[1] The Seals were the least successful of the teams added in the 1967 expansion, never earning a winning record and only making the playoffs twice in nine seasons of play.

He decided to move the team across the Bay from the Cow Palace in Daly City to Oakland to play in the new Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena.

The Bay Area was not considered a particularly lucrative ice hockey market; however, the terms of a new television agreement with CBS called for two of the expansion teams to be located in California and other than the Los Angeles Kings there were no other prospective franchise applicants of similar pedigree to the Seals.

[3] The Seals were never successful at the gate even after the name change, and because of this poor attendance Van Gerbig threatened on numerous occasions to move the team elsewhere.

The court ruled that the NHL was a single entity, and that the teams were not competitors in an economic sense, so the league restrictions on relocation were not a restraint of trade.

Prior to the 1970–71 season, Charles O. Finley, the flamboyant and eccentric owner of Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics, purchased the Seals.

Although Seltzer's offer was slightly better financed and included a more detailed plan for revival, a majority of NHL owners from the "old establishment" voted in favor of Finley.

The original 1967 California Seals logo recolored in green and gold was often seen on trading cards and other unofficial material, but was never adopted by the team.

Finley also was the first owner to allow players to fly first class on commercial flights to games, thus starting a trend that ultimately culminated in NHL teams regularly chartering aircraft by the 21st century.

Finley also introduced the flamboyant green and gold "Seals luggage" which all players and coaches were required to carry, to identify them as the northern California NHL team.

[11] As a result of the Seals' dreadful 1970–71 season, the Canadiens had the top pick in the 1971 draft, and used it to select future Hall of Famer Guy Lafleur.

Finley refused to match the WHA's contract offers, causing five of the team's top 10 scorers from the previous season to bolt to the new league.

Devoid of any defensive talent save for goaltender Gilles Meloche, the Seals sank into last place again in 1972–73, where they would remain for the rest of their history.

[15] In early 1975, newspapers reported that the Seals and Pittsburgh Penguins were to be relocated to Denver and Seattle, respectively, in an arrangement that would have seen the two teams sold to groups in those cities that had already been awarded "conditional" franchises for the 1976–77 season.

[16] At the same time, the league announced that if the Seals' sale to the Denver group was not completed or new ownership found locally, the franchise would be liquidated at the end of the season.

After two more years of losses and with attendance worse than it had been in Oakland, the Gunds (by this time majority owners) were permitted to merge the Barons with the equally strapped Minnesota North Stars on June 14, 1978.

[1] The merged team continued as the Minnesota North Stars under the Gunds' ownership, but assumed the Barons' place in the Adams Division.

The Cleveland Barons remain the most recent team in an established North American major professional leagues to fold.

They asked the NHL for permission to move the North Stars there in the late 1980s, but the league was unwilling to abandon a traditional ice hockey market like the Twin Cities.

Meanwhile, a group led by former Hartford Whalers owner Howard Baldwin was pushing the NHL to bring a team to San Jose, where an arena was being built.

The San Jose Sharks unveiled their Reverse Retro jersey based on the final years of the Golden Seals on October 20, 2022.