 In Canada , there was widespread outrage over the denial of an expansion team to Vancouver in 1967 . Three years later , the NHL added a third Canadian team when the Vancouver Canucks , formerly of the Western Hockey League , were admitted as an expansion team for the 1970 – 71 season , along with the Buffalo Sabres , another team whose owners had bid unsuccessfully for an expansion team in 1967 . The Canucks were placed in the East Division , despite being on the west coast , while the Chicago Black Hawks were shifted to the West in an attempt to equalize the divisions ' strength . The league also gave the Sabres and Canucks the first two picks in each round of the 1970 NHL Amateur Draft , offering them a better opportunity to build their rosters than the 1967 expansion teams had . Buffalo 's first round pick was Gilbert Perreault , a future Hall of Famer who would play seventeen seasons in Buffalo . 
