When people think of hockey in Toronto, they automatically think of the Toronto Maple Leafs. But before there were the Maple Leafs, there were the Toronto St. Pats.
The St. Pats were one of three teams that form the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Today, we are diving into their history.
The story begins with the formation of the NHL in 1917 when a Toronto team was added into the new league. While the Toronto Blueshirts were excluded from the NHL due to owners in the NHL not wanting to admit Blueshirts Eddie Livingstone into the league, an agreement was reached when NHL president Frank Calder assigned the contracts of the Blueshirts into a temporary Toronto franchise. The Quebec Bulldogs were the fourth team in the new NHL but they couldn’t play that first season. To ensure a balanced schedule, this new Toronto team was admitted. That first season, the team didn’t have an official name and were typically referred to as The Torontos or the Toronto Hockey Club.
That first season in the NHL, it was the Toronto Arenas as they became known because they played in the Toronto Arena, who won the first Stanley Cup in NHL history.
The next season was not successful for the club, and they finished with five wins and 13 losses. Their attendance was especially bad with only a few people coming out to watch the games.
On Dec. 13, 1919, the NHL approved the sale of the Arenas to Charles Querrie, who put up $5,000 for the team. The money was supposed to go to Eddie Livingstone but it is not believed that he ever received it. Many think that Frank Calder, president of the NHL, simply took the money for himself.
Nonetheless, the team was sold and it began operating on Dec. 22, 1919 under a new name, the Toronto St. Patricks.
Unfortunately for the Toronto St. Patricks, the Quebec Bulldogs returned to the NHL in the 1919-20 season and most of Toronto’s players went over to the Bulldogs. Coupled with new management and the poor performance from the previous season, the team was starting over as what would constitute an expansion team.
The St. Pats signed Cully Wilson who had been expelled from the Pacific Coast Hockey Association for giving a cheap shot on Mickey MacKay.
In the team’s first season under their new name, they finished third in the NHL in the first half of the season, and second in the second half of the season. Their combined record was 12 wins and 12 losses, but it was not good enough to make the playoffs.
As for Cully Wilson, he had a league leading 86 penalty minutes in 23 games, along with 26 points.
In 1920-21, the team improved by finishing second in the NHL in the first half and first in the NHL in the second half. Those two halves combined for a record of 15 wins and nine losses, good for first in the NHL. One reason for this was Babe Dye. Dye had first joined the St. Pats in 1919-20 when he was a rookie with 13 points in 23 games. After two games with the Hamilton Tigers in the 1920-21 season, he burst onto the scene in the remaining 23 games with Toronto, scoring 38 points in 23 games. That put him second in league scoring behind Newsy Lalonde.
In the top ten scoring leaders that season, Toronto had four of them including Dye. Reg Noble, Harry Cameron and Corbett Denneny all finished in the top ten. Their goalie, Jake Forbes, was the second best goalie in the league behind Clint Benedict. He played 20 games, finishing with a record of 13 wins and 7 losses.
On Jan. 25, 1921, the team picked up Sprague Cleghorn from the Hamilton Tigers. Cleghorn was a future Hall of Famer, and all it cost the St. Pats was future considerations. He only played for the team for 13 games, finishing with eight points.
Unfortunately, in the NHL Final, they went up against the powerhouse Ottawa Senators. The St. Pats didn’t score a single goal in the two-game series, as Ottawa routed them 5-0 in the first game and 2-0 in the second game. Cleghorn was released from the club and immediately picked up by the Ottawa Senators, with whom he won the Stanley Cup that year.
Things continued to improve for the St. Pat’s in the 1921-22 season. While the team lost goaltender Jack Forbes to a pay dispute, John Roach was picked up as a free agent. Forbes was the first player in NHL history to sit out an entire season over a contract dispute. He wanted a $2,500 salary that the St. Pats were not willing to pay.
That season on Feb. 11, the St. Pats and Ottawa Senators played to the first tie in NHL history when they finished 4-4. In that game, Roach made 78 saves while Clint Benedict for the Senators stopped 63 shots.
The team finished second in the NHL with a record of 13 wins and 10 losses.
Babe Dye once again led the team with 30 goals, finishing second in the league behind Punch Broadbent. Corbett Denneny, Reg Noble and Ken Randall all had solid seasons as well.
John Ross Roach proved to be a great pickup for the team. He played 22 games and finished with 11 wins and 10 losses.
Facing off against the Ottawa Senators once again, the St. Pats emerged victorious with a 5-4 win over their rivals in the first game and keeping that total-goals win intact with a 0-0 tie in the second game.
With the O’Brien Cup captured, the team moved on to play the Vancouver Millionaires for the Stanley Cup.
To help the team, superstar Eddie Gerard was brought to the team to play in the Final against Vancouver.
The best-of-five game series began on March 17 when the Millionaires won 4-3 to take the series lead. Toronto came back with a 2-1 lead to tie the series. That game was the first time a penalty shot was seen by NHL fans. At the time, the PCHA had penalty shots but the NHL did not. The shot was taken by Babe Dye but he did not score.
In game three, Vancouver won 3-0 and reclaimed the series lead. In that game, Toronto’s Harry Cameron was injured with a separated shoulder. To replace him, Toronto asked Frank Patrick, manager of the Millionaires, if they could bring in Eddie Gerard to replace him. Gerard played for the Ottawa Senators at the time.
Patrick agreed.
The Toronto Star wrote,
“The National League champions were loath to call for help but as Vancouver showed the way by using an Oatman, one of the stars of the Victoria team, they cannot be censured for strengthening now that Randall is out for the season with a broken thumb…Gerard will undoubtedly prove a valuable man in the emergency.”
Toronto won the fourth game 6-0, and John Ross Roach became the first rookie NHL goaltender to record a shutout in the Stanley Cup Final.
One reason that Toronto won was the play of Gerard, who was one of the best defencemen in the NHL. The Toronto Star wrote,
“Gerard, well, he was just Eddie Gerard at his best and he made the Irish defense a real stonewall. Gerard’s best asset is his brains. He outguesses the attack continually.”
Since Gerard helped the team so much, Patrick pulled his approval of the use of Gerard. The Toronto Star wrote about this,
“Although St. Patricks will not be able to use Eddie Gerard in Tonight’s Stanley Cup game they are supremely confident of the result as they believe that they are now in their usual stride.”
It also helped that Harry Cameron was able to return to his regular spot on defence.
For Game Five, a sellout crowd filled the Arena Gardens, and they were not disappointed as Toronto won 5-1 and captured the St. Pats first Stanley Cup. In the game, Babe Dye had four goals, including the game and series winner.
Overall, Babe Dye scored 11 of the 16 goals scored by the St. Pats, while Roach had a 1.80 goals-against-average.
The Toronto Star wrote,
“Just cancel the order for the town band and tell the mayor of Toronto he needn’t sit up any more composing his ode of “Welcome to the Victorious Warriors”. There ain’t going to be no welcome for the Pacific Coast champions in the city by the western ocean.”
That Stanley Cup win would prove to be the high point for the team.
In 1922-23, the team finished third in the NHL with a record of 13-10-1. As a result, they did not reach the playoffs. One bright spot that year was the play of Babe Dye, who had 37 points to lead the NHL. His 26 goals also led the NHL. John Ross Roach played well, playing in all 24 games but it wasn’t enough to help the team with Ottawa and Montreal taking the top two spots in the standings.
At the end of the season, the team lost Harry Cameron who retired. He had played with the team, off an on, since they were the Toronto Arenas in 1917-18. He left to play with the Saskatoon Crescents in the WCHL on his way to a Hall of Fame induction in 1963. Toronto also sold Jake Forbes to the Hamilton Tigers at the start of the season for cash.
Things did not improve for the team in 1922-23. They finished with a record of 10 wins and 14 losses, the first time the team had finished below .500 since the name change. Babe Dye had an off year, finishing with 19 points in 19 games for fourth in the league. Jack Adams had 16 points in 22 games and Reg Noble had 14 points in 23 games.
Once again, finishing in third place, the team missed the playoffs.
Things began to improve for the team the following season in 1924-25. The team won 19 games, the most in its history to that point. Their record of 19-11 was good enough for second in the NHL. Babe Dye had an excellent year, finishing with 44 points in 29 games and finishing first in the league. Jack Adams also did well, with 29 points in 27 games and Hap Day, a new player on the team, had 22 points in 26 games as he began what would become a Hall of Fame career. One player who left the team was Reg Noble, he was sent to the Montreal Maroons on Dec. 9, 1924 for $8,000 in cash.
The St. Patricks took on the Montreal Canadiens for the NHL Championship on March 11 and 13, 1925. Montreal won the first game 3-2, and the second game 2-0 to win on total goals 5-2.
That season was the last high moment for the St. Pats.
In 1925-26, the team had its worst record with 12 wins and 21 losses with three ties. The team finished in sixth place, just above the Montreal Canadiens. This was an off year for Babe Dye, which had 24 points in 31 games. This was also his last season with the St. Pats. On Oct. 18, 1926, he was sold to the Chicago Black Hawks for $15,000 in cash. In Only Jack Adams finished in the top ten of scoring for the St. Pats.
In his first game against Toronto, Dye helped lead the Black Hawks to a 4-1 victory. He returned to Toronto with the Black Hawks to play against the fans who once cheered him on Dec. 9, 1926. The Toronto Star wrote,
“Babe Dye, sold to Chicago early in the season will be out there trying to show his Toronto friends what a sad mistake Charlie Querrie made when he sold him to Chicago.”
The next season, 1926-27, the St. Pats had another terrible year. They finished in last place in the Canadian Division with a record of 15 wins and 24 losses, and once again missed the playoffs.
With Babe Dye gone, the new star on the team was Ace Bailey, who signed as a free agent with the team on Nov. 3, 1926. He finished sixth in the league in scoring with 28 points in 42 games, just two points behind former St. Pats player Babe Dye.
This was the last season for the team as it was known.
Conn Smythe had been turned down to coach the St. Pats at the start of the season but after he showed success in assembling the New York Rangers, he was given an invitation to take over the team. Smythe turned this down at first because he wanted to own the club.
Due to declining attendance, the team was losing money and the club was up for sale. Smythe was offered the chance to become a part-owner of the team. J.P. Bickell offered to cover $40,000 of the $200,000 cost if Smythe could raise the rest of the fund.
On Feb. 14, 1927, Smythe and his partners paid $85,000, with an agreement to pay off the final $75,000 within 30 days.
The day of the sale, the club was shutout by the Ottawa Senators 1-0 in their last game in Toronto in front of a hometown crowd.
The Toronto Star reported,
“When the Toronto pro hockey team takes the ice at Arena Gardens on Thursday night against the New York Americans, it will be under new name and colors. The name St. Patricks will be used for the last time at Detroit tonight. The team will be known henceforth as the Maple Leafs of Toronto.”
The next day, in their final game as the Toronto St. Patricks, they took on the Detroit Cougars in Detroit. The team lost 4-1. The final goal scored in the history of the Toronto St. Pats was scored by Corb Denneny at 14:50 in the third period of the game.
Their first game as the Maple Leafs was two days later on Feb. 17, 1927. In their first game as the Maple Leafs. In their game against the New York Americans the team won 4-1. The Toronto Star called it a richly deserved victory for the team.
The era of the St. Pats had come to an end.
On Sept. 27, 1927, the Leafs changed their colours to blue and white. Smythe stated that it was because of the blue skies and white snow of Canada. These were also the colours used by his gravel and sand business trucks.
The Toronto Star reported,
“Pro hockey fans will be re-introduced to the Toronto team this fall. The jersey will be banded blue and white with a large white maple leaf on the breast. The words “Toronto Maple Leaves” appear in blue letters on the white maple leaf.”
In 230 games, the St. Pats finished with a record of 109 wins 111 losses and 10 ties.
As for the man who led the team to greatness, he retired as the St. Patrick’s all-time franchise points per game leader. Even with the name change to the Maple Leafs, no one has taken his top spot in that category. After time with the Chicago Black Hawks and New York Americans, he finished his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, playing six games and recording no points.
He died in 1962, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1970.
