The Haileybury Hockey Club (also known as the ''Haileybury Comets'' or ''Haileybury Miners'') of

Haileybury, Ontario Temiskaming Shores is a city in the Timiskaming District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It was created by the amalgamation of the town of New Liskeard, the town of Haileybury, and the township of Dymond in 2004. The city had a total population ...

, was a professional

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 ...

club established in 1906. The team is notable for being a founding member of 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 ...

, the predecessor to the

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 ...

. Established to capitalize on the then-current mining boom in

northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...

, it became clear that the town was too small to support major professional hockey, and the team left the NHA after its inaugural season.

History

The Haileybury club was founded in 1906 as one of the teams of the

Timiskaming Professional Hockey League The Timiskaming Professional Hockey League (TPHL) 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 ...

(TPHL), a collection of teams sponsored by local mine owners. The club was owned by the O'Brien family, based in

Renfrew, Ontario Renfrew is a town on the Bonnechere River in Renfrew County, Ontario, Canada. Located one hour west of Ottawa in Eastern Ontario, Renfrew is the fourth largest town in the county after Petawawa, Pembroke and Arnprior. The town is a small tra ...

which owned silver mines, railways and railway construction companies. The TPHL existed as entertainment for the miners in the remote towns of northern Ontario, the teams playthings for the owners to bet extravagantly on. Haileybury Hockey Club, 1908–09

In 1909, Haileybury earned notoriety in ice hockey circles, luring professional players such as Con Corbeau,

Skene Ronan Erskine Rockcliffe Ronan (February 9, 1889 – June 25, 1937) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played 10 professional seasons from 1908 to 1919. Ronan played the majority of his professional career in the National Hockey Associat ...

and Harry Smith away from teams in the

Ontario Professional Hockey League The Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL), sometimes referred to as the Trolley League, and also known as the Canadian Hockey League in its time, was a professional ice hockey league in Canada. It was a fully professional league and consisted ...

(OPHL) and the Eastern Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (ECHA). At the time, mine owners made large wagers on the play of the teams in the league and O'Brien could afford to entice players to break contracts and join Haileybury. When the

Federal League The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that played its first season as a minor league in 1913 and operated as a "third major league", in competition with the e ...

Renfrew Creamery Kings The Renfrew Hockey Club, also known as the Creamery Kings and the Millionaires, was a founding franchise in 1909 of the National Hockey Association, the precursor to the National Hockey League. The team was based in the founder Ambrose O'Brien's ...

team failed to join the new Canadian Hockey Association (CHA) in November 1909, Ambrose O'Brien organized the

and included Haileybury and his other TPHL team the

Cobalt Silver Kings The Cobalt Silver Kings of Cobalt, Ontario, were a professional ice hockey club established in 1906. The team is notable for being a founding member of the National Hockey Association, the predecessor to the National Hockey League. Established t ...

in the league, along 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 ...

Les Canadiens Les Canadiens was the original name of the Montreal Canadiens professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey Association (NHA), as used in the 1910 season. This was the founding season of the Canadiens hockey club, which now is a franchise me ...

and Renfrew, which he had to buy so as to enter 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 A goal is an objective that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve. Goal may also refer to: Sport * Goal (sports), a method of scoring in many sports, or the physical structure or area where scoring occurs ** Goals, the goal frame in ...

for and 83 goals against. Notable players included Alex Currie, Art Ross, Paddy Moran and

. 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 John Ambrose O'Brien (May 27, 1885 – April 24, 1968) was a Canadian industrialist and sports team owner. He was a founder of the National Hockey Association (NHA), owner of the Renfrew Millionaires and the founding owner of the Montreal Canad ...

withdrew Haileybury from 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 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 ...

hockey club. Kennedy claimed rights to 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.Young (1967), p. 74

References

;General * * {{cite book, title=O'Brien , url=https://archive.org/details/obrienbyscottyou00youn , url-access=registration , last=Young , first=Scott , author2=Young, Astrid , year=1967 , publisher=Ryerson Press , location=Toronto, Ontario 1906 establishments in Ontario 1915 disestablishments in Ontario Defunct ice hockey teams in Canada Ice hockey clubs established in 1906 Ice hockey teams in Ontario National Hockey Association teams Sport in Northern Ontario Sports clubs disestablished in 1915 Temiskaming Shores