1917–18 Toronto Hockey Club season
| 1917–18 Toronto Hockey Club | |
|---|---|
|
Stanley Cup champions
|
|
| League | 2nd (1st half), 1st (2nd half) NHL |
| 1917–18 record | 13–9–0 |
| Home record | 10–1–0 |
| Road record | 3–8–0 |
| Goals for | 108 |
| Goals against | 109 |
| Team information | |
| General Manager | Charles Querrie |
| Coach | Dick Carroll |
| Captain | Ken Randall |
| Arena | Arena Gardens |
| Team leaders | |
| Goals | Reg Noble (30) |
| Penalties in minutes | Ken Randall (96) |
| Wins | Hap Holmes (10) |
| Goals against average | Arthur Brooks (4.00) |
The 1917–18 Toronto Hockey Club season was the first season of the new Toronto franchise in the newly organized National Hockey League (NHL). The team was intended as a 'temporary' franchise, operating without an official club nickname (the press would dub them the "Blue Shirts" or "Torontos", and in 1948 the NHL would engrave "Toronto Arenas" on the Stanley Cup as the 1917–18 winner) and without a formal organization separate from the Toronto Arena Company that managed the Arena Gardens. Despite this, the team came together to win the first NHL Championship, competing against existing teams that had transferred directly from the National Hockey Association (NHA). Toronto would go on to win the Stanley Cup by defeating the Pacific Coast Hockey Association champion Vancouver Millionaires – the first Stanley Cup for an NHL team and the second Cup for a Toronto team after the Toronto Blueshirts' victory in the 1913–14 season of the NHA.
A series of disputes in the NHA with Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone led the owners of the four non-Toronto teams to resign from the NHA and create the NHL for the 1917–18 season. The owners turned down a proposal from the management of the Toronto Arena Company to create a new Toronto-based franchise to join the other former NHA teams in a five team NHL. When the Quebec Bulldogs announced they didn't have enough financing to ice a team for the NHL's first season, the NHL granted a temporary franchise to the Toronto Arena Company, maintaining a balanced four team league and providing representation to the second largest market in Canada.
Toronto Arena Company reached an agreement to lease most of Livingstone's NHA players, as Livingstone found himself in a dormant one team NHA. The Toronto Arena Company paid players on a cash basis, and many players played without a contract. The players used the same uniform as the previous NHA season – blue with a white 'T'.
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