Edmonton Oilers Heritage Website - Challenges To Championships

In the early 1890s, the game of hockey was already flourishing on the ponds of Canadian towns and cities east of Winnipeg. Regional leagues were forming, and while there were still many regional differences when it came to the rules of the game, it was clear that hockey captured the imagination of the young nation more than any other sport.

Lord Stanley of Preston (given name: Frederick Arthur) was Governor General of Canada at the time, and in 1892 he came up with a novel idea. He would spend 10 guineas (about $50 Canadian) on a silvery rose bowl, and deem that a national hockey championship trophy. He announced his plan in a letter written to the Ottawa Athletic Association:

"I have, for some time, been thinking it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup, which would be held, from year to year, by the champion hockey club of the Dominion. There does not appear to be any such outward and visible sign of a championship at present, and considering the interest the hockey matches now elicit and the importance of having the games fairly played under generally recognized rules, I am willing to give a Cup that shall be annually held by the winning club."

The trophy was called the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, but most referred to it by its more popular nickname—the "Stanley" Cup. Under the Lord’s rules, the trophy would not belong to a particular Canadian league. Instead, trustees assigned by Stanley would schedule challenges from the top teams in Canada, and the holders of the trophy would take on all legitimate opponents. As well, the competition was strictly designed for amateur clubs. The Montreal AAA "Winged Wheelers" were awarded the Cup in 1893 and it set off a chaotic chain of events. Top teams from Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic Canada and—in 1905—the Yukon regularly challenged for the trophy. It was not unusual for there to be three challenge "finals" held in one season, as the holders fended off any challenger.

By 1906, the Cup champion Montreal Wanderers openly paid pro players; the team had five paid pros on its roster when it defeated New Glasgow, Nova Scotia that December. In 1908, the Edmonton Eskimos

became the first Alberta team to contest the trophy, but they would take professionalism to a new level when the club employed six ringers to play in the finals against the Wanderers. The Eskimos lost, but there would be no turning back. By 1910, the year the Eskimos challenged for a second time (and lost again), the Stanley Cup became a professional trophy, exactly what the Lord had warned against. As the National Hockey Association rose as the dominant professional league in the East, and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association rose as the top pro circuit in the West, an agreement was struck in 1914 that the NHA and PCHA champs would meet every season to decide the Cup. Again Stanley’s wishes were broken, as the trophy was now the domain of pro leagues, and no longer a challenged prize. As the PCHA expanded into the United States, Stanley's wish to see the cup within the Dominion of Canada would also soon be broken. In 1917, the PCHA’s Seattle Metropolitans defeated the Montréal Canadiens in the final and took the Cup south.