Timiskaming Professional Hockey League

Timiskaming Professional Hockey League
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	1906
Inaugural season	1906
No. of teams	4
Country(ies)	Canada
Ceased	1911

The Timiskaming Professional Hockey League (TPHL) was a minor professional ice hockey league based in the area of Lake Timiskaming, Canada. Founded in 1906, the league is notable for providing teams and Ambrose O'Brien, the founder of the National Hockey Association, which became today's National Hockey League.

History

The league was formed in 1906 in the mining towns of Northern Ontario, Canada. Owned by wealthy mine owners, the league paid its players, one of the few leagues to do so at the time. The games between teams served as the basis for high-stakes gambling between the owners, players and the public. 'Ringers' from the southern ice hockey leagues would be paid to join the teams for a single game, hoping to garner large gambling profits for the team owners.

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In 1905-06, there was an informal competition played involving New Liskeard, Haileybury, and Cobalt. The games were all exhibitions and the actual league began the following winter. These are some results from the 1905-06 season:

• 1905: New Liskeard 2-5 Haileybury
• 1905: Haileybury tied New Liskeard
• 1905: Haileybury 2-7 New Liskeard
• 1906: New Liskeard 1-11 Haileybury
• Jan. 1906: New Liskeard 4-1 Haileybury
• Jan. 1906: Cobalt 2-1 Haileybury
• Jan 26, 1906: Haileybury 3-1 Cobalt
• Feb 23, 1906: Haileybury 4-11 New Liskeard
• Mar 1, 1906: New Liskeard 9-4 Haileybury
• Mar 20, 1906: Cobalt 1-10 New Liskeard

In a 1909 game between Haileybury and Cobalt at Cobalt, over $10,000 dollars was in the pot in bets. Haileybury won 6–5 in overtime, with five of the six goals scored by Harry Smith who had been lured from the Montreal Wanderers of the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association.

The use of 'ringers' had one negative effect on the league. The league challenged for the Stanley Cup twice in 1909 and was rejected twice by the Stanley Cup trustees because of the 'ineligible' players on Cobalt, the 1909 champion. The trustees implemented a rule that players had to be a member of the team at the start of season, set at January 2.

Just before the 1910 season, the league dissolved so that two of its teams, Cobalt and Haileybury would help to form the National Hockey Association. The owner of the two teams Ambrose O'Brien, along with his family's money financed four teams in the NHA, including the Renfrew Millionaires and the Montreal Canadiens, then known as 'Les Canadiens'. In 1910, after their NHA franchises were dealt away, the TPHL resumed play and Cobalt and Haileybury returned to the league for the 1910–11 season before ending operations.

Information on the league is fairly scarce as a fire in Haileybury led to the loss of many newspaper records that contained results and other useful details.

Teams

• Cobalt Silver Kings - 1906–1911
• Haileybury Comets - 1906–1911
• New Liskeard, Ontario - 1906–1911
• Latchford, Ontario - 1906–07

Champions

• 1907: Cobalt Silver Kings (?)
• 1908: New Liskeard
• 1909: Cobalt Silver Kings
• 1911: Haileybury Comets

References

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