The NHL Comes to Long Island

With the impendingNFL jersey start of the World Hockey Association (WHA)NFL jerseys in the fall of 1972, the upstart league had plans to place its New York team, the Raiders, in the then brand-new NassauNFL apparel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Nassau County. However, Nassau County officials did not considercheap nfl jerseys the WHA a major league and wanted nfl merchandisenothing to do with the upstart nfl merchandiseRaiders. Since the only legal way to keep the Raiders out of the Coliseum was to get an NHL steelers jerseysteam to play theresaints jersey, William Sheafootball jersey, who had helpedfootball jerseys bring the New York Mets to the area a decade earlier, was pressed into service once againnhl jersey. Shea found a receptive earnhl jerseys in NHL president Clarence Campbellnhl team jersey, though the New York Rangers did nothockey jersey want the additional competition in the New York area. So, despite having expanded to 14 teams just two years before, the NHL hastily awarded a Long Island-based franchisenhl hockey jersey to clothing manufacturer Roy Boejersey devils, owner of the American penguins jersey Basketball Association's New York Nets. A second expansion franchise was awarded to Atlanta (the Flames) at the same time to balance the schedule.
William Shea played a majorblackhawks jersey role in bringing a hockey team to Long Island.The new team was widely expected to take the Long Island Ducks name used by an Eastern Hockey League franchise; the more geographically expansive "New York Islanders" came largely as a surprise. The fledgling Islanders, who were soon nicknamed the "Isles" by the local newspapers, had an extra burden to pay in the form of a $4 million territorial fee to the nearby New York Rangersmlb jersey. The arrival of the Islanders effectivelymlb jerseys doomed the Raiders; they were forced to play in Madison Square Garden under onerous lease terms andbaseball jersey were forced out of town in the middle of their second season.
While the Islanders secured veteran forward Ed Westfall from the Boston Bruins in the 1972 NHL Expansion Draft, juniorbaseball jerseys league star Billy Harris mlb baseball jerseyin the 1972 NHL Amateur Draft, and a few other respectable players, several other draftees jumped phillies jerseyto the WHA. Unlike mostcardinals jersey other expansion teams' general managers, Islanders GM Bill Torrey did not make many trades for veteran players in the early years. Rather than pursue a "win now" strategy of getting a few veterans to boost attendance (a tactic which proved disastrous for many teams in the long run), Torrey was committed to building through the draft.