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Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pittsburgh Pirates | |
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| Founded | 1925 |
| History | Pittsburgh Pirates 1925 - 1930 Philadelphia Quakers 1930 - 1931 |
|---|---|
| Home Arena | Duquesne Gardens |
| City | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Colors | Black, Orange, White |
The Pittsburgh Pirates were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL), based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1925-26 to 1929-30. The nickname comes from the baseball team also based in the city. For the 1930-31 season the team moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and played one season as the Philadelphia Quakers.
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The Pittsburgh Pirates' history traces back to the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets of the US Amateur Hockey Association. The Yellow Jackets' owner was a former referee named Roy Schooley. When Schooley encountered financial problems, his team was purchased by attorney James F. Callahan. Callahan renamed the team the Pittsburgh Pirates, after the name of the baseball team.
Eddie Livingstone was eyeing Pittsburgh as a city for his proposed rival league to the NHL, and Frank Calder negotiated to put a franchise in Pittsburgh to thwart this.
The US Amateur Hockey Association folded and the Pittsburgh Pirates were granted a franchise by the National Hockey League (NHL) on November 7, 1925 and became the NHL's third US-based team. The other two teams were the Boston Bruins (1924 - present) and the New York Americans (1925 - 1942). The Pirates first season was the 1925-26 NHL season. In 36 games, they had an impressive 19 wins, 16 losses, and 1 tie for third best in the league. With a 0.542 winning percentage, that first season would arguably be the team's best. They made the playoffs that year but lost in the first round of the quarter finals to the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Montreal Maroons.
After a good start to their franchise history, things went downhill from there. In five seasons, they were above .500 only twice and made the playoffs only twice. The Pirates' third season (1927-28) was that other season. In 44 games, they had 19 wins, 17 losses, and 8 ties. But again, would bow out of the playoffs in the first round to the eventual Cup champions, the New York Rangers.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have left their mark in the NHL record books and NHL history with many firsts and other notable achievements. Odie Cleghorn, the Pirates' coach (and occasional player) for the first four seasons, was the first NHL coach to change his players on the fly. This was an ingenious idea. He was also the first coach to use three set forward lines, which was a huge change from the standard, which was to simply leave the best players out for as long as possible. The Pirates also set an NHL record in salaries by signing defenceman Lionel Conacher to a three-year deal worth $7,500 a year. While playing against the New York Americans on December 26, 1926 an NHL record for most shots in one game occurred. The two teams combined for 141 shots in a 3-1 New York win. Roy Worters made 70 saves for the Pirates and Jake Forbes made 67 saves for the Americans. That is a record that still stands today. Also, the legendary goaltender Georges Vezina of the Montreal Canadiens played his last game against the Pirates in a 1-0 loss. Vezina had started the game with severe chest pains and left the game during the first intermission with a high fever. He died four months later from tuberculosis.
In 1928 financial problems forced the original owner, Callahan, to sell the team to an ownership group which included Bill Dwyer with fight promoter and ex-lightweight boxing champion, Benny Leonard as his front man. Despite the sale of the team, things didn't improve on the ice. The 1929-30 season saw Pirates achieve their worst win-loss record to date with 5 wins, 36 losses, and 3 ties in 44 games. Things didn't improve financially either. With the stock market crash of 1929 followed by the Great Depression, the owners found themselves in financial difficulties. Attendance was down and they tried selling off their star players to make ends meet. The team was $400,000 in debt by the end of the 1929-30 season. Leonard then decided to move the Pittsburgh Pirates to Philadelphia and rename them the Philadelphia Quakers, with the intention of returning to Pittsburgh as soon as a new arena was built. However, the Quakers had a wretched season in 1930-31, and promptly suspended operations. The franchise suspended operations each season for the next five seasons. Finally, when a new Pittsburgh arena failed to materialize, Leonard surrendered his franchise in 1936. As it turned out, a new arena in Pittsburgh wouldn't be built until the Pittsburgh Civic Arena (now Mellon Arena) opened in 1961.
The last active Pirates player was Cliff Barton, who played his last NHL game in 1940.
The Pirates were the first team in Pittsburgh to use the black & gold color scheme in Pittsburgh, basing their colors around the Flag of Pittsburgh's colors. Decades after the team folded, the colors have become the team colors of all three of Pittsburgh's major sports teams. However, during the team's existence, they would be the only team in the city with the colors, as the baseball team of the same name, like all other baseball teams at the time, had a more patriotic red, white, and blue color scheme and wouldn't adopt black & gold until 1948. The NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers were not in existence until 1933, three years after the team left town and two years after the franchise folded altogether.
The Pirates would later have a connection with Pittsburgh's next NHL franchise; the Pittsburgh Penguins used the Pirates as an example of a team other than the Boston Bruins using the black & gold color scheme when the Bruins protested to the NHL over the Penguins change in team colors in January 1980. The NHL allowed the Penguins to change their colors as a result of the Pirates using these colors.
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes
| Season | GP | W | L | T | Pts | GF | GA | PIM | Finish | Playoffs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1925-26 | 36 | 19 | 16 | 1 | 39 | 82 | 70 | 264 | 3rd in NHL | Lost Semifinals (Montreal) |
| 1926-27 | 44 | 15 | 26 | 3 | 33 | 79 | 108 | 230 | 4th in American | Out of Playoffs |
| 1927-28 | 44 | 19 | 17 | 8 | 46 | 67 | 76 | 395 | 3rd in American | Lost Semifinals (New York) |
| 1928-29 | 44 | 9 | 27 | 8 | 26 | 46 | 80 | 324 | 4th in American | Out of Playoffs |
| 1929-30 | 44 | 5 | 36 | 3 | 13 | 102 | 185 | 384 | 5th in American | Out of Playoffs |
| Totals | 212 | 67 | 122 | 23 | 157 | 376 | 519 | 1597 |
- List of Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL) players
- Head Coaches of the Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL)
- List of NHL seasons
- List of defunct NHL teams
- List of NHL players
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| Franchise | PIT: Players • Coaches • PHI: Players • Coaches |
| Arenas | Duquesne Gardens • Philadelphia Arena |
| Seasons | PIT: 1925-26 • 1926-27 • 1927-28 • 1928-29 • 1929-30 • PHI: 1930-31 |
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| Relocated (still active) |
Atlanta Flames · Colorado Rockies · Hartford Whalers · Kansas City Scouts · Minnesota North Stars · Quebec Nordiques · Winnipeg Jets |
| Defunct | California/Oakland (Golden) Seals · Cleveland Barons · Hamilton Tigers · Montreal Maroons · Montreal Wanderers · New York/Brooklyn Americans · Ottawa Senators (original) · Philadelphia Quakers · Pittsburgh Pirates · Quebec Bulldogs · St. Louis Eagles |