Eastern Professional Hockey League
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For information about the EPHL beginning play in 2008, please see Eastern Professional Hockey League (2008)
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.
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.
[edit] Member teams
- Hull-Ottawa Canadiens (1959-1963)
- Kingston Frontenacs (1959-1963)
- Montreal Royals(1959-1961)
- Sault Thunderbirds (1959-1962) (moved to Syracuse for 1962-63 season)
- Sudbury Wolves (1959-1963)
- Trois-Rivières Lions (1959-1960) (moved to Kitchener for 1960-61 season)
- Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen (1960-1961)
- Kitchener Beavers (1961-1962)
- North Bay Trappers (1961-1962)
- Syracuse Braves (1962-1963) (moved to St. Louis during the 1962-63 season)
- St. Louis Braves (1962-1963)
