In 1917, the formation of the National Hockey League (NHL) does not weighed heavily in the lives of Canadians. A When a group of owners will meet at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal on November 22 to establish the modalities, only one journalist, Elmer Ferguson, waiting patiently for news. What happened in there? “Not much, Fergie,” he said Calder.
“It’s just like our old league but we did not Eddie Livingstone invited to join,” said Calder. . Five of the six owners of the National Association of hockey had had enough of the confrontational attitude and stop Eddie Livingstone, owner of the Toronto Blue Shirts. According to Tommy Gorman, owner of the Ottawa team, “Now we got rid of Livingstone, we can get back to the task of making money. » ”
The professional hockey was just a few years, but he had already given rise to a familiar landscape: quarrels between owners, wages, lawsuits and injunctions, salary cap, bankruptcy franchises - all the insults that are part of the legacy of the market.
In fact, this is an American dentist, JL Gibson, who founded the first professional hockey league in 1903. The team was so strong that others last players can buy them to compete. In protest, the Eastern Canadian Hockey Association (Canadian Hockey East) accepted professional players in 1904. The phenomenon of “players available” did not take long to wait once we began to pay players. announced that he offered his services to any team that would pay him $ 1 800 season. He signed an agreement with Ottawa.
Some professional teams saw the day in the most unexpected, such Cobalt and Haileybury, Ontario. From rich mine owners bought the best players that their financial resources enabled them. Ambrose O’Brien, le Renfrew, en Ontario. Ambrose O’Brien, “George Steinbrenner” of his time, assembled a team of stars who played hockey for him in the town of Renfrew, Ontar.Among these super-players include Fred ‘Cyclone’ Taylor and brothers Frank and Lester Patrick, which each won the enviable sum of $ 3 000 - never before seen at this time! The cost of hiring led to the fall teams .The owners of teams who had players that parafent agreements with high salaries to their speaking of ‘free market’ went quickly account the reality of ‘fiscal responsibility’ and made common front in imposing the first salary cap $ 5 000 per team. Some players who had won up to $ 1 800 last then be content with a salary of $ 500; talking of a union of players. Read more…