Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9
Round 10
Round 11
Round 12
Round 13
Round 14
Round 15

Picks by Team
ATL | BOS | BUF  
CAL | CHI | DET  
KAN | LOS | MIN  
MON | NYI | NYR  
PHI | PIT | STL
TOR | VAN | WAS

Kansas City's problems were especially severe on draft day. The 2-year-old Scouts had failed to attract a local buyer and were essentially out of cash until another ownership group was willing to purchase the team. As a result, Kansas City had little organization in its front office on draft day, and was clearly the poster child for financial hardship.

Once again, the draft was conducted via conference call from the NHL's Montreal office in order to preserve its secrecy and save money. This time, the new Central Scouting Service, directed by former Pittsburgh general manager Jack Button, took some extra pressure off NHL teams. The CSS, which would become one of the NHL's most important institutions, rated the top prospects from each of the Canadian major-junior leagues and U.S. colleges. This helped save on scouting expenses, while also creating a much-needed consensus in the scouting ranks. As a result, the 1976 draft's early rounds produced a far better crop than what had come out of the 1975 draft even though both drafts had lost several of their best prospects when the NHL had allowed the one-time selection of 18- and 19-year-olds in 1974.

Despite vows of fiscal responsibility, NHL teams could not make good on all their promises. While they did limit the total number of draft picks to 135 -- a big drop from 217 in 1975 -- they continued the off-season practice of offering contracts to all levels of draftees. These contracts were generally not as inflated as they had been in past years, enabling teams to show more off-season control over expenses.

Within three weeks of the draft, nine of the 18 first-round picks, as well as several picks from other rounds, had signed NHL contracts. More signings trickled in over the summer as the NHL clearly won its annual battle with the WHA in signing the vast majority of the top talent.

The draft's most notable selection came when California made history by taking Swedish defenseman Bjorn Johansson with the No. 5 overall pick. Johansson became the first European-trained player to be picked in the first round of an NHL draft. A total of eight European players were drafted, with four of them eventually making it to the NHL. This group included future NHL All-Stars Kent Nilsson and Thomas Gradin.

While there were no big winners at the 1976 draft due to its limitations, the big loser was the WHA, which continued to suffer in its bid for survival and credibility. The WHA had scrambled to move the first five rounds of its 1976 draft up to May 17 in order to have more lead time for enticing players before the NHL draft, but the earlier draft, which conflicted with its own playoff championship round, was a complete failure. Even Randy Carlyle, a first-rounder that the WHA thought it had locked up for the 1976-77 season, turned his back on the league after being picked by Toronto in the NHL draft's second round. The handwriting was already on the wall for the rival league, which would survive for just another three seasons before merging with the NHL.