The lineage of the Montreal Canadiens captains as currently recorded for the 1920s and 1930s appears to be wrong. The errors were uncovered in the course of some unrelated research, opening up an entirely new discussion worthy of an investigation in order to accurately capture the team’s deep lore, of which the fans are very proud and savvy.
The generally accepted lineage of the captaincy, as it was recorded below in the Canadiens 2009-10 Media Guide for instance, is as follows:
The portion of the lineage that is the subject of this article is the section between 1926 and 1939, more specifically the purported duration of the captaincy of Sylvio Mantha. It has been accepted as fact that Mantha appears to be one of the longest-tenured captains in Canadiens history, nine years combined over two stints curiously split in 1932-33 by goaltender George Hainsworth. Only Saku Koivu and Jean Béliveau are known to have had longer tenures as captain.
The 1980 book by Claude Mouton ‘The Montreal Canadiens : A Hockey Dynasty’ mentions Mantha’s duration as captain. However, it is imperative to note that there is no supporting evidence to back up this tenure from newspaper archives, which are the source of the research for this article. You will see below that Mantha was far from this milestone.
It begins well enough, noting that Sprague Cleghorn was, in fact, the team captain from 1922 to 1925, despite his aggressive style of play and off-ice troubles. In the summer of 1925, Cleghorn was sold to the Boston Bruins where he was tasked with providing veteran leadership to the new franchise, and served as their first captain. He was instrumental in the grooming and development of one Eddie Shore, one of the most legendary and ruthless defencemen in the history of the NHL.
When Cleghorn left, the Canadiens turned to his former defensive partner, veteran Billy Coutu, a player of similar character, to lead the team as captain. But if Cleghorn used violence as a form of retribution against opponents, Coutu used violence as a way of gaining an advantage over his opponents. He crossed the line numerous times, and even got suspended once for tripping a referee on purpose while being sent to the penalty box. Coutu was the team captain during a difficult season with team goaltender George Vezina fighting a losing battle against tuberculosis back home in Chicoutimi, and the team failing to make the playoffs. Coutu was traded at the end of the 1925-26 season–also to the Bruins. In his first practice with his new team, Coutu tackled Shore and ripped his ear nearly clean off.
It is at this point that history diverges from accepted fact.
1926-29: Herb Gardiner all but officially a captain
The 1926-27 season greeted the Canadiens with a new home, the Montreal Forum. The team also greeted a new head coach in Cecil Hart, a renowned name in Montreal sporting circles. It also greeted them with a new star player to replace the departure of Coutu, as the Canadiens turned to 35-year-old war veteran Herbert Gardiner, who played his entire professional hockey career in the West Coast Hockey League for the Calgary Tigers and was widely regarded as the best defenceman not in the National Hockey League.
The matter of a new captain to replace Coutu was brought up in the newspapers, and there was a nearly unanimous push for Aurèle Joliat to be named team captain, not just for his tenure on the team but also for his tenacity and his talent. But it wasn’t meant to be.
The season started without a captain being named, which was called out in certain newspapers, including La Patrie, who published letters from fans who were concerned at the lack of an appointment. The editorial columns quickly acknowledged that Gardiner was a very intelligent player who would make a good captain, and bemoaned the terrible start to the season the team was experiencing linked to the lack of a captain.
Although widely-accepted records (such as the beginning of this article) show that Mantha took over the captaincy for the 1926-27 season, there is certainly zero indication in the newspapers that Mantha, at the time just a substitute player, was anywhere near captaincy.
When Gardiner won the Hart trophy that season for league MVP, multiple headlines made reference to him being the captain of the team. However, an article in The Morning Leader on March 5th, 1927 stated that “Herb Gardiner, though not captain in name, nevertheless is looked to by his teammates as more or less a director of play on the ice”. We can conclude, therefore, that despite being an on-ice leader, Gardiner was not officially named captain, that Mantha was certainly not captain, and therefore that the Canadiens did not have a captain for 1926-27 season.
The following season, 1927-28, things remain status quo. Although Gardiner is still with the team, he is never officially made captain by Cecil Hart and there are numerous articles throughout the season that confirm that the Canadiens have not yet named a captain, despite a new rule stemming from the September 24th, 1927 annual meeting of the NHL, held at the Congress Hotel in Chicago that read: “No player except the captain of a team shall be permitted to address the referee or judge-of-play during the progress of a match, nor shall any player be permitted to leave the bench to go on the ice unless he is replacing another player.”
Gardiner was loaned to the Chicago Black Hawks for the 1928-29 season to become their playing coach, with newspapers calling him the Canadiens’ former captain for two seasons, despite never officially being named to the role by the team, but certainly held in high esteem by the media and fans. Gardiner returned to the Canadiens for the 1929 playoff run and finally retired at the end of the season. It’s unclear whether Gardiner should be recorded as a former captain of the team, and certainly there is supporting evidence either way, which builds the confusion. For the purposes of providing a conclusion for this article, there is more evidence to suggest that the players voted Gardiner as their captain, but the organization never made it official, and therefore records should show that there was no captain from 1926-29.
1929-32: Mantha gains in experience, but is not captain
It becomes more difficult to have a clear picture of the captaincy during this time period, simply because there is no mention of a captain. Although the newspapers readily and frequently highlight other team captains, such as Hap Day of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Dick Irvin of the Black Hawks, there are no mentions of any official or unofficial successor to the unofficial Gardiner. Once again it appeared as though there was no evident captain for the Canadiens, although Mantha was quickly gaining in authority with his teammates. It is possible that he was seen as a leader but there was never any official announcement of a captaincy.
A rare mention of Mantha as captain was in a January 1930 article of the Toronto Star reviewing a game between the Canadiens and the Maple Leafs, but there was no mention of him as captain from Montreal papers who are more inclined to be accurate when it comes to the Canadiens. Perhaps the Toronto Star article was using the term in an informal sense. It cannot be definitively proven that Mantha was anything more than a pseudo captain from 1929-32, like Gardiner before him, and therefore we must again conclude that the captaincy remained vacant.
1932-33: Hainsworth, a goalie captain?
In November 1932, the Canadiens announced that goaltender George Hainsworth was named captain, as is widely recorded and recognized. La Presse even got a quote from Leo Dandurand which confirms the appointment; “Hainsworth is the man selected for this function. George is indeed the only player on the team who is continuously on the ice and he is therefore the only member of the team who will be in a position at all times of discussing a unfavourable decision by the referees towards the Bleu, Blanc, Rouge. We considered Sylvio Mantha and Aurèle Joliat, but seeing as those players might find themselves on the bench or in the penalty box when a bad call occurs, we landed our choice on Hainsworth who certainly deserves the role through his thoughtful work ethic since he’s been with the team.”
Many historians believe that the move to making Hainsworth captain was a covert way of causing delays in the game to let the players rest up while Hainsworth made his way up-ice to talk to the referee, but this was never openly proven. At the conclusion of the season, Hainsworth was traded to the Maple Leafs, leaving the Canadiens once again without a captain.
1934-35: Mantha finally named captain
There is no information of any kind regarding a captaincy for the 1933-34 season. The only clue found on the topic was in the L’illustration on November 6, 1933 which ran an article previewing the team following training camp. It ended the article with “Nobody was named in George Hainsworth’s place as team captain.”
Ahead of the 1934-35 season, things began to get clearer. With Cecil Hart gone and Newsy Lalonde taking over the team, news broke out through official channels from the Canadiens to the media that the team would finally have a captain once again after “not having an official one since Gardiner left in 1928”, despite the acknowledged captaincy of Hainsworth two seasons earlier, perhaps lending credence to the theory that it was all a ploy and not a real on-ice leadership role. The finalists being discussed for captain were once again team elders Joliat and Mantha–the same two players that were considered for the role when Hainsworth received the nod.
La Presse interviewed Joliat on November 2, during a train ride to Halifax. This interview is perhaps the most revealing text into the history of the captaincy in this era, and worth transcribing in its entirety for the purposes of this discussion:
“I would accept to lead the team on the ice on the condition that it would be the players who elect me and that the management agrees. If I’m to be forced into the rule I would categorically refuse it. I also wouldn’t want to lead them if it’s against the administration’s wishes. Furthermore I don’t see much use for a team to have a captain on the ice, but as the NHL rules require it, each team is required to have one. The idea of leading the team doesn’t really interest me however. Here’s why: When I arrived to Montreal, in 1921, it was Sprague Cleghorn who was captain that year. The following year he was gone and it was Billy Coutu who was chosen as his successor. He would only stay a year as captain. Then Herb Gardiner was given that responsibility, and that was one of the final years that ‘Iron Man’ played for the Canadiens. For several years after that the Canadiens did not elect a captain. A little bit later George Hainsworth led the players, and it was a disaster. He would leave us to go play in Toronto. This is all a curious coincidence. I have no desire for my hockey career to end next year. I want to play many more seasons for the Canadiens. I’m still young, I’m only 33 years old. If the captaincy was put up to a vote, I would choose my friend Sylvio Mantha.”
La Presse, November 2, 1934
Ultimately it was Mantha who was officially named team captain on October 31, 1934, a full eight seasons after records first claim that he was made captain. It’s a radical correction of Canadiens history.
1935-36: Mantha from captain to coach, Joliat finally elevated
As the Great Depression was in full swing, Canadiens owners Leo Dandurand and Joe Cattarinich were looking to divest from the financially struggling franchise, toying with the idea of a relocation to Cleveland, but ultimately selling the team to a consortium made up of three local businessmen Ernest Savard, Maurice Forget, and Louis Gélinas. This consortium was secretly backed by the Canadian Arena Company, owners of the Montreal Forum and of the Montreal Maroons. Savard named himself the manager of the team, and named Mantha as the playing coach of the Canadiens.
Even though the team plummeted in the standings under Savard and Mantha, the ownership group manifested their support for Mantha for the remainder of the season at a banquet in Mantha’s honour on December 7. Mantha expressed his gratitude for the vote of confidence, and introduced Aurèle Joliat as the new captain, a role Mantha held at the start of the season.
Joliat only held the role briefly as the Canadiens finished last in the league, and Mantha soon found himself back as a player only. Mantha lost his post as coach the following season when Cecil Hart was brought back into the fold for the 1936-37 season, and Joliat would not continue to serve as captain. As was the norm for the Canadiens under Hart, a captain was not named. Mantha was made a healthy scratch to start the season and was soon after released, ending his 13-season tenure with the team and retiring as a player. Although records show that he was captain for nine seasons, he would only hold the role officially for one season and one month, a drastic departure from common conception.
1936-39: Babe Seibert arrives
That same season, the Canadiens signed rugged defenceman Alfred “Babe” Seibert, which the record books show was made captain right away. Yet, again, that is not the case. With Hart taking over the team, he said in an interview that he would take his time to see what he had on his hands before finalizing his roster. Siebert was in a similar position to Gardiner 10 seasons earlier, where his arrival drew immediate respect among the locker room and was seen as their leader, but never officially elevated to the role of captain by the organization.
Siebert wasn’t officially named captain until January 28, 1939, when Hart was fired and Jules Dugal took over. The Calgary Herald, in reporting the appointment, said that, “Siebert has been given the title of team captain, something the Canadiens haven’t had up to now”. This follows the pattern of Cecil Hart-led teams not naming a captain.
A captain lineage full of holes
In modern days, there were two instances of the Canadiens not having a captain. In 2009-10 following the departure of Saku Koivu and prior to the nomination of Brian Gionta the following season, and during the 2014-15 season, following the departure of Gionta and prior to the nomination of Max Pacioretty. It was reported at the time–with some outrage–how a team with the glorious history like the Canadiens could not name a captain. But as you read above, it was nearly the norm in the 1920s and 1930s to not have a captain, curiously always overlapping with the head coaching tenure of Hart.
To summarize the findings, this is what the proper lineage of the captaincy should be for the Montreal Canadiens for the 1920s and 1930s:
- 1925-26, Billy Coutu (Head coach Léo Dandurand)
- 1926-27, none (Head coach Cecil Hart)
- 1927-28, none (Head coach Cecil Hart)
- 1928-29, none (Head coach Cecil Hart)
- 1929-30, none (Head coach Cecil Hart)
- 1930-31, none (Head coach Cecil Hart)
- 1931-32, none (Head coach Cecil Hart)
- 1932-33, George Hainsworth (Head coach Newsy Lalonde)
- 1933-34, none (Head coach Newsy Lalonde)
- 1934-35, Sylvio Mantha (Head coach Léo Dandurand)
- Nov 1935, Sylvio Mantha (Head coach Sylvio Mantha)
- Dec 1935-Apr 1936, Aurèle Joliat (Head coach Sylvio Mantha)
- 1936-37, none (Head coach Cecil Hart)
- 1937-38, none (Head coach Cecil Hart)
- 1938-Jan 1939, none (Head coach Cecil Hart)
- Jan-Apr 1939, Babe Siebert (Head coach Jules Dugal)
