1925–26 NHL season
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The 1925–26 NHL season was the ninth season of the National Hockey League. Seven teams each played 36 games. The Stanley Cup winners were the Montreal Maroons who defeated the Victoria Cougars of the newly renamed Western Hockey League 3 games to 1 in a best of 5 series.

League Business

A special meeting was held on September 22, 1925 to discuss expansion to New York city. The NHL approved the dropping of the Hamilton Tigers franchise and the adding of the New York Americans club, which would sign the Hamilton players.¹ The New York franchise was granted to Colonel J. S. Hammond and T. J. Duggan, although the ownership was held secretly by "Big Bill" Dwyer, an infamous bootlegger from New York City, to play in New York's Madison Square Garden.

At the annual meeting on November 7, 1925, the league added another new expansion franchise, in Pittsburgh, the third United States-based team in the NHL. The Ottawa Senators objected to the adding of the team, but were outvoted.¹ The Pittsburgh team, known as the Pirates was formed because former Toronto NHA owner Eddie Livingstone had been again threatening to form a rival league and mentioned Pittsburgh as one of the possible franchise locations. League president Frank Calder and the governors quickly agreed to grant the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets organization an NHL franchise, known as the Pittsburgh Pirates, like the baseball club. Odie Cleghorn left the Canadiens to sign on as playing-coach with Pittsburgh.¹

Tommy Gorman and Ted Dey sold their interests in the Ottawa Senators to T. Franklin Ahearn. Ahearn then hired a successful junior executive, Dave Gill, to be secretary-treasurer (general manager) of the team and Gill hired Alex Curry, a former Senators player in the old NHA, to coach the team. Gorman joined the Americans' organization.

Rule changes

• Only two players on defence within the blue line at a time.
• A faceoff for 'ragging the puck' unless playing short-handed.
• Only team captains would be allowed to talk to referees.
• Timekeepers would signal the end of a period with a gong instead of the referee's whistle.
• Goalkeeper pads were limited to 12" wide.
• 14 player roster limits, only 12 to be dressed for any one game.
• Team salary cap of $35, 000.

Source: Coleman(1966), pg. 488.

Regular season

The Hamilton Tigers had spent their first five seasons in the NHL in last place until last season where they went from worst to first. The success enjoyed by the Tigers players was not carried over to New York, though, as the Americans finished fifth overall with a record of 12–20–4.

Eddie Gerard improved the Montreal Maroons by signing Nels Stewart and Babe Siebert and signing former olympian Dunc Munro for defense. The Maroons were on their way to glory. Nels Stewart not only set a record for goals by a rookie, but became the first rookie to win the scoring title.

From the 1910–11 season Georges Vezina had been the Montreal Canadiens goaltender, and had led them to the Cup in 1916 and 1924. In the first game of this season, he collapsed on the ice as the second period got underway. It was found he had tuberculosis, and he died in March 1926.

Ottawa's coach Curry was quite successful, as he took a team that had gone from fourth overall to first with an impressive record of 24–8–4, and the expansion Pittsburgh Pirates, with a strong cast of ex-amateurs led by future Hall of Famers Roy Worters and Lionel Conacher, finished third.

Final standings

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, PIM = Penalties in minutes
Note: Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points

Leading goaltenders

GP = Games Played, GA = Goals Against, SO = Shutouts, GAA = Goals Against Average

Stanley Cup playoffs

This is the last season that saw challengers from outside of the NHL compete for the Stanley Cup. At the beginning of the season, the Western Canada Hockey League renamed itself the Western Hockey League because one of its teams, the Regina Capitals, had moved to the States to play in Portland, Oregon. They were renamed the Portland Rosebuds.

Once again, the Victoria Cougars finished third in their league but once again won their league championship and the right to play for the Stanley Cup. The previous season, the Cougars beat the Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup with that being the only time in NHL history in which a non-NHL team won the Cup. After the 1926 playoffs, the Western Hockey League would fold leaving the Stanley Cup entirely to the NHL. The Cup would never again be challenged by a non-NHL team, despite efforts to "Free Stanley" during the 2004–05 NHL lockout season of 2004–2005. This was also the only season in NHL history where the number of playoff berths was less than half of the number of teams in the league.

All dates 1926

NHL Championship

The second seed Montreal Maroons beat the third seed Pittsburgh Pirates and then went on to beat first place Ottawa Senators 2 goals to 1 in a two game total goals series, thus capturing the Prince of Wales Trophy and the right to play the Victoria Cougars for the Stanley Cup.

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Montreal Maroons

Montreal wins total goals series 6 goals to 4

Montreal Maroons vs. Ottawa Senators

Montreal wins total goals series 2 goals to 1

Finals

Main article: 1926 Stanley Cup Finals

Nels Stewart was "Old Poison" to the Victoria Cougars, as he scored 6 goals in the 4 games and goaltender Clint Benedict shut out the westerners three times.

Victoria Cougars vs. Montreal Maroons

Montreal Maroons win best-of-five series 3 games to 1 for the Stanley Cup

NHL Playoff leading scorer

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points

NHL awards

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1925–26 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

• Wildor Larochelle, Montreal Canadiens
• Albert Leduc, Montreal Canadiens
• Pit Lepine, Montreal Canadiens
• Babe Siebert, Montreal Maroons
• Nels Stewart, Montreal Maroons
• Joe Simpson, New York Americans
• Hec Kilrea, Ottawa Senators
• Roy Worters, Pittsburgh Pirates
• Harold Darragh, Pittsburgh Pirates
• Baldy Cotton, Pittsburgh Pirates
• Lionel Conacher, Pittsburgh Pirates
• Hib Milks, Pittsburgh Pirates

Last games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1925–26 (listed with their last team):

• Georges Vezina, Montreal Canadiens

See also

• List of Stanley Cup champions
• Western Hockey League
• List of pre-NHL seasons
• 1925 in sports
• 1926 in sports

References

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com