1967–68 Philadelphia Flyers season

The 1967–68 Philadelphia Flyers season was the Philadelphia Flyers' inaugural season and the first National Hockey League (NHL) season in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since the Philadelphia Quakers' 1930–31 season. The Flyers won the West Division, but lost in the first round of the playoffs to the St. Louis Blues in seven games.

NHL expansion

Philadelphia waited almost 35 years from when the Quakers' played their last home game (a 4–0 loss to Chicago on March 17, 1931) for the NHL to return when the city was awarded an expansion franchise on February 9, 1966. Philadelphia was a bit of a surprise choice since a group from the nearby city of Baltimore were considered favorites to land a team.^[6]

The man who often receives the most credit for bringing NHL hockey back to Philadelphia is Ed Snider. While attending a basketball game in 1964 at the Boston Garden, the then vice-president of the Philadelphia Eagles observed a crowd of Boston Bruins fans lining up to purchase tickets to see a last-place team.^[7] Intrigued, he began making plans for a new arena upon hearing the NHL was looking to expand due to fears of a competing league taking hold on the West Coast and the desire for a new television contract in the United States. Snider made his proposal to the league and the Philadelphia group — including Snider, Bill Putnam, Jerome Schiff, and Eagles owner Jerry Wolman — was chosen over the Baltimore group.

On April 4, 1966, Putnam announced there would be a name-the-team contest and that orange, black and white would be the team colors.^[8] Wanting what he referred to as "hot" colors, Putnam's choice was influenced by the orange and white of his alma mater, the University of Texas, and the orange and black of Philadelphia's previous NHL team, the Quakers.^[8] Also announced on April 4 was the hiring of a Chicago firm to design the team's arena.^[8]

Details of the name-the-team contest were released on July 12, 1966.^[8] As sponsor of the contest, ballots were available at local Acme Markets grocery stores and included a top prize of a RCA 21" color television, two season tickets for both the second and third prize winners, and a pair of tickets to a game for the next 100 winners.^[8] Among the names considered behind the scenes were Quakers, Ramblers, and Liberty Bells.^[8] The first two were the names of previous Philadelphia hockey teams and given the connotations of losing (Quakers) and the minor leagues (Ramblers), were passed over. Liberty Bells, though seriously considered, was also the name of a local race track. Bashers, Blizzards, Bruisers, Huskies, Keystones, Knights, Lancers, Raiders, and Sabres were among the other names considered.^[8]

The flying P has been the Flyers' primary logo since the beginning.

It was Ed Snider's sister Phyllis who ended up naming the team when she suggested Flyers on a return trip from a Broadway play.^[8] Ed knew immediately it would be the winning name, since it captured the speed of the game and went well phonetically with Philadelphia. On August 3, 1966, the team name was announced.^[8] Of the 11,000 ballots received, more than 100 selected Flyers as the team name and were entered into a drawing to select a winner. 9-year-old boy Alec Stockard from Narberth, who had spelled it "Fliers" on his entry,^[8] won the drawing and was declared the winner.

With the name and colors already known, Philadelphia advertising firm Mel Richmann Inc. was hired to design a logo and jersey.^[8] With Tom Paul as head of the project, artist Sam Ciccone designed both the logo and jerseys with the concept to represent speed.^[8] Ciccone's winged P design, four stylized wings attached to a slanted P with an orange dot to represent a puck, was considered the "obvious choice" over his other designs which included a winged skate.^[8] Ciccone's jersey design, a stripe down each shoulder and down the arms, represented wings.^[8]

Off-season

The men hired to build the expansion Flyers were Bud Poile as general manager and Keith Allen as head coach.^[9][10] Both were former NHL players and were Western Hockey League coaches in the years preceding expansion, Poile with the San Francisco Seals and Allen with the Seattle Totems.^[9][10] On May 8, 1967, the Flyers purchased the American Hockey League's Quebec Aces and with them acquired sixteen professional players and the rights to sixteen amateur players.^[11] The NHL Expansion Draft was held a month later on June 6.^[12] The six expansion franchises selected 20 players from the Original Six teams, though most of the players available were either aging veterans or career minor-leaguers before expansion occurred.^[12] Among the Flyers' 20 selections were Bernie Parent, Doug Favell, Ed Van Impe, Joe Watson, Lou Angotti (who was named the Flyers' first captain),^[13] Leon Rochefort, and Gary Dornhoefer.^[12] The following day, the Flyers made two selections in the 1967 NHL Amateur Draft, notably Serge Bernier 5th overall from the Sorel Éperviers.

Regular season

The Flyers made their debut on October 11, 1967, losing 5–1 on the road to the California Seals.^[14] Bill Sutherland scored the first goal in franchise history. They won their first game a week later, defeating the St. Louis Blues on the road, 2–1.^[15] The Flyers made their home debut in front of a crowd of 7,812, shutting out their trans-Pennsylvania rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, 1–0 on October 19.^[16] With all six expansion teams grouped into the same division, the Flyers were able to win the division with a below .500 record and after being forced to play their last seven home games on the road (five of them at Le Colisée in Quebec City, the home of their AHL affiliate) due to a March 1 storm blowing parts of the Spectrum's roof off.^[1]

The team was led offensively by Leon Rochefort in goals (21) and Lou Angotti in assists (37) and points (49). Bill Sutherland was the only other player on the team with at least 20 goals and Gary Dornhoefer was the only other player with at least 30 assists. Rochefort was the only Flyer to take part in the NHL All-Star Game. Despite the lack of offensive firepower, the Flyers were strong enough defensively to be a respectable 8–15–1 against Original Six teams, winning at least one game against all six and winning three of their four games against the defending Stanley Cup champion Toronto Maple Leafs. 22-year-old goaltenders Doug Favell and Bernie Parent split time in net and put up similar numbers. Favell finished 3rd in Calder Memorial Trophy voting.^[17]

Season standings

Playoffs

The Flyers returned to the Spectrum in time to open up their first playoff series on April 4, 1968, against the St. Louis Blues. The Blues came into the series as underdogs, but they took Game 1 1–0. Pat Hannigan scored the Flyers first ever playoff goal 1:32 into the first period of Game 2. Tied going into the third period, Leon Rochefort's goal with 13:09 left proved to be the game winner in a 4–3 result. The series shifted to St. Louis and the Flyers lost both Games 3 and 4. With the Flyers on the verge of elimination, Rosaire Paiement scored a hat trick in Game 5 and the Flyers won 6–1. Returning to St. Louis for Game 6, Don Blackburn’s goal with 8:42 left in the 2nd overtime forced a Game 7. However, the Flyers lost Game 7 by a score of 3–1.

Schedule and results

Regular season

Playoffs

Player statistics

Skaters

• Position abbreviations: C = Center; D = Defense; G = Goaltender; LW = Left Wing; RW = Right Wing
• = Joined team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, signing) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Flyers only.
• = Left team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, release) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Flyers only.

				Regular season						Playoffs
No.	Player	Age	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	+/-	PIM	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
7	Angotti, LouLou Angotti	30	C	70	12	37	49	4	35	7	0	0	0	2
12 !12, 24	Dornhoefer, GaryGary Dornhoefer	24	RW	65	13	30	43	6	134	3	0	0	0	15
9	Rochefort, LeonLeon Rochefort	28	RW	74	21	21	42	−1	16	7	2	0	2	2
18	Hoekstra, EdEd Hoekstra	30	C	70	15	21	36	6	6	7	0	1	1	0
10	Selby, BritBrit Selby	22	LW	56	15	15	30	−3	24	7	1	1	2	4
11	Sutherland, BillBill Sutherland	33	LW	60	20	9	29	1	6	7	1	3	4	0
8	Blackburn, DonDon Blackburn	29	LW	67	9	20	29	−2	23	7	3	0	3	8
22	Kennedy, ForbesForbes Kennedy	32	C	73	10	18	28	4	130	7	1	4	5	14
14	Hannigan, PatPat Hannigan	31	RW	65	11	15	26	6	36	7	1	2	3	9
16	LaForge, ClaudeClaude LaForge	31	LW	63	9	16	25	8	36	5	1	2	3	15
4	Miszuk, JohnJohn Miszuk	27	D	74	5	17	22	1	79	7	0	3	3	11
3	Watson, JoeJoe Watson	24	D	73	5	14	19	12	56	7	1	1	2	28
2	Van Impe, EdEd Van Impe	27	D	67	4	13	17	−5	141	7	0	4	4	11
15	Lacroix, AndreAndre Lacroix	22	C	18	6	8	14	0	6	7	2	3	5	0
15	Peters, GarryGarry Peters	25	C	31	7	5	12	−2	22	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—
5	Gauthier, JeanJean Gauthier	30	D	65	5	7	12	0	74	7	1	3	4	6
24	Zeidel, LarryLarry Zeidel	39	D	57	1	10	11	12	68	7	0	1	1	12
17	Hicks, WayneWayne Hicks	30	RW	32	2	7	9	−5	6	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—
19	Stratton, ArtArt Stratton	32	C	12	0	4	4	−4	4	5	0	0	0	0
21	Johnson, JimJim Johnson	25	C	13	2	1	3	−1	2	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—
20	Paiement, RosaireRosaire Paiement	22	RW	7	1	0	1	1	11	3	3	0	3	0
30	Parent, BernieBernie Parent	22	G	38	0	1	1	-98 !N/A	2	5	0	0	0	0
20	Gendron, Jean-GuyJean-Guy Gendron	33	LW	1	0	1	1	1	2	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—
1	Favell, DougDoug Favell	22	G	37	0	0	0	-98 !N/A	37	2	0	0	0	5
6	Hanna, JohnJohn Hanna	32	D	15	0	0	0	1	0	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—
12	MacSweyn, RalphRalph MacSweyn	25	D	4	0	0	0	0	0	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—
21 !21, 22	Nolet, SimonSimon Nolet	26	RW	4	0	0	0	−1	2	1	0	0	0	0
20	Wright, KeithKeith Wright	23	LW	1	0	0	0	1	0	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—
24	Ball, TerryTerry Ball	23	D	1	0	0	0	−1	0	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—
21	Carruthers, DwightDwight Carruthers	23	D	1	0	0	0	0	0	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—
19	Pelletier, RogerRoger Pelletier	22	D	1	0	0	0	0	0	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—	-1 !—

Goaltenders

Awards and records

Awards

Records

Milestones

Transactions

The Flyers were involved in the following transactions from May 3, 1967, the day after the deciding game of the 1967 Stanley Cup Finals, through May 11, 1968, the day of the deciding game of the 1968 Stanley Cup Finals.^[32]

Purchase of Quebec Aces

On May 8, 1967, the Flyers purchased the Quebec Aces of the American Hockey League (AHL).^[11] Here is a partial list of players acquired in the transaction.

NHL Expansion Draft

Philadelphia's picks at the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft, which was held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, on June 6, 1967.^[46]

Trades

Trade notes

• ^a The Penguins had to send a player or cash to the Flyers. On March 1, Art Stratton was sent to the Flyers.^[53]

Signings

Free agency

The following players were signed by the Flyers via free agency.

Re-signed

The following players were re-signed by the Flyers.

Draft picks

The Flyers signed the following of their draft picks.

Draft picks

NHL Amateur Draft

Philadelphia's picks at the 1967 NHL Amateur Draft, which was held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, on June 7, 1967.^[60]

Players drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1967 and their NHL career regular season statistics

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	Team (league)	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	W	L	T	GAA
1	5	Serge Bernier	Center	Canada	Sorel Éperviers (QJHL)	302	78	119	197	234	—	—	—	—
2	14	Al Sarault	Defense	Canada	Pembroke Lumber Kings (CJAHL)	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

NHL Special Internal Amateur Draft

Philadelphia's picks at the 1967 NHL Special Internal Amateur Draft, which was held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, on June 7, 1967.^[59] Sponsored players aged 20 before May 31, 1967, who played as amateurs during the 1966–67 season were eligible for selection.^[59] Only four selections were made in this draft.^[59]

Special Internal Amateur Draft selections and their NHL career regular season statistics^[58][61][62]

Player	Position	Nationality	Team (league)	NHL rights	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	W	L	T	GAA
John Marshall	Right Wing	Canada	Markham Seal-a-Wax (MJBHL)	Toronto Maple Leafs	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Ken Schutz	Right Wing	Canada	London Nationals (OHA)	Toronto Maple Leafs	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

Farm teams

The Flyers were affiliated with the Quebec Aces of the AHL,^[3] whom they purchased on May 8, 1967, the Seattle Totems and Phoenix Roadrunners^[5] of the WHL, and the Knoxville Knights of the EHL.^[4] Quebec finished second in their division and made it to the Calder Cup Finals before losing to the Rochester Americans in six games. Head coach Vic Stasiuk was awarded the Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award as coach of the year and Simon Nolet won the John B. Sollenberger Trophy as the league's leading scorer.^[63] Seattle finished 2nd in the 5-team WHL and won the Lester Patrick Cup as league champions. Knoxville finished 9th in the 12-team EHL and missed the playoffs in what proved to be their final season in existence.

References

General

• hockeyDB.com: Roster and player statistics · Results and Schedule
• hockey-reference.com: Roster and Statistics · Schedule and Results
• Flyers History: Season Overview · Game Scores & Results · Playoff Results

Specific

External links

• "Flyers Media Guide: 1967–1968". Philadelphia Flyers. Retrieved December 23, 2014. 
• Mulvoy, Mark (February 19, 1968). "Expansion's Bright New Heroes". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved November 8, 2014.