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Prior to the first season of the National Hockey League (NHL), which commenced on December 19, 1917, there had been many seasons of ice hockey played by various amateur and professional leagues, often held contemporaneously, going back to the 1880s, to which the NHL can trace its roots. Below is a list of pre-NHL seasons by ice hockey leagues that are precursors of the National Hockey League.
The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) considers it to be one of the "most important championships available to the sport". The trophy was commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup and is named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada, who donated it as an award to Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. The entire Stanley family supported the sport, the sons and daughters all playing and promoting the game. The first Cup was awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Hockey Club, and winners from 1893 to 1914 were determined by challenge games and league play. Professional teams first became eligible to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1906. In 1915, the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), the two main professional ice hockey organizations, reached an agreement in which their respective champions would face each other annually for the Stanley Cup. It was established as the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926 and then the de jure NHL championship prize in 1947.
The Quebec Bulldogs were a men's senior-level ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The team was officially known as the Quebec Hockey Club, and later as the Quebec Athletic Club. One of the first organized ice hockey clubs, the club debuted in 1878 with the opening of the Quebec Skating Rink. The club continued as an amateur team through various leagues, eventually becoming professional in 1908. The club would play in the National Hockey Association and the National Hockey League. In 1920, the team moved to Hamilton, Ontario and became the Hamilton Tigers.
The Montreal Wanderers were an amateur, and later professional, ice hockey team based in Montreal. The team played in the Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL), the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA), the National Hockey Association (NHA) and briefly the National Hockey League (NHL). The Wanderers were four-time Stanley Cup winners. Prior to the formation of the NHL, the "Redbands" were one of the most successful teams in hockey.
The National Hockey Association (NHA), initially the National Hockey Association of Canada Limited, was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor of today's National Hockey League (NHL) and much of the business processes of the NHL today are based on the NHA. Founded in 1909 by Ambrose O'Brien, the NHA introduced 'six-man hockey' by removing the 'rover' position in 1911. During its lifetime, the league coped with competition for players with the rival Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), the enlistment of players for World War I and disagreements between owners. The disagreements between owners came to a head in 1917, when the NHA suspended operations in order to get rid of an unwanted owner, Eddie Livingstone.
The Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) was a professional ice hockey league in western Canada and the western United States, which operated from 1911 to 1924 when it then merged with the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). The PCHA was considered to be a major league of ice hockey and was important in the development of the sport of professional ice hockey through its innovations.
The Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925 and disbanded in 1926.
James Henry Gardner was a Canadian ice hockey player and coach. Gardner started his career as professionalism was just starting in ice hockey. He won championships with both amateur and professional teams. After his hockey career ended, Gardner coached professionally, most notably with the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey Association (NHA). Gardner helped found the NHA, the predecessor of today's National Hockey League, and the Canadiens, including suggesting the team name.
Thomas Joseph Smith was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward, who played from 1905 until 1920 for 16 teams in his career. He was a member of two Stanley Cup-winning teams, the Ottawa Silver Seven of 1906 and the Quebec Bulldogs of 1913. His two older brothers Alf and Harry Smith also played professional ice hockey.
The Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL) was a Canadian men's senior-level ice hockey league that played six seasons, from 1904 to 1909. The league was formed initially to provide a league for teams not accepted by the rival Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL).
The Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) was a men's amateur – later professional – ice hockey league in Canada that played four seasons. It was founded on December 11, 1905 with the top clubs from two other leagues: four from the Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL) and two from the Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL). It was formed to maximize the revenues of a now popular spectator sport and help these amateur teams cope with professionalism in the sport. The league would shed its amateur status for the 1908 season, leading to the split between Canadian amateur ice hockey teams playing for the Allan Cup, and the professionals playing for the Stanley Cup. The league would itself dissolve in 1909 over a dispute between team owners over business issues.
The Stanley Cup Finals in ice hockey is the National Hockey League's (NHL) annual championship series. The winner is awarded the Stanley Cup, North America's oldest professional sports trophy, and one of the "most important championships available to the sport [of ice hockey]" according to the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Leslie Bertrand Lindsay was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender in the National Hockey Association (NHA), Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), and National Hockey League (NHL). Born in West Garafraxa, Ontario, Bert Lindsay was the father of Hockey Hall of Fame player Ted Lindsay.
Carol William "Cully" Wilson was an Icelandic-Canadian professional ice hockey player. The right winger played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Toronto St. Pats, Montreal Canadiens, Hamilton Tigers, and Chicago Black Hawks between 1919 and 1927. He was also a member of two teams that won the Stanley Cup before the NHL came into existence in 1917, the Toronto Blueshirts and Seattle Metropolitans.
Donald John Smith was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Smith was one of the earliest professional ice hockey players, playing professionally in the first decade of the 1900s. Smith played in the National Hockey League and its predecessor National Hockey Association for the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Shamrocks, Montreal Wanderers and Renfrew Creamery Kings.
A rover was a position in ice hockey used in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. At the time ice hockey consisted of seven positions: the rover, along with the goaltender, two defencemen, and three forwards; the other positions still remain. Unlike the others, the rover did not have a set position, and roamed the ice at will, going where needed, much as a midfielder in association football might.
The National Hockey League (NHL) was founded in 1917 following the demise of its predecessor league, the National Hockey Association (NHA). In an effort to remove Eddie Livingstone as owner of the Toronto Blueshirts, a majority of the NHA franchises suspended the NHA and formed the new NHL. The Quebec Bulldogs, while a member, did not operate in the NHL for the first two years. Instead the owners of the Toronto Arena Gardens operated a new Toronto franchise. While the NHL was intended as a temporary measure, the continuing dispute with Livingstone led to the four NHA owners meeting and making the suspension of the NHA permanent one year later.
John Daniel "Jack, Silent" Ulrich was a Canadian professional ice hockey right winger. Ulrich, who was deaf-mute, played professionally with the Vancouver Millionaires and the Victoria Aristocrats in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in 1912–1914. He also played for the Montreal Wanderers and the Toronto Blueshirts in the National Hockey Association in 1914–1916.