Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6

Picks by Team
ATL | BOS | BUF  
CHI | COL | DET  
EDM | HAR | LOS  
MIN | MON | NYI  
NYR | PHI | PIT
QUE | STL | TOR
VAN | WAS | WIN

The WHA factor was the major reason the NHL had to change the name of the draft from "Amateur Draft" to "Entry Draft." With eight WHA players eligible for the draft, it was unfair to label it a selection of amateurs, so the NHL changed the name. The NHL knew it had to let all players who had spent 1978-79 in the WHA come into the league, regardless of their age. This created particular problems for Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier, who had played in the WHA as 17-year-olds and would normally have been too young to enter the NHL in 1979. In Gretzky's case, the NHL avoided a draft dilemma by letting Edmonton retain his rights from its WHA franchise. Messier, however, was coming from a defunct WHA team (Cincinnati) and had to join a new one in the NHL. But if Messier was eligible at age 18, would that mean all 18-year-olds would have to be eligible as well?

The NHL struggled with the question of underage eligibility. A debate over this topic, plus the busy agenda for the 1979 June meetings, forced the league to postpone the draft from the weekend of June 10, 1979, until Aug. 9, 1979. This gave NHL officials an extra two months to settle the eligibility issue, which would require the blessing of the NHLPA as well as the key players in major junior hockey. To make matters worse, the NHL found itself under outside pressure from agent Art Kaminsky, who insisted that client Tom McCarthy be eligible for the draft or he would sue the NHL. McCarthy was not due to turn 19 until the end of July, so by waiting until August, the NHL was able to draft him as a 19-year-old rather than an 18-year-old. But drafting in August also meant that the NHL would be holding the latest draft in its history, another record that is all but certain to stand the test of time.

Finally, the issue was settled when the league agreed to allow the drafting of 19-year-olds in 1979 with a promise to widen the pool to include 18-year-olds in 1980. To placate the junior leagues, the NHL agreed that drafted 19-year-olds would be returned to their junior teams if they did not make the NHL out of training camp. No underage NHL player was allowed to be sent to the minors without permission of his junior team. Underage players were also allowed to join Team Canada or the U.S. Olympic team, although only the college players chose this route. This rule also affected the eight former WHA players, who were to return to the junior teams that owned their rights when they entered the WHA. In the final analysis, the NHL selected 53 underage juniors directly out of major junior hockey, plus the eight players from the WHA. All eligible players who were not drafted were given the option of signing with any NHL team as unrestricted free agents or returning to junior and re-entering the draft in 1980. NHL teams, however, had to sign underage free agents prior to Nov. 1, 1979, otherwise they would re-enter the draft. A total of 31 undrafted players, including Dino Ciccarelli, Tim Kerr, J-F Sauve, Ron Flockhart and Dave Pichette, ended up signing with NHL teams for the 1979-80 season. As with draft picks, once a free agent signed with an NHL team, he had to either be kept on the NHL roster or remain with his junior team.

The 1979 draftees were also the first players required to wear helmets in the NHL, under a mandatory helmet rule passed during the summer of 1979. Former WHA players were exempted from the helmet rule because they had played professionally during the 1978-79 season. The draftees were immediately kept busy, as teams rushed to sign them before the opening of training camps on Sept. 15, 1979. Some teams opened their rookie camps as early as Sept. 9, meaning draft picks had only one month to sign in order to report to camp on time. Because of the short lead time before the season, the draft was limited to six rounds and a total of 126 players. For the first time in history, teams were not allowed to pass in a round and re-enter later in the draft. Nor were they allowed to sell draft picks on draft day. No teams passed and no late-round picks were sold, marking the dawn of a new era in draft history and a primary tenet of the draft as we know it today.