1974-75 WHA Goal Scoring Leaders

In the short-lived seven year history of the World Hockey Association, 1974-75 was one of the more significant as far as individual performances go. Bobby Hull of the Winnipeg Jets scored 77 goals, the most any player would score in a single WHA season.

Bobby Hull – Winnipeg Jets

Hull, a five time 50 goal scorer in the National Hockey League with the Chicago Blackhawks, once owned the NHL record for a short time with the 58 goals he scored in 1968-69. He played in each of the seven WHA seasons, all with the Jets. In his first four years in the league, he surpassed the 50 goal plateau. He scored 303 goals over his WHA career and 610 in the NHL. Including playoff goals, Bobby scored over 1,000 goals during his professional hockey career.

Wayne Rivers – San Diego Mariners

Wayne Rivers of the San Diego Mariners finished second with 54 goals, 23 less than Bobby Hull. This proved to be the pinnacle of his professional hockey career that lasted from 1961-62 to 1978-79. Rivers played five years in the WHA, scoring 158 goals in 357 regular season games. Between 1961-62 and 1968-69, Rivers played 108 games in the National Hockey League with the Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers, scoring just 15 goals.

Serge Bernier – Quebec Nordiques

Serge Bernier of the Quebec Nordiques also finished the 1974-75 season with 54 goals and actually should get the tie-breaker nod over Rivers because he played two less games. Serge was in his second of six years in the WHA, all with Quebec. He made the jump back to the NHL with the Nordiques in 1979-80 but his career was over after the following season.

Bernier was the fifth overall pick at the 1967 NHL Amateur Draft, taken from the Sorel Eperviers and going to the Philadelphia Flyers. He was the only player of the first fifteen picked in that draft to play in the NHL. Before jumping to the WHA for the 1973-74 season, Serge played for the Flyers and Los Angeles Kings. In total, he played 302 regular season games in the NHL, scoring just 78 goals while appearing in 417 in the WHA and scoring 230.

Anders Hedberg – Winnipeg Jets

Anders Hedberg of the Winnipeg Jets played his first of four seasons in the World Hockey Association in 1974-75. He finished fourth with 53 goals in just 65 games. As a bit of hockey trivia, Hedberg followed Mark Howe as only the second of five recipients of the Lou Kaplan Trophy as WHA rookie of the year. Hedberg scored more than 50 and totalled more than 100 points in each of his four years in the WHA. He topped out in 1976-77 with 70 goals and 131 points while only playing 68 games.

Hedberg moved to the National Hockey League in 1978-79, a year before the demise of the WHA. He signed with the New York Rangers and played with the club until retirement after the 1984-85 season. He played a total of 286 regular season games in the WHA and scored 236 goals. In 465 NHL regular season games, his goal total was a much lower and still respectable 172.

Tom Simpson – Toronto Toros

Finishing fifth with 52 goals was Tom Simpson of the Toronto Toros. Simpson was in his third of five years in the WHA. Tom was drafted in the sixth round of the 1972 NHL Amateur Draft by the St. Louis Blues but chose to jump from the Oshawa Generals directly to the WHA for the inaugural 1972-73 season. Simpson began with the Ottawa Nationals and continued with the franchise as it moved to Toronto then on to Birmingham, Alabama where they became the Birmingham Bulls. He also played 15 games with the Edmonton Oilers in his final season.

The 4 Bill Hunter Trophy Winners In The WHA

Over the entire seven year history of the WHA, the Bill Hunter Trophy was given out each year to the player in the rebel league that finished the regular season with the most points. To put it another way, it was the World Hockey Association’s equivalent to the NHL’s Art Ross Trophy.

 Just four players won the award over the seven years, three winning on two occasions. Looking back, one would think that hockey greats Bobby Hull and Gordie Howe would be among this select group. However, that is not the case.

Andre Lacroix

Playing for the Philadelphia Blazers in the WHA’s inaugural season, Andre Lacroix was the first ever recipient of the Bill Hunter Trophy. Lacroix scored 50 goals and assisted on 74 others in 1972-73 for a total of 124 points. He was also the Bill Hunter Trophy winner two years later in 1974-75 as a member of the San Diego Mariners. That season, he scored just 41 but assisted on 106 for 147 points. He is one of just four major league hockey players to surpass 100 assists in a season. The other three are Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr.

Andre was no stranger to being at the top of a scoring race. He won the Eddie Powers Trophy in 1965-66 as the OHA’s top point-getter while playing major junior for the Peterborough Petes. Lacroix played in every WHA season from 1972-73 to 1978-79. He also appeared in 325 NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Black Hawks and Hartford Whalers.

Mike Walton

In between Lacroix’s two Bill Hunter Trophy wins was Mike Walton, WHA scoring champion in 1973-74. Walton scored 57 goals and assisted on 60 for 117 points with the Minnesota Fighting Saints. It was the first of three years Walton would play in the WHA, all with Minnesota. He had a respectable NHL career, playing in 588 regular season games between 1965-66 and 1978-79 with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks. Not a Calder Trophy winner in the National Hockey League, Walton made some hockey trivia, winning the CHL rookie of the year in 1964-65 and the AHL rookie of the year in 1965-66.

Marc Tardif

The Quebec Nordiques dominated the Bill Hunter Trophy for the final four years of the WHA with Marc Tardif and Real Cloutier alternating victories. Tardif won in 1975-76 with 71 goals and 77 assists for 148 points. His 154 points on 65 goals and 89 assists in 1977-78 will forever be a WHA record for most points in a single season. At the time, it was a major league record, two points better than Phil Esposito’s total with the Boston Bruins in 1970-71.

Tardif was the second overall pick at the 1969 NHL Amateur Draft by the Montreal Canadiens. He played parts of four seasons with the Habs before jumping to the Los Angeles Sharks of the WHA for the 1973-74 season. He moved to the Nordiques midway through the 1974-75 season and remained with the club throughout their WHA days and four years into their existence in the NHL.

Real Cloutier

Real Cloutier is the only one of the four players to begin his career in the WHA. He was a ninth overall draft pick of the Nordiques at the 1974 WHA Amateur Draft. He played with Quebec from 1974-75 until the demise of the WHA after the 1978-79 season. He carried on with the NHL Nordiques for four more years and ended his NHL career with two partial seasons with the Buffalo Sabres.

Cloutier was the Bill Hunter Trophy winner in 1976-77 and 1978-79. In his first win, he scored 66 and assisted on 75 for 141 points. He reached 75 goals in 1978-79, adding 54 assists for 129 points. In 1973-74, as a junior with the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL, Cloutier honed his scoring touch with 93 goals and 123 assists for 216 points in just 69 games. However, Real was a full 35 points behind league leader Pierre Larouche of the Sorel Eperviers who led the league with 251 points.