History of the Toronto Maple Leafs

This is a history of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League.

Early years (1917–28)

The beginnings of the Maple Leafs NHL franchise arose out of a long-running dispute between Eddie Livingstone, owner of the National Hockey Association's Toronto Blueshirts, and his fellow NHA owners. By the fall of 1917, the owners of the NHA's other four clubs—the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators and Quebec Bulldogs were eager to disassociate themselves from Livingstone. They soon discovered that the NHA's constitution didn't allow them to simply vote Livingstone out. With this in mind, they met in Montreal on November 22 and created a new league—the National Hockey League. However, they didn't invite Livingstone to join them, effectively leaving him in a one-team league. On paper, they also remained members of the NHA and were able to vote down Livingstone's attempts to keep that league operating.

Torontos/Arenas (1917–1919)

However, the other clubs and arena owners felt it would be unthinkable not to have a team from Toronto (Canada's second-largest city at the time) in the new league. Also, the new league needed a fourth team to balance the schedule because the Bulldogs had run into financial trouble and opted to suspend operations (as it turned out, they wouldn't ice a team until 1920). Accordingly, the new league granted a 'temporary' franchise for Toronto to the Toronto Arena Company, owners of the Mutual Street Arena (also known...
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