Greatest NHL Drafts of All-time: #1 – Fed by WHA merger, Class of 1979 is so good it’s unfair
Which are the greatest NHL draft classes ever? Some years gave us multiple all-time superstars. Others yielded incredible depth and dozens of long, productive NHL careers. In naming my top five classes, I searched for the years that gave us the best combinations of star power and depth.
I lied. I’ve named six classes. I couldn’t bring myself to cut any of my top six and make it a top five. Each of the classes is simply that good. With that, let’s conclude the series with No. 1: the 1979 Draft.
No. 1: The 1979 Draft
Why it’s No. 1: Seven Hall of Famers. Seven 1,000 point scorers. Boosted by the WHA merger, the Class of 1979 was loaded like no other.
Top scorer: Mark Messier, 1,887 points
Hall of Famers: Mark Messier, Ray Bourque, Mike Gartner, Glenn Anderson, Michel Goulet, Guy Carbonneau, Kevin Lowe
Other notables: Dale Hunter, Brian Propp, Neal Broten, Thomas Steen, Rick Vaive, John Ogrodnick, Rob Ramage, Mats Naslund, Paul Reinhart, Brad McCrimmon, Pelle Lindbergh
Straight up: the exercise was rigged. In naming the greatest NHL Draft Classes of all-time, I might have been better off excluding 1979. After all, it’s the only class that essentially combined two age cohorts into a single year. Following the 1979 NHL/WHA merger, the NHL draft age was lowered from 20 to 19, and that new age cutoff meant underagers who had already played in the WHA were draft eligible. So a significant portion of the 1979 field already had extensive experience playing pro hockey against top-notch competition.
That said – the WHA factor actually hurt certain teams who were enamored with the idea of picking seasoned pros. That’s why defenseman Rob Ramage went No. 1 overall. He had been a first-team all-star as a WHA rookie. Four of the top six picks in the 1979 Draft had WHA experience under their belts. And that caused some of the younger prospects to fall. The Bruins, for instance, stole Ray Bourque at eighth overall. He went on to a truly remarkable career in which he was named a first- or second-team all-star 17 years in a row and 19 times overall. No blueliner in NHL history has more goals, assists, or points. Yet he doesn’t get the same love as legends like Bobby Orr, Nicklas Lidstrom, Doug Harvey, Eddie Shore and Denis Potvin. Bourque is somehow…underrated?
The Edmonton Oilers made out like bandits in 1979, landing three Hall of Famers and dynasty pillars in Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson and Kevin Lowe. Messier and Anderson went in the third and fourth rounds, while Lowe was the final pick of the first round.
You could close your eyes, throw a dart at the 1979 draft board and hit a Hall of Famer. On top of Bourque and the Oilers trio, there was 700-goal scorer Gartner, elite sniper Michel Goulet and three-time Selke Trophy winner Guy Carbonneau. The draft also delivered seven different 1,000-point players, with Dale Hunter and Brian Propp hitting the mark.
Amazingly, the Class of 1979 could’ve been even better. Wayne Gretzky should’ve been eligible, having played in the WHA for the previous two seasons, but refused to void his contract as he wanted to avoid getting taken first overall by the Rockies. As a tradeoff for keeping Gretzky, the Oilers were dropped to the final spot in the first round. So their “punishment” was Lowe.
The 1979 Draft was also shortened to six rounds, down from 22 the year prior. That meant some other elite talents, such as Dino Ciccarelli and Tim Kerr, went undrafted.
Even without Gretzky and the undrafted stars, 1979 stands in a class of its own for its blend of elite-tier Hall of Famers and depth. It set the tone for the NHL’s power balance across the next decade.
1979 top five picks
1. Rob Ramage, Colorado Rockies
2. Perry Turnbull, St. Louis Blues
3. Mike Foligno, Detroit Red Wings
4. Mike Gartner, Washington Capitals
5. Rick Vaive, Vancouver Canucks
1979 top five, redrafted (actual spot in brackets)
1. Ray Bourque (8th)
2. Mark Messier (48th)
3. Mike Gartner (4th)
4. Glenn Anderson (69th)
5. Michel Goulet (20th)
Previous entries in the Greatest Draft Classes series
Greatest NHL Drafts of All-time: #2 – Lemieux, Roy, Hull, Robitaille make 1984 the Superstar Class
Greatest NHL Drafts of All-time: #3 – Was the Class of 2003 the deepest in NHL history?
Greatest NHL Drafts of All-time: #4 – Led by McDavid, Class of 2015 looks more legendary by the year
Greatest NHL Drafts of All-time: #5 – Class of 1990 scores two legends in Jagr, Brodeur
Greatest NHL Drafts of All-time: #6 – Modano, Mogilny, Selanne arrive in Class of 1988
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