Western Canada Hockey League
Encyclopedia
The Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey
league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925 and disbanded in 1926.
and Calgary Tigers
of the Big Four League saw their league collapse on allegations of pay for amateurs. Together with the Regina Capitals
and Saskatoon Sheiks
the teams organized the openly-professional Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). The league was organized under the presidency of E. L. Richardson of Calgary, with Wesley Champ of Regina, Robert Pinder of Saskatoon, K. C. MacKenzie of Edmonton and J. Lloyd Turner of Calgary becoming the directors. The league, like the NHL, played six-man hockey, without the old 'rover' position. The new league was recognized as a comparable league to the existing Pacific Coast Hockey Association
(PCHA). The winner of a series between the champions of the two leagues would go on to face the winner of the National Hockey League
(NHL) for the coveted Stanley Cup
.
The WCHL's first season, 1921–22, saw the Saskatoon Sheiks have money problems and relocate to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
, to become the Moose Jaw Sheiks. The Edmonton Eskimos won the regular season standings, but were upset in the playoffs by second place Regina Capitals. The Capitals then faced the Vancouver Millionaires
of the PCHA to determine who would go on to face the Toronto St. Patricks
of the NHL for the Stanley Cup
. Vancouver won the series against Regina, but lost to Toronto in the Stanley Cup finals.
In the next season, the Moose Jaw team folded, but the WCHL returned to Saskatoon with a new franchise, the Saskatoon Crescents, led by Newsy Lalonde
. The WCHL and PCHA started playing inter-league games, but kept separate standings. The Edmonton Eskimos won the regular season, but lost to the WCHL's Vancouver Maroons in the Stanley Cup playoff.
In the 1923–24 WCHL season, the Calgary Tigers finished in first place while Edmonton finished at the bottom of the standings. The playoffs were changed this year, too, despite a protest from the Montreal Canadiens
of the National Hockey League. Instead of the two western leagues playing off to see who would play the NHL champion for the Stanley Cup, the president of the PCHA, Frank Patrick, insisted that the NHL champion had to play the PCHA winner first. This change ended up not making any difference for Montreal, as the team swept Vancouver and then Calgary for the Stanley Cup.
For the 1924–25 WCHL season, the PCHA folded and two of its teams, the Vancouver Maroons and Victoria Cougars
joined the WCHL, giving the league six teams. The Saskatoon franchise became the Saskatoon Sheiks
. The league had some top-level talent on its rosters, with stars such as Bun Cook
and Bill Cook
and rookie Eddie Shore
. The Victoria Cougars, coached and managed by PCHA founder Lester Patrick
, won the league championship and went on to face the Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup. Victoria easily beat the Canadiens three games to one, out scoring them 16 to 8. This would be the shining moment for the WCHL as Victoria became the first non-NHL team to win the Stanley Cup since the formation of the NHL in 1917. Since then, no non-NHL team has won the Cup. In fact, the next season, 1925–26, would be the last time a team from outside the NHL would even challenge for it.
With the NHL rapidly expanding into the United States, salaries were on the rise and the WCHL was finding it difficult to keep its star players. In 1925, the Regina Capitals relocated to Portland
, Oregon
, and rekindled the old name of Portland Rosebuds
, which had been out of use since 1918. With the move into the U.S. came a name change for the WCHL. "Canada" was dropped and the league was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL).
The Edmonton Eskimos won the regular season for the third time in five seasons, but it was the Victoria Cougars who won the league championship and moved on to play for the Stanley Cup. Expectations were high for the defending Stanley Cup champions, but Montreal's other NHL team, the Montreal Maroons
, were too strong for Victoria handily beating them three games to one and out scoring them 10 to 3.
With financial problems too great to overcome, the league folded following the 1925–26 season, leaving the NHL as the only top-level professional league in North America. The NHL board of governors purchased the contracts of every player in the WHL for $258,000. However, separate deals were made in stocking two NHL expansion teams. The rights to the Victoria Cougars' players were bought by the Detroit franchise (which would eventually become the Detroit Red Wings
) causing the team to be named the Detroit Cougars in their honor, and the Portland Rosebuds' players' rights were purchased by Frederic McLaughlin
for his new Black Hawks
team.
The remnants of five former WHL teams formed the minor-professional Prairie Hockey League
in 1926. While minor-pro and junior league hockey thrived in the west for many years thereafter, top-level professional hockey did not return to western Canada until 1970, when the Vancouver Canucks
joined the NHL
. To date, the Canucks have yet to win a Stanley Cup, making 1925 the last year when a BC team won the Stanley Cup.
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925 and disbanded in 1926.
History
In 1921, the Edmonton EskimosEdmonton Eskimos (hockey)
The Edmonton Eskimos were a Canadian amateur and later professional men's ice hockey team that existed from 1905 to 1927. The Eskimos challenged three times for the Stanley Cup, losing each time; in 1908 versus the Montreal Wanderers, in 1910 versus the Ottawa Senators, and Ottawa again in 1923...
and Calgary Tigers
Calgary Tigers
The Calgary Tigers, often nicknamed the Bengals, were an ice hockey team based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada from 1920 until 1927 as members of the Big Four League, Western Canada Hockey League and Prairie Hockey League. The Tigers were revived in 1932, playing for a short-lived four years in the...
of the Big Four League saw their league collapse on allegations of pay for amateurs. Together with the Regina Capitals
Regina Capitals
The Regina Capitals were a professional ice hockey team originally based in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan in the Western Canada Hockey League , founded in 1921.-Franchise history:...
and Saskatoon Sheiks
Saskatoon Sheiks
The Saskatoon Sheiks were a professional ice hockey team in the Western Canada Hockey League and Prairie Hockey League from 1922 to 1928. The team was based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, except for the end of the 1922 season, when they played in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.The team entered the WCHL in...
the teams organized the openly-professional Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). The league was organized under the presidency of E. L. Richardson of Calgary, with Wesley Champ of Regina, Robert Pinder of Saskatoon, K. C. MacKenzie of Edmonton and J. Lloyd Turner of Calgary becoming the directors. The league, like the NHL, played six-man hockey, without the old 'rover' position. The new league was recognized as a comparable league to the existing Pacific Coast Hockey Association
Pacific Coast Hockey Association
The Pacific Coast Hockey Association was a professional men's ice hockey league in western Canada and the western United States, which operated from 1911 to 1924 when it then merged with the Western Canada Hockey League...
(PCHA). The winner of a series between the champions of the two leagues would go on to face the winner of the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
(NHL) for the coveted Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
.
The WCHL's first season, 1921–22, saw the Saskatoon Sheiks have money problems and relocate to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, to become the Moose Jaw Sheiks. The Edmonton Eskimos won the regular season standings, but were upset in the playoffs by second place Regina Capitals. The Capitals then faced the Vancouver Millionaires
Vancouver Millionaires
The Vancouver Millionaires were a professional ice hockey team that competed in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and the Western Canada Hockey League between 1911 and 1926...
of the PCHA to determine who would go on to face the Toronto St. Patricks
Toronto St. Patricks
The Toronto St. Patricks professional men's ice hockey team started as an amateur ice hockey organization. In 1919, the club purchased the Toronto National Hockey League franchise from the NHL. The club renamed the franchise the Toronto St. Patricks club and operated the franchise until 1927, when...
of the NHL for the Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
. Vancouver won the series against Regina, but lost to Toronto in the Stanley Cup finals.
In the next season, the Moose Jaw team folded, but the WCHL returned to Saskatoon with a new franchise, the Saskatoon Crescents, led by Newsy Lalonde
Newsy Lalonde
Édouard Cyrille "Newsy" Lalonde was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward in the National Hockey League and a professional lacrosse player, regarded as one of hockey's and lacrosse's greatest players of the first half of the 20th century and one of sport's most colourful characters...
. The WCHL and PCHA started playing inter-league games, but kept separate standings. The Edmonton Eskimos won the regular season, but lost to the WCHL's Vancouver Maroons in the Stanley Cup playoff.
In the 1923–24 WCHL season, the Calgary Tigers finished in first place while Edmonton finished at the bottom of the standings. The playoffs were changed this year, too, despite a protest from the Montreal Canadiens
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...
of the National Hockey League. Instead of the two western leagues playing off to see who would play the NHL champion for the Stanley Cup, the president of the PCHA, Frank Patrick, insisted that the NHL champion had to play the PCHA winner first. This change ended up not making any difference for Montreal, as the team swept Vancouver and then Calgary for the Stanley Cup.
For the 1924–25 WCHL season, the PCHA folded and two of its teams, the Vancouver Maroons and Victoria Cougars
Victoria Cougars
The Victoria Cougars were a major league professional ice hockey team that played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association from 1922 to 1924, and in the Western Hockey League from 1924 to 1926...
joined the WCHL, giving the league six teams. The Saskatoon franchise became the Saskatoon Sheiks
Saskatoon Sheiks
The Saskatoon Sheiks were a professional ice hockey team in the Western Canada Hockey League and Prairie Hockey League from 1922 to 1928. The team was based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, except for the end of the 1922 season, when they played in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.The team entered the WCHL in...
. The league had some top-level talent on its rosters, with stars such as Bun Cook
Bun Cook
Frederick Joseph "Bun" Cook was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who played for the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins in the National Hockey League and the Saskatoon Crescents in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association.Cook was part of the Bread Line with his brother Bill Cook and Frank...
and Bill Cook
Bill Cook
William Osser Xavier Cook was a Canadian professional ice hockey right winger who played for the New York Rangers in the National Hockey League and Saskatoon Crescents in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association....
and rookie Eddie Shore
Eddie Shore
Edward William Shore was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman, principally for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League, and the longtime owner of the Springfield Indians of the American Hockey League, iconic for his toughness and defensive skill.Shore won the Hart Trophy as the...
. The Victoria Cougars, coached and managed by PCHA founder Lester Patrick
Lester Patrick
Curtis Lester "The Silver Fox" Patrick born in Drummondville, Quebec, Canada, was a professional ice hockey player and coach associated with the Victoria Aristocrats/Cougars of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association , and the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League...
, won the league championship and went on to face the Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup. Victoria easily beat the Canadiens three games to one, out scoring them 16 to 8. This would be the shining moment for the WCHL as Victoria became the first non-NHL team to win the Stanley Cup since the formation of the NHL in 1917. Since then, no non-NHL team has won the Cup. In fact, the next season, 1925–26, would be the last time a team from outside the NHL would even challenge for it.
With the NHL rapidly expanding into the United States, salaries were on the rise and the WCHL was finding it difficult to keep its star players. In 1925, the Regina Capitals relocated to Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, and rekindled the old name of Portland Rosebuds
Portland Rosebuds
Portland Rosebuds is the name of at least three professional teams based in Portland, Oregon during the first half of the 20th century. Two were professional men's ice hockey teams playing their home games at the Portland Ice Arena, one from 1914 to 1918 and another in 1925-6...
, which had been out of use since 1918. With the move into the U.S. came a name change for the WCHL. "Canada" was dropped and the league was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL).
The Edmonton Eskimos won the regular season for the third time in five seasons, but it was the Victoria Cougars who won the league championship and moved on to play for the Stanley Cup. Expectations were high for the defending Stanley Cup champions, but Montreal's other NHL team, the Montreal Maroons
Montreal Maroons
The Montreal Maroons was a professional men's ice hockey team in the National Hockey League . They played in the NHL from 1924 to 1938, winning the Stanley Cup in 1926 and 1935...
, were too strong for Victoria handily beating them three games to one and out scoring them 10 to 3.
With financial problems too great to overcome, the league folded following the 1925–26 season, leaving the NHL as the only top-level professional league in North America. The NHL board of governors purchased the contracts of every player in the WHL for $258,000. However, separate deals were made in stocking two NHL expansion teams. The rights to the Victoria Cougars' players were bought by the Detroit franchise (which would eventually become the Detroit Red Wings
Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League , and are one of the Original Six teams of the NHL, along with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, New York...
) causing the team to be named the Detroit Cougars in their honor, and the Portland Rosebuds' players' rights were purchased by Frederic McLaughlin
Frederic McLaughlin
Frederic McLaughlin was the first owner of the Chicago Black Hawks.Born in Chicago, Illinois, McLaughlin inherited a successful coffee business from his father, who died in 1905. McLaughlin was a graduate of Harvard University and served in the United States Army during World War I...
for his new Black Hawks
Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won four Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926, most recently coming in 2009-10...
team.
The remnants of five former WHL teams formed the minor-professional Prairie Hockey League
Prairie Hockey League
The Prairie Hockey League was a Canadian professional ice hockey league in Alberta and Saskatchewan that was created following the demise of the Western Hockey League in 1926. It operated for two seasons....
in 1926. While minor-pro and junior league hockey thrived in the west for many years thereafter, top-level professional hockey did not return to western Canada until 1970, when the Vancouver Canucks
Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver, :British Columbia, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The Canucks play their home games at Rogers Arena, formerly known as General Motors Place,...
joined the NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
. To date, the Canucks have yet to win a Stanley Cup, making 1925 the last year when a BC team won the Stanley Cup.
Franchises
- Calgary TigersCalgary TigersThe Calgary Tigers, often nicknamed the Bengals, were an ice hockey team based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada from 1920 until 1927 as members of the Big Four League, Western Canada Hockey League and Prairie Hockey League. The Tigers were revived in 1932, playing for a short-lived four years in the...
(1921–1926) - Edmonton EskimosEdmonton Eskimos (hockey)The Edmonton Eskimos were a Canadian amateur and later professional men's ice hockey team that existed from 1905 to 1927. The Eskimos challenged three times for the Stanley Cup, losing each time; in 1908 versus the Montreal Wanderers, in 1910 versus the Ottawa Senators, and Ottawa again in 1923...
(1921–1926) - Regina CapitalsRegina CapitalsThe Regina Capitals were a professional ice hockey team originally based in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan in the Western Canada Hockey League , founded in 1921.-Franchise history:...
(1921–1925), Portland RosebudsPortland RosebudsPortland Rosebuds is the name of at least three professional teams based in Portland, Oregon during the first half of the 20th century. Two were professional men's ice hockey teams playing their home games at the Portland Ice Arena, one from 1914 to 1918 and another in 1925-6...
(1925–1926) - Saskatoon Crescents (1922–1924), Saskatoon SheiksSaskatoon SheiksThe Saskatoon Sheiks were a professional ice hockey team in the Western Canada Hockey League and Prairie Hockey League from 1922 to 1928. The team was based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, except for the end of the 1922 season, when they played in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.The team entered the WCHL in...
(1924–1926) - Saskatoon SheiksSaskatoon SheiksThe Saskatoon Sheiks were a professional ice hockey team in the Western Canada Hockey League and Prairie Hockey League from 1922 to 1928. The team was based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, except for the end of the 1922 season, when they played in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.The team entered the WCHL in...
(1921–1922), Moose Jaw Sheiks (1921–1922) - Vancouver Maroons (1924–1926)
- Victoria CougarsVictoria CougarsThe Victoria Cougars were a major league professional ice hockey team that played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association from 1922 to 1924, and in the Western Hockey League from 1924 to 1926...
(1924–1926)
Seasons
| Season | Regular season winner | Playoff champion |
|---|---|---|
| 1921–22 | Edmonton Eskimos | Regina Capitals |
| 1922–23 | Edmonton Eskimos | Edmonton Eskimos |
| 1923–24 | Calgary Tigers | Calgary Tigers |
| 1924–25 | Calgary Tigers | Victoria Cougars |
| 1925–26 | Edmonton Eskimos | Victoria Cougars |
See also
- List of Stanley Cup champions
- Pacific Coast Hockey AssociationPacific Coast Hockey AssociationThe Pacific Coast Hockey Association was a professional men's ice hockey league in western Canada and the western United States, which operated from 1911 to 1924 when it then merged with the Western Canada Hockey League...
- World Hockey AssociationWorld Hockey AssociationThe World Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major competition for the National Hockey League since the collapse of the Western Hockey League in 1926...
- List of ice hockey leagues