During the season, an agreement was reached whereby four of the WHA's teams, the Edmonton Oilers, Quebec Nordiques, Winnipeg Jets and New England Whalers would be admitted to the National Hockey League (NHL) as expansion teams for the 1979–80 NHL season, and the WHA would cease operations.
| TEAM | W | L | T | Pts | ||
| 1 |  | Edmonton | 48 | 30 | 2 | 98 |
| 2 |  | Quebec | 41 | 34 | 5 | 87 |
| 3 |  | Winnipeg | 39 | 35 | 6 | 84 |
| 4 |  | New England | 37 | 34 | 9 | 83 |
| 5 |  | Cincinnati | 33 | 41 | 6 | 72 |
 | Birmingham | 32 | 42 | 6 | 70 | |
 | Indianapolis | 5 | 18 | 2 | 12 | |
 | Soviet | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | |
 | Czechoslovakia | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 | |
 | Finland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |