1974 NHL expansion draft
The 1974 NHL expansion draft was held on June 12, 1974. The draft took place to fill the rosters of the league's two expansion teams for the 1974–75 season, the Kansas City Scouts and the Washington Capitals.
Rules
Each expansion team was to select twenty-one players from the established clubs, three players from each of the fourteen existing teams: two goaltenders and nineteen skaters. Thus, a total of 42 players were selected.Most of the existing teams could protect two goalies and fifteen skaters. First-year pros were exempt. The existing teams could lose only a maximum of three players, including a maximum of one goaltender. The Seals, Canadiens, Flyers, and Blues could exempt themselves from losing a goaltender because they had each lost a goalie in the 1970 Expansion Draft; however, the Canadiens and Blues chose to expose a goalie.
In the first two rounds, goaltenders were selected; skaters were selected in rounds three through twenty-one. After each of the first, third and subsequent rounds in which any of the established teams lost a player, the team in question moved one unprotected player to its protected list.