The Flyers Get Their Wings

After the Second World War, the Flyers packed the Edmonton Gardens and the team’s 1948 Allan Cup victory established it as one of the top senior amateur programs in the country.

But, in 1951, major changes were in store for the Flyers. National Hockey League clubs were looking to expand their minor league operations—and new demands for pro hockey of any kind were growing in the West. That year, the Flyers, along with former Western Canada Senior Hockey League cousins the Calgary Stampeders and Saskatoon Quakers, joined the new California-headquartered Pacific Coast Hockey League, which already had members throughout the Western United States and British Columbia.

With the addition of the prairie teams, the Pacific Coast Hockey League became the Western Hockey League, and the Flyers worked out an affiliation with the Detroit Red Wings. At the time, the Wings were a powerhouse organization, embarking on a dynasty that would see them win the Cup four times between 1950 to 1955. Because the Wings were so deep at every position, their minor league clubs were filled with players who could easily have been playing for three or four of the Original Six NHL clubs.

Edmonton embraced the Flyers’ change from amateur to pro; in the team’s first season, crowds of well over 6,000—standing room only—packed into the Gardens to see the team in action.

The Flyers imported a lot of talent from the Wings’ Indianapolis Capitals franchise, and it only took a couple of seasons for the Edmonton boys, like their parent club, to become the dominant franchise in their league. The Flyers’ lineup was littered with future NHL All-Stars and Hall of Famers. The only Edmonton team in history that could boast greater talent than the Flyers put on the ice was the Oilers dynasty of the 1980s. The great Glenn Hall gave the Flyers the best goaltending in the League and hometown stars Johnny Bucyk and Norm Ullman gave the team a walloping scoring punch. Bronco Horvath, who, like Bucyk, would later star for the Boston Bruins, broke the 100-point-a-season barrier and at the time was considered even a better prospect than Ullman or Bucyk. And stay-at-home defenceman Al Arbour would leave the Flyers behind for Stanley Cup glory in Chicago and Toronto.

The Flyers’ star-studded lineup, which likely could have beaten the likes of the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks, took the WHL’s President’s Cup in both 1953 and 1955. After winning their second championship, the Flyers played for the newly-created Edinburgh Cup, which saw the WHL winner take on the champion of the American Hockey League, the prominent minor league of the East. But, thanks to key injuries and a grueling travel schedule that saw them barnstorming throughout Quebec for a ridiculously-long best-of-nine series weeks after they won the President’s Cup, the Flyers were upset by Shawinigan Falls.

The Flyers gave Edmontonians the chance to see high-level pro hockey; throughout the 1950s, the Gardens was the place to be on a Saturday night. But as more and more Edmontonians brought TVs into their homes, they found they could watch the likes of the Leafs and Canadiens every weekend on Hockey Night in Canada. The Gardens, built in 1913, was an antiquated, uncomfortable building—and it made the thought of sitting in a warm living room watching NHL hockey on the CBC all that more attractive an option. Attendance dwindled—and in 1963 the Flyers played their last game.

Still, the team had one last hurrah. In 1962, the Flyers, led by Doug Messier (father of Mark Messier), took the President’s Cup one final time with a championship series victory over Calgary. Len Lunde, who would later play 72 career games in the World Hockey Association, was another key player on that Flyers team. Yes, the 1962 Flyers were champs, but the team could not boast the same kind of talent of the great Flyers’ squads of the 1950s.

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