Western Canada Hockey League (1921-1926)

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The Western Canada Hockey League ( WCHL for short ) was a professional Canadian ice hockey league that existed from 1921 to 1926. In the 1925/26 season, the league played under the name Western Hockey League ( WHL for short ). An ice hockey league of the same name existed from 1932 to 1933.

history

The Western Canada Hockey League was founded in 1921 with a total of four teams - Calgary Tigers , Edmonton Eskimos , Regina Capitals and Saskatoon Crescents . From the beginning, the league was in direct competition with the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, which had existed since 1911 . The WCHL's premiere season was won by the Regina Capitals. The Saskatoon Crescents also ended the season in Moose Jaw, also playing under the name Crescents, but then returned to Saskatoon, where they ran up from 1923 as Saskatoon Sheiks. The champions of the WCHL each had to play against the master of the PCHA to compete against the winner of the National Hockey League founded in 1917 for the Stanley Cup. From the 1922/23 season onwards, the WCHL played in a joint program together with the PCHA teams. For this reason, the PCHA had to make some rule changes, such as: B. reduce the number of players used to six per team and abolish the position of the previously used rover . While initially the WCHL teams were clearly inferior to their opponents from the PCHA in their games, they won a total of 29 of 48 games against the competition from the PCHA in the 1923/24 season . Following this season, the Seattle Metropolitans were dissolved from the PCHA and the remaining two teams of the PCHA - the Vancouver Maroons and the Victoria Cougars - joined the Western Canadian Hockey League. Some of the Seattle players also switched to the WCHL.

In the 1924/25 season , the Victoria Cougars won the championship title of the WCHL. In the Stanley Cup challenge they beat the Canadiens de Montréal from the National Hockey League with 3-1 victories and were the only team in WCHL history to ever win the Stanley Cup and the last team outside of the NHL there from 1926 the cup was only awarded within the National Hockey League. Before the 1925/26 season , financial problems became apparent in the WCHL and the Regina Capitals were relocated to Portland , Oregon , and competed there under the name Portland Rosebuds. A PCHA team had previously used this name. In addition, the name of the league was changed to Western Hockey League before the start of the season. In the end it was concluded that the WHL had no way to continue playing due to the high wage demands of the players who wanted to earn as much as the players of the financially stronger NHL, and so the former PCHA President Frank Patrick decided to do so virtually sell the entire league to the NHL; d. H. all players were freely available for the NHL teams. The new NHL teams Chicago Black Hawks , Detroit Cougars and New York Rangers benefited from this , but the other NHL teams also signed WHL players.

The teams from Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Regina continued the game operation in the minor league they founded Prairie Hockey League , which was dissolved again in 1928. For the 1932/33 season, investors also tried to build on the tradition of the WCHL by founding an ice hockey league of the same name , but the project with teams from Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Regina / Vancouver failed after just one season.

Teams

The following teams took part in the WCHL games:

master

literature

  • Dan Diamond (Ed.): Total Hockey: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Hockey League . 1st edition. Total Sports, 1998, ISBN 0-8362-7114-9 .

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