Haileybury Hockey Club

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Haileybury Hockey Club
City:	Haileybury, Ontario
League:	NHA
Founded:	1910

The Haileybury Hockey Club (also known as the Haileybury Comets) was a professional ice hockey club of the National Hockey Association which played in Haileybury, Ontario, during the 1910 season. Its record in that season was four wins and eight losses, scoring 77 goals for and 83 goals against. Notable players included Alex Currie, Art Ross, Paddy Moran and Skene Ronan. Haileybury's leading scorer was Horace Gaul with 22 goals, good for seventh in the NHA that season. Established to capitalize on the then-current mining boom in northern Ontario, it became clear that the town was too small to support major professional hockey, and the team folded after that season.

Connection to Montreal Canadiens

After the 1910 season, the club's owner, Renfrew mining tycoon Ambrose O'Brien transferred two (Cobalt and Haileybury) of his four NHA hockey properties (Cobalt, Renfrew, Haileybury, Les Canadiens). Montreal wrestler and sports promoter George Kennedy, owner of the "Club Athlétique Canadien," claimed rights to the "Canadiens" name and threatened to sue O'Brien over the use of the name by the 'Les Canadiens' club. In an unusual settlement, Kennedy took over the Haileybury franchise rather than the Canadiens franchise and O'Brien's franchise was suspended. However, the Les Canadiens players would sign with Kennedy and Kennedy would sign none of the Haileybury players. The last two of the O'Brien franchises were later sold to Toronto interests to become the Toronto Blueshirts and Toronto Ontarios.^[1]

[edit] References

• Coleman, Charles (1966). The Trail of the Stanley Cup, vol. 1, 1893-1926 inc.. 

Notes