October 7, 2026
October 7, 2026
1916-1917 Seattle Metropolitans: American Hockey
In the early days of professional ice hockey, leagues came and went very frequently. In the 1910s, the Pacific Coast Hockey Association was considered a legitimate league with opportunities to play for the Stanley Cup. Up until 1917, Canada had been the only country to have teams hoist the Stanley Cup in victory. However, before any of the Original Six teams based in the United States, such as Detroit, Chicago, Boston and New York, there was a team that broke Canada’s firm hold on the Cup. That team was based in Seattle, Washington, and called the Seattle Ice Arena home, a venue with a seating capacity of around 4,000.
The Seattle Metropolitans started hockey operations in 1915 as an expansion franchise, and their roots were largely shaped by a raid of talent, as the club successfully signed several players from the 1914 Stanley Cup champion Toronto Blueshirts. With the addition of such talent, the Mets easily became the class of the PCHA.
In an expanded regular season that saw a maximum of 24 games played, the Metropolitans went 16-8 in 1916-1917 with 32 points, finishing as the best team in the four-team PCHA. The Mets finished 1.5 games and 4 points ahead of the Vancouver Millionaires, who went 14-9. Overall, the Mets fared well in head-to-head play, going 5-3 against the Portland Rosebuds and 7-1 against the Spokane Canaries. The Mets went only 3-4 against the Millionaires.
The former Blueshirts who made the trip from Ontario to Washington State were centers Frank Foyston and Jack Walker, right winger Cully Wilson, defenseman Ed Carpenter and goaltender Hap Holmes. Foyston had 36 goals and 12 assists for 48 points, though he also had 51 penalty minutes since he often got rough with opposing players. Walker had 11 goals and 15 assists for 26 points. Wilson had 13 goals and 6 assists along with 57 penalty minutes. Carpenter, the only player on the roster who was born in the United States, had 5 goals and 2 assists.
The most talented scorer on the team wasn’t a former Blueshirt, but rather a player the Mets organization discovered itself. Center Bernie Morris had 37 goals and 17 assists for 54 points while staying out of trouble, accumulating just 19 penalty minutes. Defenseman Bobby Rowe had 9 goals and 11 assists for 20 points to go with 39 penalty minutes. Left winger Jim Riley had 11 goals and 5 assists along with 34 penalty minutes. Defenseman Roy Rickey had 3 goals and assists in 18 games.
Harry George “Hap” Holmes was a vigilant goaltender who had a knack for stopping pucks at the right time. The 1916-1917 campaign was one of the best seasons of his career, as he went 16-8 in the regular season, recording a 3.28 goals against average and 2 shutouts in 1,465 minutes. Holmes allowed only 80 goals.
The PCHA had only 3 overtime contests during the season, and 2 of them involved the Metropolitans. On December 5, the Mets defeated the Portland Rosebuds 4-3 in overtime, but just one week later, on December 12, the Mets fell to the Vancouver Millionaires 7-6 in overtime.
The 1917 Stanley Cup Finals featured the Seattle Metropolitans, a team in just its third year of existence, taking on an established juggernaut that would become one of the best hockey franchises of the 20th century: the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey Association.
In the early 20th century, the Stanley Cup Finals were played in a best-of-five format. Another interesting note is that Games 1 and 3 of these Finals were played under PCHA rules, while Games 2 and 4 were played under NHA rules. Under PCHA rules, each team could use 7 players and forward passing was allowed in the neutral zone, but no substitutions could be made. Under NHA rules, each team could use only 6 players and forward passing wasn’t allowed. However, the NHA allowed substitutions.
All 4 games of the Stanley Cup Finals were played at the Seattle Ice Arena. In Game 1 on March 17, the Canadiens struck first by beating the Mets 8-4. Right winger Didier Pitre scored 4 goals in the game, including the opening goal 3 minutes into the first period. Bernie Morris scored his first goal of the Finals in the 7th minute for Seattle. However, Montreal countered 20 seconds later with a goal by defenseman and winger Jack Laviolette, and Pitre scored again before the first period ended.
In the second period, defenseman Con Corbeau and center Newsy Lalonde scored for Montreal. In the third period, Morris and Frank Foyston scored for Seattle. Pitre and Morris then traded goals, and Pitre and Corbeau each added one more.
In Game 2 on March 20, the Metropolitans showed the Canadiens that they weren’t going away, winning 6-1. Morris scored in the 9th minute of the first period, and Cully Wilson closed out the period with a goal of his own. Morris and Foyston each scored in the second period, and Foyston added 2 more goals in the third period to finish with 3 goals for the game. Center Tommy Smith scored the lone Montreal goal to prevent the shutout.
In Game 3 on March 23, the Mets beat the Canadiens 4-1. Morris scored yet another goal in the 10th minute of the first period, though the second period was quiet in comparison, as neither team managed to score. In the third period, Foyston scored in the 5th minute, and Morris followed with 2 more goals.
In Game 4 on March 25, the Mets demolished the Canadiens 9-1. Morris scored early in the first period, while Montreal was kept off the scoreboard in large part due to the outstanding goaltending of Hap Holmes, who recorded a 2.75 goals against average in the Finals. Seattle added 3 more goals in the second period and built a lead as large as 7-0 before Jack Laviolette finally scored for the Canadiens to prevent another shutout.
Although no Most Valuable Player awards were given in the 1910s, Bernie Morris played like a true MVP, scoring 14 of Seattle’s 23 goals across all 4 Stanley Cup Finals games. By winning the Stanley Cup in 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first team based in the United States to win the Cup, and it would take 12 years for the next American team, the Boston Bruins, to do so in 1929.
Sadly, the Metropolitans would be lost to the hockey archives not long after their successful 1916-1917 campaign. They won PCHA regular season championships in 1917, 1918, 1920, 1922 and 1924, and it was after the 1924 season that the Seattle team finally folded.
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