Along with the Kansas City Scouts, the Capitals joined the National Hockey League as an expansion team for the 1974–75 season.
His first act as owner was to hire Hall of Famer Milt Schmidt as general manager.
[2] Along with the Kansas City Scouts, the Capitals joined the NHL as an expansion team for the 1974–75 season.
In their first season, the Capitals would set an NHL record for futility, losing 67 of 80 games, and only winning one on the road.
The Scouts fared only marginally better (getting their first win against the Capitals, albeit in their tenth game of existence), and the expansion was widely seen as having been a mistake.