Amos Arbour played for three teams during his brief NHL career the Montreal Canadiens, the Hamilton Tigers and the Toronto St. Pats. He jumped right from his local Victoria Harbour team to the Montreal Canadiens, winning the Cup with the Habs in 1916. Montreal traded the left winger to Hamilton with Harry Mummery for Sprague Cleghorn on November 26, 1921. Two years later, he was dealt to the Toronto St. Pats, and Arbour retired in 1924. In all his NHL years, he played 113 regular season games but not a single playoff game.
Art Bernier played professionally with for the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers and Galt Professionals. He joined the Canadiens in the team's inaugural 1909-1910 season and played the full 12 game season. He was among the scorers in the Canadiens first-ever game, a 7-6 win against Cobalt.He played 3 games for the Galt Professionals after the NHA season was finished. He returned to the Canadiens for the 1910–11 and only played in 3 games. The next season he joined the Wanderers and played in 10 games, scoring 4 goals.
Bert Corbeau started his pro hockey career in the NHL during its inaugural season in 1917-18 as a member of the Canadiens. In 20 games, Corbeau scored eight goals. The following year, Corbeau played 16 games, scoring twice and in 1919-20 he had a career-high in points with 16. The following year he set a career-best with 12 goals. Corbeau played with the Canadiens for the 1921-22 campaign before joining the Hamilton Tigers in 1922-23. In 22 games, he scored ten goals and 13 points. The next NHL stop was Toronto where he played with the St. Pats until they became the Maple Leafs in 1926-27. Corbeau played two more years of pro hockey for the Toronto Ravinas and the London Panthers of the CPHL before retiring after the 1928-29 season.
Billy Creighton played left wing and defense for the Quebec Bulldogs helping them win the Stanley Cup in 1913. After that history gets vague on his career but some sources have him joining the Canadiens for the 1914 season and others show him as playing 2 NHA games in 1916-17, one with Montreal and one with Toronto. In any case he managed to get his picture taken in a Canadiens uniform.
Jacques Fournier signed a contract with the Canadiens on Jan. 14, 1915. He played 19 games with the Habs, during which he scored one goal. After winning the Stanley Cup with the team in 1915-16, Fournier was traded to the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 27, 1916 in exchange for Harold McNamara.
Eddie Lowery played junior hockey with 4 Hull-Ottawa area teams before becoming a professional with the Ottawa Senators in 1912. He played one season for the Senators before being traded to the Toronto Ontarios in January 1914. After a season in Toronto until until 1916, Lowrey played in the NHA as a spare, playing one game for the Canadiens and four for Ottawa in 1914–15. In 1915–16, he played two games for the Toronto Blueshirts. In 1916, he played a full season with the Senators and remained with the Senators until 1919. He played for the Senators during the inaugural season of the National Hockey League in 1917-18 and was one of the original NHL players.
Howard McNamara was one of the biggest players of his era, tipping the scales at 240 pounds, and by the age of 15 he was playing with the Montreal Shamrocks of the ECHA in 1908-09. In 1909-10 he played for both the Berlin Professionals of the OPHL and the Cobalt Silver Kings in the NHL. From there he spent a season in Waterloo before heading to the east coast in 1912 to suit up for the Halifax Crescents. In the fall of 1912, McNamara moved to Toronto where he played for the next three years. On December 7, 1919 the NHL's Montreal Canadiens offered him a free-agent contract. He played ten games with the Habs that year, picking up one goal.
Eugene Payan played with the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey Association, from the 1910–11 season through to the 1913–14 season. On March 2, 1912, he suffered a concussion when he collided with one of the Cleghorn brothers in a 2-1 victory of the Canadiens against the Montreal Wanderers. Payan became delirious and was taken to a hospital.
Tommy Smith, one of hockey's early greats, was a hired gun, going anywhere and everywhere exchanging his goal scoring ability for cash. Smith won his first Stanley Cup as a member of the 1906 Ottawa Cup Silver Seven. He dominated the National Hockey Association for 5 seasons and won the Stanley Cup again in 1913 with Quebec. He also played in the NHA with the Toronto Shamrocks and the Canadiens but would only play 10 games in the NHL. After spending 2 seasons coaching when Quebec joined the 1919-20 NHL season Smith attempted a return to hockey as a player. He was held to just one assist and retired as an active player at the end of the season.
Gord Fraser was a rough and tumble defenseman with a knack for scoring goals who played his early pro hockey on the West Coast. In 1925 Fraser helped his Victoria Cougars WHL team win the Stanley Cup, the last non-NHL team to win the Cup. In 1926-27 he was traded to the NHL Chicago Black Hawks and two years later to the Detroit Red Wings. Fraser never found NHL success like he did out west playing a season and a half in Detroit before bouncing around to the Montreal Canadiens, Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Quakers. He would never get a hockey card, here is his 1933-34 OPC Canadiens custom card.
Jack Riley's route to the NHL began with the Calgary Indians of the Calgary City Junior Hockey Leagues in 1926-27. In his 4th season of minor pro Riley had his rights traded to the AHA's Chicago Shamrocks and played a little over one season before his NHL rights were transferred to Detroit. Riley made his NHL debut with the Red Wings during the 1932-33 season while splitting his time with Cleveland of the IHL after being traded by Detroit to Cleveland midway through the season. In the summer of 1933 Riley was dealt to the Canadiens where he spent the next two seasons, compiling 10 goals and 22 assists for 32 points in 95 games, before being dealt to the Boston Bruins. He played in eight games with Boston before joining the Boston Cubs of the CAHL. He spent another 9 years in the minors retiring following the 1944-45 AHL season. He would get a "hockey card" issued in the 1936-39 Diamond Match issues, here is his 1933-34 OPC Canadiens custom card.
Thanks to Jacques Lefort for his many Canadiens requests !!
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