NHL.com’s Dave Stubbs tells the story of Montreal Canadiens legend Jean Beliveau’s decision to remain with the Habs instead of taking a $1 million offer to join the WHA’s Quebec Nordiques in 1973. In doing so, Stubbs explains why the greatest Red Wing, Gordie Howe, ended up joining the Houston Aeros of the WHA after retiring from the Wings:
Gordie Howe had concluded a magnificent 25-season career with the Detroit Red Wings in 1971, and the traditional three-year waiting period was waived for his 1972 Hall of Fame induction.
But the Houston Aeros of the WHA came calling in June 1973 and Mr. Hockey, who had won the Stanley Cup four times with Detroit during the 1950s, was happy to answer, along with his family.
Howe accepted the Aeros offer of $1 million, the legend’s sons Marty Howe and Mark Howe welcomed to the fold for lesser sums. One of hockey’s biggest stars ever would line up with his boys, a trio for the ages.
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Howe, of course, was built of alloys perhaps not yet even invented. He would play six seasons with Houston and the New England Whalers of the WHA, then another with the Hartford Whalers in the NHL before his second retirement following the 1979-80 season at age 52.
The money to jump was great, no doubt. But Mr. Hockey might well have remained with the Red Wings on their management team had he felt wanted. Unhappy with almost menial roles with the team during his brief retirement, Howe wasn’t a tough sell when the Aeros approached.
“They were willing to pay what I felt I had to have, and my name and reputation are part of me,” Howe told reporters during a June 19, 1973, news conference to announce his signing with Houston. “I talked to Ned [Harkness, the Red Wings GM] just the other day and he’d said he wished he’d known my feelings. He would have given up as GM and been my assistant. At least that’s what he said. I simply told Ned that I didn’t see eye to eye with his thinking. That’s no great crime, but I wasn’t contributing much there or learning much and then the feeling grew that there were a few people who didn’t really want me there. So, well, I can’t be a hypocrite. The thing to do, I thought, was get the [heck] out. So here I am.”
Continued; Ned Harkness was almost as destructive to the Red Wings as the post-1955-Stanley Cup Jack Adams was.
