Biography

He played just three games in the "new" league called the NHL, but that same league would have been quite different without the lifelong contributions of Art Ross. Ross played hockey for more than a decade, but this was in the pre-NHL era of small towns and transient leagues. Ross was brought in as a ringer with the Kenora Thistles, a team that spent its money wisely for he helped the smallest city win a Stanley Cup in 1907. A year later, he won another Cup, this time with the more formidable Montreal Wanderers. Ross stayed with the Wanderers for the better part of seven years as it became a founding team in the National Hockey Association (NHA). He went to Ottawa for two years but returned to Montreal in time for the inaugural NHL season in 1917. Just three games into the '17-'18 season, though, the team's arena burned down and Ross retired from the game as a player. He turned to coaching and officiating, but in 1924, Charles Adams brought NHL hockey to Boston and hired Ross to take over the team's operations. For the next 30 years, Ross was a fixture with the Bruins, discovering literally every great player that passed through the team, from Eddie Shore to Milt Schmidt to Woody Dumart. In all, the team won ten league championships and three Stanley Cups under Ross's stewardship. In addition to his managing acumen, Ross was a pioneer and inventor. He designed the B-frame goal net which kept pucks inside the netting more effectively than previously, and he convinced the NHL to use a more consistent puck which became known as the Art Ross puck (or, sometimes, the Ross-Tyer puck). In 1947, to honour his contributions to the game, the NHL introduced the Art Ross Trophy, given annually every year since to the player who has scored the post points in the season.