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Toronto Arenas Team Formation
By the fall of 1917, a dispute between Eddie Livingstone, owner of the Blueshirts, and the owners of the NHA’s other four clubs the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators and Quebec Bulldogs had come to a boil. The other NHA owners were eager to disassociate themselves from Livingstone, but discovered that the NHA’s constitution didn’t allow them to simply vote Livingstone out. With this in mind, on November 22 the NHA board of directors voted to suspend operations. At the same time, the other four NHA clubs voted to created a new league the National Hockey League. However, they didn’t invite Livingstone to join them, effectively leaving him in a one-team league.
However, the other club owners felt it would be unthinkable not to have a team from Canada’s second-largest city in the NHL. They also needed a fourth team to balance the schedule, since the Bulldogs were forced to suspend operations due to financial troubles and, as it turned out, wouldn’t return until 1920. To solve the problem, NHL president Frank Calder assigned the contracts of the Blueshirt players to a ‘temporary’ Toronto franchise to be operated by the Toronto Arena Company, who also owned the Montreal Arena. Calder had ordered Livingstone to sell the team, but Livingstone turned down several offers. The Arena Company was given a year to resolve the dispute or lose the franchise. The Arena Company did agree to compensate Livingstone for the use of the players for the season, although no suitable figure was ever reached, and the league itself disputed any claims that Livingstone had on the players.
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Stanley Cup Winner 1918
The 1918 Stanley Cup Final was contested by the National Hockey League (NHL) champion Toronto and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) champion Vancouver Millionaires. In a series held entirely in Toronto, the Toronto team won the series by three games to two in the best-of-five game series to win the Stanley Cup. It was the first series contested by the new NHL and subsequently the first Stanley Cup win by the Toronto NHL franchise team.
The Toronto Arenas or Torontos were a professional men’s ice hockey team that played in the first two seasons of the National Hockey League (NHL). It was operated by the owner of the Arena Gardens, the Toronto Arena Company. As the ownership of the National Hockey Association (NHA) Toronto Blueshirts franchise was in dispute, the new NHL league was started, and a temporary Toronto franchise was operated. The NHL itself was intended to only be a one-year entity until the NHA could be reactivated, although it never was.
Established
1917
City
Toronto
League History
1917 – Present / National Hockey League
Team History
1927 – Present / Toronto Maple Leafs
1919 – 1927 / Toronto St. Patricks
1917 – 1919 / Toronto Arenas
Nickname
Arenas – The team operated without a formal organization separate from the Arena Company and without an official club nickname. However, the press would dub the team the “Blue Shirts” or “Torontos” as they had done with the NHA franchise. The Arena Company was granted a permanent franchise in the NHL, which evolved into today’s Toronto Maple Leafs.
Championship
Stanley Cups 1
1967, 1964, 1963, 1962, 1951, 1949, 1948, 1947, 1945, 1942, 1932, 1922, 1918
Arena
2019 – Present / Scotiabank Arena
1999 – 2918 / Air Canada Centre
1932 – 1999 / Maple Leaf Gardens
1917 – 1931 / Mutual Street Arena
Owner
1998 – Present / Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd.
1996 – 1998 / Steve Stavro and Larry Tanenbaum
1991 – 1996 / Steve Stavro
1990 – 1991 / Estate of Harold Ballard
1972 – 1990 / Harold Ballard
1970 – 1972 / Stafford Smythe and Harold Ballard
1961 – 1970 / Stafford Smythe, Harold Ballard, and John Bassett
1927 – 1961 / Conn Smythe
1919 – 1927 / Charles Querrie
1917 – 1919 / Toronto Arena Company
Retired Number
1 Johnny Bower
1 Turk Broda
4 Red Kelly
4 Hap Day
5 Bill Barilko
6 Ace Bailey
7 Tim Horton
7 King Clancy
9 Charlie Conacher
9 Ted Kennedy
10 Syl Apps
10 George Armstrong
13 Mats Sundin
14 Dave Keon
17 Wendel Clark
21 Borje Salming
27 Frank Mahovlich
27 Darryl Sittler
93 Doug Gilmour
99 Wayne Gretzky
*Blue is this team’s history