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On September 26, in back-to-back years, the NHL seemed to be saying, “We want more!” In 1925, the league expanded by accepting two applications for new franchises. In 1926, the NHL first split into eastern and western divisions and further expanded their reach by signing agreements with the American Hockey Association (AHA) with its three minor-league loops. As a side note, even the neutral zone on the ice expanded by moving the blue lines.

The NHL held a special meeting at the Biltmore Hotel in Manhattan on September 26, 1925. The big news was that they accepted applications for new franchises in New York City and Pittsburgh. For the former, the Americans were scheduled to begin playing that season, while for the latter, the soon-to-be-named Pirates still needed official ratification at the next meeting (despite being voted in at six-to-one). It was anticipated that eight teams would play in the upcoming season.

Both franchises had rosters already in mind. Pittsburgh’s request for a franchise was a means of professionalizing its popular amateur club. That being the case, they intended to keep players from the Yellow Jackets to form the “nucleus” of the NHL team. Of them, Lionel Conacher was selected as captain.

New York announced that owner Tex Rickard and manager Tommy Gorman bought the entire club in Hamilton, Ontario and all its players. The Hamilton Tigers had been suspended after a strike the season before, but upon ratifying the sale, the NHL indicated that “all the players are to be reinstated” to play for the Americans. Of them, Bill Burke (the “Babe Ruth of Canadian hockey last year) was purchased for $40,000 to serve as team captain. According to their president, John S. Hammond, “When we entered the National Hockey League we appealed to other clubs to help us in the player situation. We were offered a few dilapidated old players and several young men of no account. We have battled all summer to get a team. We finally secured one and intend to hold it.” 

Interestingly, the NHL was keeping the Hamilton franchise “in trust” with the intention that they would buy back the club (but not the players) from New York. Rumors flew that the franchise would be moved to another U.S. city like Chicago, Cleveland, or Philadelphia. As it turned out, only seven teams participated in the NHL during the 1925-26 season.

Three more franchises were added to the NHL for the 1926-27 season – the New York Rangers, Chicago, and Detroit. The irony is that the very thing that threatened to break the NHL in 1925 ended up being a popular option in 1926. With the addition of New York and Pittsburgh, a proposal that the NHL divide into two sections led New York to threaten that all U.S. teams would withdraw to form their own separate league, leaving the NHL to Canada. At the September 26 meeting held at the Windsor Hotel in 1926, the ten NHL teams were divided (for the first time ever) into two even sections. The eastern division (soon known as the Canadian Division) included the Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Maroons, Toronto Maple Leafs, and New York Americans. The western division (American Division) consisted of the Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Rangers, Chicago Black Hawks, and Detroit Cougars. The three leading teams played off to determine champions for each section who then played each other for the Stanley Cup.

The other big news stories pertaining to the 1926 meeting had to do with the NHL’s interactions with other leagues. With the collapse of the Western Hockey League (WHL) that May, Lester and Frank Patrick spent that spring and summer trying to “liquidate their assets” with NHL teams raiding the WHL players. Primarily, others took issue with the way the Bruins bought seven western players and thus the purchase was not recognized by the board of governors. 

In addition to trying to work out the proper channels for signing these WHL players, the NHL made agreements about obtaining players from the American Hockey Association (formerly the Central Hockey League). The newly revamped three minor-league branches of the AHA aimed to be more professional in their organization by having “all leagues working in harmony.” These included the Prairie League, the Canadian Professional League (formerly the Senior Ontario Hockey Association), and the Canadian-American League (which later morphed into the AHL). The agreement was that the NHL could not draft players but had the right to purchase them via club owners or the players themselves. These rights were not territorial, as in certain NHL teams having rights to certain clubs. 

All of these topics completely overshadowed the rink alteration approved at that same meeting. At the beginning of September, the rules committee made the recommendation that “blue lines be marked 60 feet in front of the goals instead of being measured from the centre ice as in the past. This will make the defence areas uniform in all rinks on the circuit and will enlarge the centre or no-offside areas in the larger arenas of the circuit, though those rinks with smaller ice surfaces will not be materially changed by the new markings.” The intention here was also to reduce offside calls, and to that end, they also clarified the offside rule.

Additional Sources:
In her personal history, Kyle Hurst hated her toe picks and wanted to skate on a hockey team like her brother. With age comes wisdom, and realizing how poorly she skates, she now much prefers watching the professionals. Writing about history for her day job, Kyle enjoys combining her two loves by writing hockey history. She still hates toe picks.

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