Over the course of 14 years, Hap Holmes did something no other player in history has done. He won Stanley Cups with four different teams.
A reliable player through several leagues, he was one of the best goalies of his generation on his way to the Hall of Fame.
Harry “Hap” Holmes was born on Aurora, Ontario on Feb. 21, 1888.
Given the nickname of Hap for his Happy attitude, Holmes began playing for the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club in 1908-09 in the Ontario Hockey Association. In his first season with the team, he played three games, lost all three, and gave up 22 goals.
The next season, he appeared in four games, winning two and losing two, while giving up 26 goals.
In his last season with the Parkdale Canoe Club, he appeared in four games, but lost only one and gave up only 12 goals.
During this time, he also played lacrosse and became known as one of the best players in his area. He said,
“There was a time when I considered lacrosse the greatest game in the world. I played professional lacrosse for eight years and like it. My ideas have changed a lot and now you can’t convince me there’s any faster game in the world than hockey.”
The professional hockey career of Holmes began in 1912-13 with the Toronto Blueshirts of the National Hockey Association.
In his first season with the Blueshirts, Holmes won six games but lost seven as the Blueshirts missed the playoffs.
Things improved immensely for Holmes the following season when he led them to the Stanley Cup. That was the first time a team from Toronto won the Stanley Cup. In the Stanley Cup Final, he won all three games and had a 2.59 goals-against average.
With that Stanley Cup win, he quickly left lacrosse behind and focused completely on hockey.
The following season, the Blueshirts did not make the playoffs, and Holmes only recorded eight victories in 20 games.
That proved to be his last season with the Blueshirts. While still under contract with the team in 1915-16, he left to sign with the Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association.
In 18 games in his first season with the team, he had nine wins and nine losses. The team missed the playoffs but the following season Holmes won 16 games, losing only eight, with two shutouts.
In the Stanley Cup Final that year, Holmes won three games of four and helped the Seattle Metropolitans win their only Stanley Cup. They were the first American based team to win the Stanley Cup.
In November 1917, Holmes signed with the Montreal Wanderers, who in turn loaned him to Seattle on Dec. 12, 1917, who then returned him under loan to the Toronto Arenas in the new National Hockey League.
In his only season with the Toronto Arenas, he played 16 games, finishing with a record of nine wins and seven losses. In the playoffs that year, he led Toronto to capture the first Stanley Cup in NHL history. He was the only member of the 1914 and 1918 Stanley Cup winning teams.
In 1918-19, he played two games with the Toronto Arenas and lost both games by giving up nine goals. At that point, he was recalled to Seattle to finish out the season.
He played 20 games for Seattle that year, winning 11 and losing nine. Once again, he led the Metropolitans to the Stanley Cup Final but the series was called off due to the Spanish Flu and no one was awarded the Stanley Cup.
Holmes continued to play for Seattle the following season, winning 12 games and losing 10. He also recorded four shutouts. In the playoffs, the Metropolitans once again reached the Stanley Cup Final but lost to the Ottawa Senators.
For the next four seasons, Holmes played for Seattle but never returned them to the Stanley Cup Final. During that stretch of seasons, Holmes won about half the games he appeared in.
Holmes was well known for his habit of wearing a baseball cap in net to protect his head from spectators who liked to spit tobacco and throw things at his bald head. Holmes stated that after a game, his jersey looked like it was covered in oil.
During his career, Holmes also wore small pads on his legs. Many considered his pads to be the smallest in the league. Holmes said,
“A goalie can’t be judged by the pads he wears, but rather by the pucks he stops.”
What many people didn’t know was that Holmes made his own pads using canvas, maple splints, felt and some straps.
He was also well liked. Franklin Lewis with the Cleveland Press said,
“He was a wonderfully naïve man who counted his treasures in friendships and ethereal hopes rather than in dollars and cents.”
He also played a stand-up style of goaltending years after leaving one’s feet in net was allowed through rule changes in the NHL.
In 1924-25, the Metropolitans folded and Holmes went over to the Victoria Cougars. In his first season with the team, he finished with three shutouts and a record of 16-12. In the playoffs, he was undefeated and in the Stanley Cup Finals he posted a record of three wins and one loss, leading the Cougars to the Stanley Cup. They remain the last non-NHL team to win the Stanley Cup. This was the fourth, and final, Stanley Cup for Holmes.
The following season, Holmes had a record of 15 wins, 11 losses and four ties with four shutouts. Once again, he took the Cougars to the Stanley Cup Final but they lost to the Montreal Maroons. This was the last time that a non-NHL team appeared in the Stanley Cup Final. It was also the seventh, and last Stanley Cup Final appearance for Holmes.
During his time in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, he was the leading goaltender in the league six times.
When the Victoria Cougars franchise was claimed by Detroit, the players went to this new team. Holmes spent two seasons with the Cougars, recording an astounding 17 shutouts in 85 appearances but only winning 30 games. The Cougars did not make the post season in either season with Holmes.
Not that anyone blamed him for that. The Windsor Star wrote,
“Hap Holmes misjudged one shot and his defence let him down on another to account for the pair of goals that got past him. Otherwise, the veteran custodian was flawless in his work.”
Throughout his career, Holmes always encouraged those around him. He would applaud good plays and overlook the mistakes that resulted in a goal on him.
Holmes chose to retire after that season. In 55 NHA games, Hap Holmes had 27 wins in 55 games with two shutouts. In the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, he won 101 games in 198 games with 14 shutouts. In the NHL, he had 39 wins in 103 games with 17 shutouts. In Stanley Cup play, he had 17 wins in 30 games with two shutouts.
The Dick Gibson wrote,
“Professional hockey loses one of its greatest stars in the voluntary retirement from playing end of the game of Harry Hap Holmes. No custodian, past or present, could boast of a much better record.”
Frank Patrick and Jack Adams both rated him among the best goalies of all time.
He coached the Toronto Millionaires of the Canadian Professional Hockey League to a 19-6-7 record in 1928-29. In 1929, he established the Cleveland Indians hockey team and in 1930-31, he coached the Cleveland Indians to a 24-18-6 record.
He said upon establishing the team,
“After 16 years in professional hockey as a player and one as a manager, I am going down to Cleveland this winter as manager-owner. Last winter I was associated with F.G. Oke and managed the Toronto Orphans with him but I will be on my own hook at Cleveland.”
In 1934, Holmes sold the team and they became the Cleveland Barons. He kept his shares in the Cleveland Arena and served as its assistant manager.
Two years later, Holmes suffered a personal strategy when his father Thomas was involved in a serious car accident in North Carolina. Injured in the crash was his mother as well. In the accident, the car’s tire blew out and the machine flipped over the highway. His mother suffered bruises and scratches, while Hap himself was only minorly injured. His father sustained several painful injuries including a broken back and was in critical condition.
In 1940, Holmes moved to Florida where he started a papaya farm. Unfortunately, it failed and he moved back to Cleveland.
On June 27, 1941, Holmes died of a cerebral hemorrhage. The Toronto Star wrote,
“Few men connected with hockey over the years gave more to the game than the quiet-voiced Holmes.”
His friend Frank Patrick stated he was an exceptionally fine goalie. Hockey great Cyclone Taylor said of him that he was,
“one of the best and most scientific goalies. Where some goalers are spectacular, he was scientific. We always regarded him as a stone wall.”
In 1972, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2013, he was one of the first inductees into the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame.
Today, the American Hockey League honours its top goaltender with the Hap Holmes Memorial Award. Winners of the award have included future Hockey Hall of Famers Gerry Cheevers and Johnny Bower.
