Eastern Professional Hockey League
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The Eastern Professional Hockey League (EPHL) was a minor professional ice hockey league which operated primarily in Ontario and Quebec from 1959 to 1963.
The NHL had established working relationships with teams in leagues such as the AHL and WHL, but these leagues were not fully under the control of the NHL. The Eastern Professional Hockey League was created in 1959 as the first farm league fully run and controlled by the NHL. While the league proved to be a success on the ice, it largely failed off the ice. Attendance in these smaller cities could not support professional hockey, and by 1962, the league was reduced to just four teams.
The members of the league were:
- 1959-60 : Hull-Ottawa Canadiens, Kingston Frontenacs, Montreal Royals, Sault Thunderbirds, Sudbury Wolves and Trois-Rivières Lions.
- 1960-61 : Hull-Ottawa Canadiens, Kingston Frontenacs, Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen, Montreal Royals, Sault Thunderbirds and Sudbury Wolves.
- 1961-62 : Hull-Ottawa Canadiens, Kingston Frontenacs, Kitchener Beavers, North Bay Trappers, Sault Thunderbirds and Sudbury Wolves.
- 1962-63 : Hull-Ottawa Canadiens, Kingston Frontenacs, Syracuse Blazers/St. Louis Braves and Sudbury Wolves.
During its final season the league played an interlocking schedule with the International Hockey League. Following the demise of the EPHL, the NHL created the new Central Hockey League of minor-pro farm teams in larger, midwestern U.S. cities. The Kingston franchise was transferred essentially intact to Minneapolis where it played as the Minneapolis Bruins.
