The encyclopedia of the World Hockey Association, which ran from 1972 to 1979. It featured some of the sport's biggest stars early on, such as Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe, Bernie Parent, J.-C. Tremblay, Frank Mahovlich and Gerry Cheevers, then later, some of its younger players would develop into Hall-of-Fame players who played into the 1990s, such as Michel Goulet, Mike Gartner, Rod Langway, Mark Howe, Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky. In between, the WHA had its own star players, such as Marc Tardif, Real Cloutier, Robbie Ftorek and Andre Lacroix, and colorful characters such as Gordie "Machine Gun" Gallant, Gilles "Bad News" Bilodeau, Dave Hanson and the Carlson Brothers, the real-life inspiration (and actors) of the famous move Slap Shot. It was a league daring enough to place a team in the desert (Phoenix) and two in the Deep South (Houston and Birmingham). It was a league that actively pursued European talent, such as Anders Hedberg, Ulf Nilsson, Kent Nilsson, Vaclav Nedomansky and Lars-Erik Sjoberg. It was the league that brought the sport into the modern era. In 1979, four of its teams joined the National Hockey League, and in these four teams, lives on through today. With complete and accurate statistics for all players, all teams, all seasons. Includes the history of the league and for each of its teams, game-by-game line scores, standings, game summaries of important games, international competition, draft lists, all-star games, hat tricks, and many fascinating, interesting, amusing but never dull anecdotal stories.
