The league was officially incorporated in June of 1971 by Gary Davidson and Dennis A. Murphy and promised to ice twelve teams in various markets around Canada and the United States.
[1] The first player selected in the general draft was United States men's national ice hockey team member Henry Boucha, taken by the Minnesota Fighting Saints (who also selected the Governor of Minnesota, Wendell Anderson, with a late pick).
The final two teams participating in this draft were the Dayton Aeros and the Los Angeles Sharks.
[2] In all, just under 1100 selections were made by the 12 teams, who could now focus their efforts on signing players for the first season of play.
The first WHA games, on October 11, 1972, were won by the Alberta Oilers 7–4 over the Ottawa Nationals and the Cleveland Crusaders 2–0 over the Quebec Nordiques.
Behind Winnipeg, the West had a thrilling race with four teams fighting for three playoff spots, trading second through fifth place all season.
But because the WHA by-laws did not specify additional tiebreakers, the league Board of Governors met to decide how to break the tie.
The attendance of 5,435 was lower than expected, perhaps because it was locally televised and Quebec City was hit by a major snow storm.
During the all-star break, the WHA Players' Association was officially formed, with Curt Leichner of Portland as general counsel and Bill Hicke of the Alberta Oilers as president.
The Whalers defeated the Jets 9–6 in the deciding game in Boston on May 6, 1973,[6] with Larry Pleau scoring a hat trick.