The New York Islanders won their first Stanley Cup, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers in six games, in the finals.
The NHL would return to the Georgia capital in 1999 with the Thrashers, but that team would ultimately relocate away from Atlanta as well becoming the second (and current) incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets.
The collapse of the WHA also saw the much hyped super-star rookie Wayne Gretzky come to the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers.
Gretzky aside, many players made their debut in the NHL this season, both due to the WHA merger and to a change in the rules for the Entry Draft allowing eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds to be drafted for the first time; no fewer than seven Hall of Famers (Gretzky, Ray Bourque, Mark Messier, Mike Gartner, Michel Goulet, Mark Howe, and an undrafted Joe Mullen) debuted this season, along with numerous other perennial stars.
The big story of the regular season was the record-breaking undefeated streak compiled by the Philadelphia Flyers.
This ended the seven-year existence of the WHA and re-established the NHL as the sole major league in North American professional ice hockey.
Although popularly called a merger, the NHL refused to recognize the WHA's records or history as being any part of its own.
With the league expansion from 17 to 21 teams, both the regular-season schedule and playoff format were set without regard to divisional affiliation.
The 1979 NHL Entry Draft was held on August 9, 1979, at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec.
[3] The first player to wear protective headgear on a regular basis was George Owen of the Boston Bruins in the 1928–29 season.
Craig MacTavish, while playing for the St. Louis Blues, was the last helmetless player, retiring after the 1996–97 season.
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points Source: NHL.
In the U.S., the league dissolved the NHL Network, the national broadcast syndication package that aired games from the 1975–76 through the 1978–79 seasons.