Hi everyone!

July 15, 1976. Forty-seven years ago, newspapers across North America reported that the California Golden Seals were going to move to Cleveland. It was a day Seals fans had expected for many years, yet it came rather suddenly. After all, 1975-76 had been arguably the Seals’ best season, although many would argue that in 1969, when they finished second in the West Division and took the L.A. Kings to seven games, this was in fact their best season. The difference between those two seasons, however, was that the 1969 Seals were a team that was successful because its veterans all had career years. Guys like Ted Hampson, Bill Hicke, Earl Ingarfield, and others were growing long in the tooth, but were very productive. In 1976, however, the team was young, and the sky seemed the limit. Most of the team’s core was no more than 25-26 years old. This was quite simply the team of the future, the team that was going to finally take the Seals to the promised land. Fans came out in record numbers (a record in Oakland, that is…). The Seals finally had a responsible owner who had grand plans for the brand new arena that was going to knock the hockey world’s socks off. And just like that, it all went up in a puff of smoke. I’ve posted a new article about the devastating announcement, which you can read in the articles section here.

Normally, this is the time when I announce new inductees to the Seals Hall of Fame, but this year I decided not to do so. You may have noticed that I didn’t open up a vote this time around. I felt that the Hall of Fame had reached the point where if we continued to add more members it would begin to lose its lustre. After all, the Seals and Barons, if you count both NHL and WHL played for just 17 years, and so there is a finite number of suitable candidates for the Hall. The Hall is, of course, reserved for the franchise’s very best: players and other members of the team who were key figures in the franchise’s history. Many of the HOF candidates who are left have been up for election for many years and have fallen short every time. If baseball can officially eliminate a HOF candidate who doesn’t get the minimum number of votes, I feel the Seals Hall should do the same. Not everyone can be a member of the Hall of Fame, unfortunately, and while it may be unfair that guys like Curtis Joseph, Rod Brind’Amour, Keith Tkachuk, Dave Taylor, Bernie Nicholls, Peter Bondra, Pavel Datsyuk, and others are not in the Hockey Hall of Fame, the line between great and very good has to be drawn somewhere. I don’t want to rule out future inductions to the HOF, but for now the decision stands.

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and that you will all be back for another update next week! Until next time, stay gold!