Western Canada Hockey League

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article refers to the professional Western Canada Hockey League, and not the amateur league that became the Western Hockey League.

The Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. After World War I, the National Hockey League started to become the most dominant hockey league in North America and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) was starting to lose ground. It was decided that in order to compete with the NHL, more teams were needed in Western Canada, particularly the prairies. With this need, the Western Canada Hockey League was born in 1921 and was designed to be a "sister" league to the PCHA. It was agreed that the winner of a series between the champions of the two leagues would go on to face the winner of the NHL for the coveted Stanley Cup. The four founding teams of the WCHL were the Edmonton Eskimos, Calgary Tigers, Regina Capitals, and Saskatoon Sheiks. The owners of these new clubs needed stars and were known to pay hefty sums for NHL players, such as Newsy Lalonde, who went to the Regina Capitals.

Contents

[edit] League History

This article is part of the Evolution of the NHL series.


The Pacific Coast Hockey Association had been using antiquated rules for hockey while the National Hockey League was modifying itself to try to improve the game. While the PCHA came up with innovations such as changing on the fly, forward passing, and penalty shots, it refused to take the big step and drop the "rover" position, like the NHL. Along with the six usual positions on the ice, one goaltender, three forwards, and two defencemen, the PCHA was still using a seventh man called a rover. It was felt that rovers crowded the ice and reduced scoring, along with bringing the overall excitment level down. When the WCHL was formed, they followed the PCHA and kept the rover.

After only months from the start of the new season, one of its teams, the Saskatoon Sheiks, was having money problems. In order to try to solve the problems, the team was relocated to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, to become the Moose Jaw Sheiks. The team, however, didn't last and after their inaugural season, they folded. The Saskatoon Crescents would replace them for the 1922-23 WCHL season. That first season saw the Edmonton Eskimos win the regular season standings, but be 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.

The next season saw some innovation by the two western leagues as both of them dropped the "rover" position and with a reduction to only three teams in the PCHL, the WCHL and PCHA agreed to start playing inter-league games, but keep separate standings. The newly renamed Vancouver Maroons won both the regular season standings and the league championship as did the Edmonton Eskimos. The two teams faced off against each other with Vancouver winning. Vancouver then went on to face the Ottawa Senators of the NHL, but lost 3-1 in a best-of five series.

The third season, 1923-24, saw the Calgary Tigers go from third overall in a four team league to first and the Edmonton Eskimos go from first to worst. 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 winner of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association first. It ended up not mattering for Montreal, though, as Montreal swept Vancouver and then Calgary for the Stanley Cup.

After three seasons of having three leagues compete for the Stanley Cup, the Pacific Coast Hockey Association folded. Two of its teams, the Vancouver Maroons and Victoria Cougars merged with the Western Canada Hockey League. As well as the addition of two new teams, the Saskatoon Sheiks were reborn out of the Saskatoon Crescents. This meant that now both major professional ice hockey leagues in North America had six teams.

The new-look WCHL had some real talent amongst its rosters, with stars such as Bun and Bill Cook and a rookie by the name of Eddie Shore. It looked like the WCHL was in great shape and 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 pinnacle and shining moment for the Western Canada Hockey League 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 a desperate move, the Regina Capitals picked-up and 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 States, came a name change for the league. The "Canada" was dropped and it was simply renamed the Western Hockey League.

While it was the Edmonton Eskimos who had won the regular season for the third time in five seasons, 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. 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 Major McLaughlin for his new Chicago Black Hawks team.

In the meantime, five teams, the Calgary Tigers, Saskatoon Sheiks, Regina Capitals, Moose Jaw Warriors, and Edmonton Eskimos re-formed and created a semi-pro league called the Prairie Hockey League (PrHL). This league existed for two seasons, but then folded after the 1927-28 season. While five teams started their inaugural season, only three teams, the Saskatoon Sheiks, the newly renamed Moose Jaw Maroons, and Regina Capitals started their second and final season.

While minor and junior league hockey thrived in the west for many years thereafter, major professional hockey did not return to western Canada until 1970, when the Vancouver Canucks joined the NHL.

[edit] Franchises

[edit] 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

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../w/e/s/Western_Canada_Hockey_League_356f.html"
In other languages