1962 but really didn’t thrive until joining the Buffalo Sabres in the early 1970s, where he was an All Star finally in 1974. He then jumped to the WHA, playing the five seasons in the league, the last four with the Oilers. He played one final NHL season with Edmonton, too.

1979 Lou Kaplan Trophy: Wayne Gretzky, C, Indianapolis/Edmonton (original, confirmed)

It will always be a sports trivia question: for which team did the Great One make his major professional debut? The answer is the Indianapolis Racers, for eight games in 1978. He ended up with the Edmonton Oilers when the Racers owner needed money early in the final WHA season. Indianapolis would fold 17 games later, of course, but C Wayne Gretzky was well on his way to superstardom already in Edmonton.

His rookie totals: 46 goals, 64 assists, 110 points, 80 games, two teams. Gretzky finished fourth among WHA skaters in both PPG (1.38) and GCPG (0.53). Ramage was impressive himself, but no one could hold a candle here to Gretzky. We don’t need to detail his NHL achievements, but suffice to say? He won our Hart ten times; he won our Conn Smythe three times as well. He still holds a lot of pro hockey records, by the way.

1979 WHA Playoff MVP: Rich Preston, RW, Winnipeg (original); Terry Ruskowski, C, Winnipeg (revised)

The Jets dropped the Oilers in six games to win the Finals, but they owed a lot to the Whalers, who pushed Edmonton to seven games in the semifinals. In the end, Winnipeg RW Rich Preston (13 points, 15 PIMs) won the vote for the playoff MVP. We’re not sure why, of course, since six different skaters posted at least a point a game for the champions across their ten-game run to the Avco Cup. So why Preston? Good inquiry.

We’re more inclined to look at RW Willy Lindström (15 points, WHA-best ten goals) or C Terry Ruskowski (13 points, WHA-best 12 assists, and 23 PIMs in only eight games). The latter is our preferred choice in this matter, when it comes to the Jets. Can we consider any Oilers, though? Gretzky posted a WHA-best 20 points and ten goals in 13 games, but we think the contributions of Ruskowski to the champions is better.

Ruskowski was a WHA veteran who had never played in the NHL before joining the Houston Aeros in 1974. This was his only year in Winnipeg after the Aeros folded, and he would go on to play ten seasons in the NHL with Chicago, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Minnesota. He finished tenth in the Lady Byng vote once (1986). Otherwise, he had a relatively undistinguished professional ice hockey career after this moment.