California Golden Seals

California Seals, Oakland Seals, California Golden Seals, Cleveland Barons
Oakland Seals
Founded	1967-1968
As the Seals: Home ice	Oakland Arena
As the Seals: Based in	Oakland, California
As the Seals: Colors	Royal Blue, Kelly Green and White (1967-1970) Kelly Green, Calfirornia Gold and Snow White (1970-1974) Pacific Teal, Yellow and White (1974-1975)
As the Barons: Home ice	Richfield Coliseum
As the Barons: Based in	Richfield, Ohio
As the Barons: Colors	Red, black and white
League	National Hockey League

The Oakland Seals were a team in the National Hockey League (NHL). They were also known as the California Seals, California Golden Seals and Cleveland Barons.

Founded: 1967

Arenas: As the Seals Oakland Arena, As the Barons Richfield Coliseum

Uniform colors:

Logo design:

Stanley Cup Finals appearances: none

Stanley Cups won: none

Added in the NHL's 1967 expansion, along with the Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and St. Louis Blues.

History

File:Seals016.jpg

When Charles Finley bought the Seals, the team wore white skates.

Six expansion teams were added to the NHL for the 1967, partly because of the need to expand the league, and partly to squelch the Western Hockey League's attempt to turn itself into a major league. The San Francisco Seals were one such team from the WHL, and after it was purchased by Barry van Gerbig and moved across the bay to Oakland, the Seals joined the NHL.

Van Gerbig had planned to have the team play out of a new arena in San Francisco, but the arena never came into fruition, and the Seals played out of the Oakland Arena in Oakland instead. The franchise was named California Seals in order to draw in fans from San Francisco. The plan failed, and on December 8, 1967, only two months into the season, Van Gerbig changed the team's name to Oakland Seals.

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The Seals were never successful because of poor attendance (Van Gerbig had reportedly threated to move the team elsewhere on numerous occasions if fans did not show up; first-year coach and general manager Bert Olmstead had publicly advocated the franchise move to Vancouver) as well as their dismal on-ice performance. This led to a major reshuffling of both the Seals' front office as well as the on-ice product (only seven out of the 20 Seals players remained) after only one season. The new-look Seals were somewhat successful, making the playoffs for two years. Unfortunately, those were the only two years that the Seals franchise made the playoffs.

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Before the 1970-71 NHL season, the Seals were bought by flamboyant Oakland Athletics owner Charlie O. Finley, who changed the team's name to the California Golden Seals, among other gimmicks intended to sell the team to the fans (among them the changing of the Seals' team colors to match that of the Athletics). However, this was all for naught, as the Seals finished with the worst record in the NHL that year, and a series of promotional disasters would lead to the NHL assuming control of the franchise in February of 1974.

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The Seals moved to Cleveland in 1976 and became the Barons.

The attempt to resurrect the Seals and move the team back to San Francisco in a new arena largely failed, and the team moved to Cleveland in 1976, rechristened as the Cleveland Barons, and under the ownership of the Gund family. The Barons played in the suburban Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, Ohio, the arena with the largest seating capacity in the NHL at the time. The Barons would not benefit from playing there, as a combination of factors would eventually lead the Gund family to merge the team with the Minnesota North Stars. As part of the deal, the Gunds became owners of the North Stars.

In 1991, the Gunds wanted to move the North Stars to the Bay Area. The NHL vetoed the move, but agreed to allow the dissolution of the North Stars-Barons merger and take some of the North Stars roster to San Jose as the San Jose Sharks. Some have suggested that the Sharks are a revival of the old Seals franchise.

Year-By-Year Record

Oakland Seals (1967-70)

Year	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS	Finish	Playoffs
1967-68¹	74	15	42	17	153	219	47	6th West	Out of Playoffs
1968-69	76	29	36	11	219	251	69	2nd West	Lost Quarterfinal (LA)
1969-70	76	22	40	14	169	243	58	4th West	Lost Quarterfinal (PIT)

¹ named California Seals from October 11 to December 8, 1967