The Haileybury Hockey Club (also known as the Haileybury Comets or Haileybury Miners ) were an ice hockey based in Haileybury, Ontario , which existed from 1906 to 1915. The team is notable for being a founding member of the National Hockey Association (NHA), the predecessor to the National Hockey League (NHL). Established to capitalize on the then-current mining boom in northern Ontario , it became clear that the town was too small to support major professional ice hockey, and the team left the NHA after its inaugural season.
19-551: The Haileybury club was founded in 1906 as one of the teams of the Timiskaming Professional Hockey League (TPHL), a collection of teams sponsored by local mine owners. The club was owned by the O'Brien family, based in Renfrew, Ontario which owned silver mines, railways and railway construction companies. The TPHL existed as entertainment for the miners in the remote towns of northern Ontario,
38-1108: The Cobalt Silver Kings and the Haileybury Comets in the National Hockey Association . He moved on to the Waterloo Colts of the OPHL in 1911, the Schreiber Colts in 1912, before returning to the NHA with the Toronto Tecumsehs . He returned to Ottawa in 1913–14, playing two games with the Ottawa Hockey Club (now known as the Senators ) before ending his career with the Halifax Crescents of
57-965: The Ottawa Aberdeens of the CAHL-Intermediate league in 1901. He played for Arnprior of the Upper Ottawa Valley Hockey League before joining Smiths Falls of the Southern Ontario Hockey Association. He played two seasons with Smiths Falls before returning home to play in Ottawa with the Ottawa Senators , already the Stanley Cup champion. He played two seasons with the Silver Seven with his brother Alf who
76-669: The Pittsburgh Athletic Club at the Duquesne Gardens where he went into the stands swinging his stick after he had been hit on the ice by a chair thrown by a spectator. In 1908–09 he was a 'for hire' player playing for the Bankers, Toronto Pros ( OPHL ), Haileybury Comets ( TPHL ) and Montreal Wanderers ( ECHA ), where he was member of the Wanderers 1909 Stanley Cup challenge championship squad, although
95-712: 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. These may have been 'ringers' imported for single games: This ice hockey league article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Harry Smith (ice hockey, born 1883) Henry James Smith (December 29, 1883 – May 6, 1953)
114-595: The "Canadiens" name and threatened to sue O'Brien over the use of the name by O'Brien's 'Les Canadiens' club. In an unusual settlement, Kennedy took over the Haileybury franchise rather than the Canadiens franchise and O'Brien kept the Montreal franchise. The Les Canadiens players and name were transferred to Kennedy. Timiskaming Professional Hockey League The Timiskaming Professional Hockey League (TPHL)
133-488: 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
152-509: The NHA. The TPHL was resurrected and Haileybury resumed play in the TPHL for the 1910–11 season, the final season of the TPHL, afterwards continuing in the Timiskaming Senior League until 1915. The Haileybury NHA franchise itself was transferred to Montreal wrestler and sports promoter George Kennedy , owner of the "Club Athlétique Canadien", who took over the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club. Kennedy claimed rights to
171-696: The league and O'Brien could afford to entice players to break contracts and join Haileybury. When the Federal League Renfrew Creamery Kings team failed to join the new Canadian Hockey Association (CHA) in November 1909, Ambrose O'Brien organized the National Hockey Association and included Haileybury and his other TPHL team the Cobalt Silver Kings in the league, along with the Montreal Wanderers , Les Canadiens and Renfrew, which he had to buy so as to enter
190-418: 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. In a 1909 game between Haileybury and Cobalt at Cobalt, over $ 10,000
209-525: The team did not hold the Cup at the end of the season. In December 1909, prior to the 1909–10 season, Smith was badly scalded on one if his legs by the bursting of a valve in a steam engine while working for his father Henry in Fort William . He was laid up in hospital for several days, and it was first thought that he would not be able to play any hockey during the season, but he did play later on for both
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#1732798551353228-455: The team in the NHA. In 1910, Haileybury's one season in the NHA, their record was four wins and eight losses, scoring 77 goals for and 83 goals against. Notable players included Alex Currie , Art Ross , Paddy Moran and Skene Ronan . Haileybury's leading scorer was Horace Gaul with 22 goals, good for seventh in the NHA that season. After the 1910 season, the club's owner, Renfrew mining tycoon Ambrose O'Brien withdrew Haileybury from
247-597: The teams playthings for the owners to bet extravagantly on. In 1909, Haileybury earned notoriety in ice hockey circles, luring professional players such as Con Corbeau , Skene Ronan and Harry Smith away from teams in the Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL) and the Eastern Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (ECHA). At the time, mine owners made large wagers on the play of the teams in
266-515: Was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played 98 games in various professional and amateur leagues, including the National Hockey Association and Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association . Among the teams he played with were the Cobalt Silver Kings , Toronto Tecumsehs , Ottawa Senators , and Montreal Wanderers . He was a member of the famous " Ottawa Silver Seven " from 1905 to 1907. His brothers Alf and Tommy also played ice hockey. Harry Smith first played senior-level hockey with
285-401: 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 , a founder of the National Hockey Association and the founding owner of the Montreal Canadiens . The league was founded in the early 1900s in the mining towns of Northern Ontario , Canada. Owned by wealthy mine owners,
304-638: Was acquitted while Spittal and Alf Smith were each fined $ 20. When Smith played in an exhibition game with the Winnipeg Maple Leafs against the Winnipeg Hockey Club on December 19, 1907, the Winnipeg Hockey Club players refused to carry on the contest after it had degenerated into a number of violent displays, the last of which involved blows between Harry Smith and Winnipeg Hockey Club defenseman Percy Browne. He
323-566: 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 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,
342-466: Was playing-coach. In the 1905–06 season, Alf, Harry and brother Tommy all played for the Silver Seven, occasionally playing together on one line. Smith was known as a rough player. In 1907 Smith and teammates Alf Smith and Charles Spittal were charged with assault after beating Montreal Wanderers players Hod Stuart , Ernie "Moose" Johnson and Cecil Blachford with their sticks. Harry Smith
361-618: Was subsequently expelled from the MHA along with Maple Leafs teammate Joe Hall . Smith was also known to have one of the better shots in the game during his era, which helped him score many goals. He became a professional player in 1907–08 with the Pittsburgh Bankers of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League (WPHL). On February 15, 1908, he was involved in a riot with spectators in a game against
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