Alfred "Dutch" Skinner (January 26, 1894 – April 11, 1961) was a Canadian

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

right winger. During his career, which lasted from 1913 to 1930, he played for several teams in the

National Hockey Association The National Hockey Association (NHA), officially the National Hockey Association of Canada Limited, was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor of today's National Hockey Lea ...

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

, and

Pacific Coast Hockey Association The Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) was a professional ice hockey league in western Canada and the western United States, which operated from 1911 to 1924 when it then merged with the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). The PCHA was cons ...

. His longest tenure was with the

Vancouver Millionaires The Vancouver Millionaires (later known as the Vancouver Maroons) were a professional ice hockey team that competed in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and the Western Canada Hockey League between 1911 and 1926. Based in Vancouver, British C ...

(later Maroons) of the PCHA. With the

Toronto Arenas The Toronto Arenas or Torontos were a professional men's ice hockey team that played in the first two seasons of the National Hockey League (NHL). It was operated by the owner of the Arena Gardens, the Toronto Arena Company. As the ownership of ...

he won the Stanley Cup in 1918, and played for the Cup a further three times with Vancouver.

Playing career

Skinner played junior hockey for the Toronto Argonauts (1911–12) and the Parkdale Canoe Club (1912–13) and senior hockey with the Toronto Rowing Club (1913–14). He turned professional in 1914 with the

Toronto Shamrocks Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

of the

. After one season, the team evolved into the

Toronto Blueshirts The Toronto Hockey Club, known as the Torontos and the Toronto Blueshirts, was a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They were a member of the National Hockey Association (NHA). The club was founded in 1911 and began operations in 1912 ...

. During the 1916–17 season, the league suspended operations of the Blueshirts, and Skinner finished the season with the

Montreal Wanderers The Montreal Wanderers were an amateur, and later professional, ice hockey team based in Montreal. The team played in the Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL), the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA), the National Hockey Association ...

. With the creation of the

1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Fo ...

, Skinner returned to Toronto and played for the Stanley Cup-winning

club, which consisted mostly of Toronto Blueshirts players. Skinner was the offensive star of the Cup championships, scoring eight goals in five games in the

1918 Stanley Cup Finals The 1918 Stanley Cup Finals was contested by the National Hockey League (NHL) champion Toronto and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) champion Vancouver Millionaires. In a series held entirely in Toronto, the Toronto team won the series b ...

. During the 1917–18 NHL season Skinner was also involved in a violent tussle with

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

defenceman Joe Hall, during a game on January 28, 1918. Both players were arrested for assault and appeared in a Toronto court together on January 29 where both were released after being handed a suspended sentence. Alf Skinner, Vancouver Millionaires

In 1919, Skinner went west to play for

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

in the

. The team unsuccessfully challenged for the Stanley Cup in 1921 and 1922. The 1920–21 season was Skinner's best, when he scored 20 goals in 24 games. When the PCHA merged with the

Western Canada Hockey League The Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925 and disbanded in 1926. The WCHL's Victoria C ...

in 1924, Skinner returned to the NHL to play for the

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...

. He was traded during the season to the

Montreal Maroons The Montreal Maroons (officially the Montreal Professional Hockey Club) were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL). They played in the NHL from 1924 to 1938, winning the Stanley Cup in 1926 and 1935. They were the las ...

and finished the year with just one goal in 27 games. He was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates to start the 1925–26 season, but only played seven games with the team, ending his NHL career. In 1926–27, Skinner played in the minor professional American Hockey Association for the

Duluth Hornets , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesot ...

. For the next two seasons, he was player-coach for Kitchener in the Canadian Professional Hockey League. When that league became the International Hockey League in 1929, Skinner became player-coach for the Guelph Maple Leafs in the new Canadian Professional Hockey League. He led the team to the championship in the league's only year of operations. He retired as a player in 1930. Outside of hockey, Skinner was an employee of the City of Toronto and served a term as president of the Spadina Men's Progressive Conservative Association. He died in April, 1961 at age 67 at his home in Toronto and was buried at

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a cemetery located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries. It was opened in November 1876 and is located north of Moore Park, a neighbourhood of Toronto. The cemetery has k ...

."Old Hockey Star Alfie Skinner Dies In Toronto"
''Ottawa Citizen''. April 26, 1961 (pg. 32). Retrieved 2020-10-30.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skinner, Alf 1894 births 1961 deaths Boston Bruins players Canadian ice hockey right wingers Ice hockey people from Ontario Kitchener Millionaires players Montreal Maroons players Montreal Wanderers (NHA) players Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL) players Sportspeople from Toronto Stanley Cup champions Toronto Arenas players Toronto Blueshirts players Toronto Shamrocks players Vancouver Maroons players Vancouver Millionaires players