Gerry Cheevers: The WHA Years 1972-1975
Courtesy of Hockey Legends
The world of professional hockey changed in 1972 with the birth of the World Hockey Association. "The WHA came along and everything was helter skelter," Gerry remembers. Cheevers was selected by New England in the inaugural WHA draft, but was traded to the Cleveland Crusaders prior to the WHA's debut season. "I had wonderful days in Cleveland. I would never trade them in." It seemed rather peculiar that Gerry, just after having won a second Stanley Cup with a dominant Bruins line-up, would leave for other pastures. "I was struggling to make the money I thought I deserved with the Bruins," Cheevers explains. "They had a negotiator who was a pretty hardcore guy. He was a lawyer and didn't know much about hockey." During that heady 1971-72 season, Gerry Cheevers was only in goal for five Bruins' losses. "They offered me a very minimal raise. It sort of hit me. I called Tommy Johnson, who was our coach, and said, 'Tommy, I can't take this. I've got an offer that'll stagger you.' He said, 'Don't do anything. Come back in three or four days,' so I cam back in three or four days and Tommy said, 'I'm here to offer you whatever the other team offered you.' I told him what Cleveland offered and he said, 'Can't do it, Gerry. Do they need a coach?'"
Cheevers was in a dilemma. "I was negotiating with Nick Miletti in Cleveland — a great man — and the Bruins came up a little bit, but it wasn't even fifty percent of Cleveland's offer. I'm the type of guy who spends six or seven years in one place and then am ready to move on so I went to Cleveland and met a whole new group of guys." Gerry already knew a few of the Crusaders through his Boston Bruins affiliation — he had played with Bob Dillabough, Skip Krake and Ron Buchanan previously, but met a number of new teammates who became lifelong friends. "Paul Shmyr was there. Gerry Pinder. Great players plus a bunch of kids who would never have gotten a chance if not for the WHA. Bobby Whidden, the other goaltender, is a great friend of mine to this day," smiles Cheevers. "We competed hard and went to the semi-finals a couple of years."
But Cleveland wasn't the final stop for the all-star netminder. "There was a money crunch there and people don't act too rationally, regardless of whether you're the owner or a player. None of us acted too wisely. Boston (Bruins) was struggling in goal after four-and-a-half years. I met with them privately and they told me they would like to have me back. But those WHA days were great days. The bottom line of the WHA was 'Mission accomplished.' Four teams became NHL teams. It brought international players into the mix, salaries rose. It gave jobs to 150 or more players but it eventually brought an extra hundred players into the NHL," Cheevers states.
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