WHA Hockey.TV: A Tribute to the Legends of the World Hockey Association by Mark Willand

Rich Leduc, Three others Named to Quebec League Hall of Fame

The Quebec Major Hockey League's Hall of Fame is growing by four new members. The league announced yesterday that Gilbert Delorme, Richard Leduc and Yanic Perreault are joining the player category, while Maurice Tanguay will be inducted in the builder category. All four will officially take their place in the Hall on March 31 in Montreal.

Leduc played two seasons with the Trois Rivières Ducs, scoring 117 goals and 166 assists in 114 games from 1969 to 1971. In 1971, the California Golden Seals selected him 29th overall in the NHL draft and he went on to play 10 seasons in the American Hockey League, World Hockey Association and the NHL.

Born in Ile Perrot, Quebec, LeDuc scored 117 goals in two seasons of junior with the Trois Rivieres Ducs. He spent most of his first two pro seasons with the AHL's Boston Braves and accumulated 57 goals. The young pivot was a solid role player for the Bruins in 1973-74 and played in five post-season contests when the club reached the finals.

Prior to the 1974-75 season, LeDuc signed with the WHA's Cleveland Crusaders. Over the next five seasons he topped the 30-goal mark four times including a personal best 52 for the Cincinnati Stingers in 1976-77 as the centre on the LSD line with Blaine Stoughton and Rick Dudely.  Part way through the 1978-79 season the clever sniper was acquired by the Quebec Nordiques and remained with the franchise when it joined the NHL in 1979-80.

LeDuc scored 21 goals for the Nords in the inaugural NHL season and was placed on the top line with Real Cloutier and Marc Tardif. He played 22 games the next year but eventually lost his place in the line up and was relegated to the minors before retiring.

Gerry Cheevers Cleveland Crusaders 1972-73 Profile Part 2

Gerry Cheever and the Cleveland Crusaders shut out the New England Whalers

Gerry Cheevers Cleveland Crusaders vs. Whalers 1972-73

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.