National Hockey Association

Did You Know?

• The 228th Battalion was from North Bay, Ontario, training at Camp Borden and in Toronto at the time; it dropped out after the first half of the season.
• Toronto was suspended by the league after the first half of the season.

History

In November 1909, the Eastern Canada Hockey Association (ECHA), which held the Stanley Cup, was disrupted when the Montreal Wanderers were bought by P. J. Doran, owner of the Jubilee Rink in Montreal. Doran intended to move the Wanderers' games to the smaller Jubilee, reducing visiting teams' earnings. On November 25, 1909, the other ECHA teams dissolved the league and formed the Canadian Hockey Association (CHA), excluding the Wanderers. Meanwhile, Ambrose O'Brien of Renfrew, Ontario—son of a wealthy silver mine owner and founder of the Renfrew Creamery Kings—sought admission to the ECHA to compete for the Stanley Cup.

His team had applied to the Stanley Cup trustees as champions of the Federal League but was rejected. At the CHA's founding meeting on November 25 at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal, O'Brien's application to join the CHA was also rejected. After the meeting, O'Brien met Jimmy Gardner of the Wanderers in the hotel lobby; both teams had been excluded from the CHA. Together they decided to form a new league, the National Hockey Association.

With two other O'Brien-controlled teams, Cobalt and Haileybury, the NHA was founded on December 2, 1909 at a private meeting at 300 St. James Street in Montreal, adopting the ECHA's constitution. To build rivalry and attract francophone interest, O'Brien and Gardner conceived a team of francophone players managed by francophones. 'Les Canadiens'—today's Montreal Canadiens—was admitted on December 4, 1909, managed by Jack Laviolette but owned by O'Brien, with the understanding ownership would transfer to francophone sportsmen as soon as possible.

In total, O'Brien and his father Michael John O'Brien financed four teams: the Renfrew Creamery Kings (later the Renfrew Millionaires), Cobalt, Haileybury, and Les Canadiens. Cobalt and Haileybury came from the Timiskaming Professional Hockey League, Renfrew from the Federal Hockey League. With the Wanderers, the league had five teams.

Legacy

The National Hockey Association changed the game with several new rules. Games were split into three periods, the rover position was eliminated, match penalties were introduced, and teams could change players while play continued. On the business side, the NHA created a standard player contract, reserve clauses, a waiver draft, and the first salary cap. The league is often credited with being the first to use jersey numbers in hockey, requiring players to wear numbered armbands starting in the 1911–12 season, though who actually started the practice is debated.

The O'Brien Cup, made of solid silver and donated by the O'Brien family, was the NHA's championship trophy. It remained an NHL championship trophy until the Western Hockey League folded after the 1925–26 season, leaving the NHL as the only league competing for the Stanley Cup. Starting in 1926–27, the Stanley Cup became the NHL's championship trophy, and the O'Brien Cup was awarded as an NHL trophy until it was retired in 1950. Three current NHL teams trace their roots to the NHA: the Canadiens, Maple Leafs, and Senators.

The Canadiens recognize their NHA history and records, but the Maple Leafs do not claim the Blueshirts' history, which would add a Stanley Cup championship. The original Ottawa Senators continued in the NHL after the NHA ended but shut down in 1935. The current Ottawa Senators, a new franchise granted in 1992, honors the club's history back to the 1880s with banners at the Canadian Tire Centre.